2002 Caterpillar T-15 engine, hard starting

skyraider · Feb 16, 2013

Engine at 40 degrees ambient : When starting cold, engine turns over fast enough, but takes over 15 seconds to start, then winds up slowly , sounds like zell, then runs ok and no problems. Is this normal? Using Rotella 5w40 T6 synthetic oil, 12 gallons.

Note: at the house when not on road, we plug in block heater and the above hard starting disappears , but at 40 degrees we think it should start easier without the heater block. what do u all think?

jrcase · Feb 16, 2013

Glow plugs bad?

aquitted · Feb 16, 2013

Is that A c-15 or a t-15 and how many miles on engine?

skyraider · Feb 16, 2013

aquitted said:
Is that A c-15 or a t-15 and how many miles on engine?

will get back to you,,,bossman is out

Dynamite 1 · Feb 16, 2013

Gotta be a C15. Cat doesnt have any T engine models. I would guess glow plugs also or a preheater problem if it has one.

skyraider · Feb 16, 2013

Dynamite 1 said:
Gotta be a C15. Cat doesnt have any T engine models. I would guess glow plugs also or a preheater problem if it has one.

Ok,,,its a C-15 engine,,,,,sorry for the typo

aquitted · Feb 16, 2013

C- 15 doesn't have glowplugs usually thats a sign of old age the engine doesn't have the compression it used to have. This tends to happen around 800,00 miles. and could happen sooner if yhe truck has alot of idle time on it. if the truck is high milage just plug in the block heater and don't worry about it if it's low milage get it checked. I'm assuming since it's an 02 it's probably high milage

skyraider · Feb 16, 2013

aquitted said:
C- 15 doesn't have glowplugs usually thats a sign of old age the engine doesn't have the compression it used to have. This tends to happen around 800,00 miles. and could happen sooner if yhe truck has alot of idle time on it. if the truck is high milage just plug in the block heater and don't worry about it if it's low milage get it checked. I'm assuming since it's an 02 it's probably high milage

the truck is going to the shop next week. My son found a Cat tech and cold starting is usually an injector o ring problem. He said your engines will start easily in the summer because the o rings do not shrink much due to heat, but in the winter they shrink to much and causes fuel flow problems. In any event, the truck will be going to the doctor ( lol) for a check up, thanks to all for your input....sky. PS, the engine did have an overhaul last year, only 16k dollars,,omy.