ivan82•18d ago

Just found out 90% of diesel shops skip the dry start procedure. That's wild.

Was reading through an SAE paper last night. The stat hit me. Almost every engine rebuild or injector swap I've done, guys just crank it wet. But the data says that dry start (pre-lubing the oil system before first fire) cuts down initial wear by a huge margin. I've been lucky so far. Has anyone here actually seen a failure from skipping it?

2 comments

2 Comments

lewis.charlie18d ago

You ever pull a filter apart after a wet crank and find little specks of metal you know came from those first few seconds? I have, twice now. Both times it was on my own rebuilds where I got impatient and just sent it. The worst was a Cummins 5.9 that looked fine on the first fire but started knocking about 200 miles later. The oil analysis came back with high copper and lead from the rod bearings getting chewed up before any oil pressure built. A pre-luber setup is like 300 bucks and I still can't be bothered to install one.

simonp4018d ago

lewis.charlie that story about the 5.9 knocking at 200 miles hits close to home - I did the same thing on a Chevy 350, thought I was slick and skipped the priming, ended up with a rod knock before I even finished the break-in oil change. Guess I'm part of the impatient rebuilders club too