Diesel glow heater plug - homemade !!?

minh-thanh · Sep 18, 2024

I am thinking of making a Diesel Glow Heater Plug
I am planning to make it small (size as in the picture -red) and use 6volt
Your opinion ??

GreenTwin · Sep 18, 2024

I like the concept.
Very interesting.
.

ajoeiam · Sep 18, 2024

minh-thanh said:
I am thinking of making a Diesel Glow Heater Plug
I am planning to make it small (size as in the picture -red) and use 6volt
Your opinion ??
View attachment 159776

Suggest you consider using more than 6V - - - heaters work on energy and at 6V to get say 120W you will need 20A of current.
That's a LOT of current in a small item (you wiring will have to be quite large to handle the current).
Even at 12 V you're still talking about 10A and that's still needs some likely 12 ga wire (don't know what that is in mm2 - - - sorry) and that wire
will be almost as big a dia as I think your plug is.

(Did some looking to see if I could find amperage draw but nothing and that was looking at US and a couple different European manufacturers.)

HTH

Peter Twissell · Sep 18, 2024

I presume there's agood reason why you couldn't use a conventional RC engine glow plug?

minh-thanh · Sep 18, 2024

ajoeiam said:
Suggest you consider using more than 6V - - - heaters work on energy and at 6V to get say 120W you will need 20A of current.
That's a LOT of current in a small item (you wiring will have to be quite large to handle the current).
Even at 12 V you're still talking about 10A and that's still needs some likely 12 ga wire (don't know what that is in mm2 - - - sorry) and that wire
will be almost as big a dia as I think your plug is.

(Did some looking to see if I could find amperage draw but nothing and that was looking at US and a couple different European manufacturers.)

HTH

Thank you !
I'm aiming for 40, 50 or 60 w, the trade-off is slower heat up

Peter Twissell said:
I presume there's agood reason why you couldn't use a conventional RC engine glow plug?

conventional RC engine glow plug: it's too short, and with the small cylinder head I don't have room for it

bluejets · Sep 18, 2024

minh-thanh said:
I am thinking of making a Diesel Glow Heater Plug
I am planning to make it small (size as in the picture -red) and use 6volt
Your opinion ??
View attachment 159776

Main query would be, why do you think you need one ?
Model diesel engines will not run on conventional diesel fuel anyhow.
If methanol fuel, standard glow plug from rc could be used.
I'm certain there is a way to get around it's short length if needed.
Commercial model engines have always found a way.

petertha · Sep 18, 2024

Somewhere in my travels I came across an article where someone harvested glow wire from RC plugs & used an AliExpress battery spot welder to join it to his (specialized) housing. I cant recall if it was for a combustion engine, or rocket motor or... Apparently the wire is difficult to source, at least in reasonable quantity. And whatever his application was, RC plug wire was the only material that could withstand the environment.

minh-thanh · Sep 18, 2024

bluejets said:
Main query would be, why do you think you need one ?
Model diesel engines will not run on conventional diesel fuel anyhow.
If methanol fuel, standard glow plug from rc could be used.
I'm certain there is a way to get around it's short length if needed.
Commercial model engines have always found a way.

I have done 1 cylinder and 4 cylinder diesel engines and they both run on diesel
With the 1 cylinder it is relatively easy to run on diesel - 20mm bore 40mm stroke
With the 4 cylinder it is a bit harder to start - 20mm bore 36mm stroke, it needs a bit of heat - maybe because I changed the piston stroke to be shorter and it has more aluminium - not sure
Diesel glow heater plug : it is as an extra option

bluejets · Sep 19, 2024

minh-thanh said:
I have done 1 cylinder and 4 cylinder diesel engines and they both run on diesel
With the 1 cylinder it is relatively easy to run on diesel - 20mm bore 40mm stroke
With the 4 cylinder it is a bit harder to start - 20mm bore 36mm stroke, it needs a bit of heat - maybe because I changed the piston stroke to be shorter and it has more aluminium - not sure
Diesel glow heater plug : it is as an extra option

Have any video on that?

bluejets · Sep 19, 2024

petertha said:
Somewhere in my travels I came across an article where someone harvested glow wire from RC plugs & used an AliExpress battery spot welder to join it to his (specialized) housing. I cant recall if it was for a combustion engine, or rocket motor or... Apparently the wire is difficult to source, at least in reasonable quantity. And whatever his application was, RC plug wire was the only material that could withstand the environment.

