Volvo 2030 Hard Start Issue

[Pete7]

Originally Posted by Sunspot Baby

Everyone seems to have jumped on major engine problems or the down side of starting sprays. Let's look at a couple of other possibilities. George

Agreed, we carry a can of easy start on board and do occasionally use it, particularly when its cold. Volvo 2003 not exactly renown for easy starting when its cold and no glow plug system fitted, so it gets a quick squirt rather than minutes of cranking over on the batteries.

It also means I have an instant way of starting the engine in a hurry if I ever needed to. Easy start lives in the gas locker.

Pete

[Sailmonkey]

If used properly (rag over the intake) a small shot of ether is only mildly detrimental. It's the typical half can shot to the intake that does the real damage. I've been on an indian crewed bulk carrier that had seen better days. When it came time to be tugged off of the dock the cheif engineer sent an oiler out to one of the two turbos with ether in both hands with instructions to begin spraying as soon as the cheif started to blow down the piston. that damm thing took off and ran!!!

[mikemr]

I have a 2030 that was doing the same thing and it also turned out to be an intermitent failure of the relay. Try jumping from the battery to the glow plug terminal to see if it's a power problem then swap the starter and glow plug relays to see if you can move the problem to the starter. hope this helps, mike.

[DRS]

Thanks again for the replies. It turns over quickly and easily under the starter so I believe the battery and starter are good. I replaced the gp relay 6 or 8 months ago. I wouldn't think it would fail that soon but its easy to check. if air is getting into the fuel line I can't tell where. There are no external signs of a leak to the outside of the fuel system.

[never monday]

Originally Posted by DRS

Thanks again for the replies. It turns over quickly and easily under the starter

can you turn it over by hand?

[svcattales]

Originally Posted by DRS

I have a cat with 2 Volvo 2030's one starts fine and the other will be hard to start peiodically. I've changed the glow plug solenoid and wiring and thought we had it beat but its back. I've just had the valves set and that had no effect. Runs fine when it starts and it will start easily with a shot of either.
I welcome any and all ideas

DRS, After you check the simple stuff, you might want to see if one or more cylinders is not performing properly. After engine starts and warms up, loosen the fuel line nut on each injector (one at a time) and see what effect it has on RPM. If one or more cylinders isn't working properly, the RPM drop will be lower than the others. I just did this check on mine and 2 cylinders had 200+ rpm drop while one cylinder had less than 100 rpm drop. Based on that test I bought a compression gauge (20 bucks on Ebay) and tested compression. Sure enough the weak cylinder also had compression less than 100psi while the other two were 450+psi. This is a simple test and it will tell you if there is something serious going on. Good luck.

[Lowesmarine]

Hello DRS, how did your glow plug test go? You have not answered about smoke on startup, This is quite important in trouble shooting the issue. How does it start when hot? Do you still use the Glow feature on the panel? Regards, David

[DRS]

Sorry folks I have been out of town for work. I'm on the boat next week along with the list of suggestions. I'll let you know how things go. Once again thanks for all the input

[DRS]

For those that offered suggestions and those that were just curious here are the results.
Stb side starts with no problem
Port side had intermittent hard start issue

Stb side had 11.75 volts at GP bar
Port had everything from 0 - 11.75

So onto the port engine

ohms at the GP's on the port side 1.3, 1.3, 1.2

I noticed the fuel hose clamp was very close to the GP bar on the forward cylinder so I rotated that to allow more clearence. No signs of arcing but moved just to be safe.

Traced the GP bar wiring back to the relay box removed the relay and discovered the connector from the relay to the GP bar was very loose in the relay socket. It had vibrated and moved to the point where it was making intermittent contact with the relay pin. Problem solved.

Thanks again for all the help