View attachment 159810

As far as I am aware it is standard nichrome wire.
I have rolls of the stuff here left over from the days of repairing ice machines.

minh-thanh · Sep 19, 2024

bluejets said:
Have any video on that?

Here :
1 Cyl
https://www.homemodelenginemachinist.com/threads/mini-diesel-engine.31832/post-369025

4 Cyl
https://www.homemodelenginemachinis...e-kromhout-gardner-4lw-1940.33617/post-399726

Peter Twissell · Sep 19, 2024

bluejets said:
As far as I am aware it is standard nichrome wire.
I have rolls of the stuff here left over from the days of repairing ice machines.

Glow plug wire is an alloy containing platinum and rhodium. Definitely not simple nichrome resistor wire.

bluejets · Sep 19, 2024

bluejets said:
As far as I am aware it is standard nichrome wire.
I have rolls of the stuff here left over from the days of repairing ice machines.

I doubt you will get sufficient resistance from a small heater coil to run at 6v let alone 12v.
Reason why rc glow plugs run at around 4A @1.5v.
Ohms law.

bluejets · Sep 19, 2024

minh-thanh said:
Here :
1 Cyl
https://www.homemodelenginemachinist.com/threads/mini-diesel-engine.31832/post-369025

4 Cyl
https://www.homemodelenginemachinis...e-kromhout-gardner-4lw-1940.33617/post-399726

So kero not diesel fuel.

minh-thanh · Sep 19, 2024

bluejets said:
I doubt you will get sufficient resistance from a small heater coil to run at 6v let alone 12v.
Reason why rc glow plugs run at around 4A @1.5v.
Ohms law.

bluejets said:
So kero not diesel fuel.

To increase resistance: wind more turns of wire.
Read again what I said in my topic !!
My engine runs on both kerosene and diesel .

bluejets · Sep 19, 2024

minh-thanh said:
To increase resistance: wind more turns of wire.
Read again what I said in my topic !!
My engine runs on both kerosene and diesel .

You will NOT have sufficient space to fit that amount of nichrome wire.
As I said, refer ohms law.
My my what a load of weekend experts we have here.

minh-thanh · Sep 19, 2024

Sorry I am not an expert

ranger · Sep 20, 2024

Hi, If the idea is to heat the air to aid starting rather than running do you have room in the intake manifold to fit a glow plug? As many full size diesel engines used to have, heating intake air before it enters the cylinders, instead of inside the combustion chambers.

Peter Twissell · Sep 20, 2024

bluejets said:
You will NOT have sufficient space to fit that amount of nichrome wire.
As I said, refer ohms law.
My my what a load of weekend experts we have here.

Can we keep discussions civil please?
We are all hobbyists and learning as we proceed.

minh-thanh · Sep 20, 2024

ranger said:
Hi, If the idea is to heat the air to aid starting rather than running do you have room in the intake manifold to fit a glow plug? As many full size diesel engines used to have, heating intake air before it enters the cylinders, instead of inside the combustion chambers.

That's one way .

Peter Twissell said:
Can we keep discussions civil please?
We are all hobbyists and learning as we proceed.

Exactly..Fun !!

As I said in MEM, I'm not sure what the outcome will be
For now I'm listening to everyone's opinions...I'm doing some experiments...see the results and find a way to make it as small as possible
Maybe I'll fail and maybe someone else will succeed by relying on these discussions....

Diesel glow heater plug - homemade !!?

Help Support Home Model Engine Machinist Forum:

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Well-Known Member

Similar threads

Join the conversation!

Join today and get all the highlights of this community direct to your inbox. It's FREE!