OK, at the risk of getting something started...........
Sorry about that........
It would not be all that difficult to autostart most anything. In fact Diesel4me's 6.2 might be one of the easiest.
Keep an eye on this space, and I will post the link to the autostart panel I am using on my big genset. I don't remember the company name, but I will find it and post it.
When I bought my genset, I wanted it to auto start when the switchover panel called for emergency power. But the genset did not have any way to do it The guy I bought it from adapted it.
Years later, that panel failed, and I found a smaller, cheaper one that is on there now and does great.
My genset had to have the oil pressure failure bypassed by holding down a button, then the crank button had to be held down until it started.
Now, all I have to do to start it manually is turn on a switch.
The one thing that might hold some people back is how to detect when the engine is running. On my genset, he drilled and tapped a hole in the flywheel housing.
Then he installed a sensor that sends back a pulse every time it sees a piece of metal go by. They are called proximity sensors, and are common and fairly cheap.
It, in effect, "counts" the flywheel teeth and tells the autostart panel how fast the engine is turning. You program the panel by using switches to tell it the range of cranking vs running.
Once the engine exceeds a set speed, then it has to be running, so the panel turns off the starter.
You also need oil pressure switches and temp switches. These switches open or close on low oil pressure and high temp. My panel has other inputs that can be used to watch for other things.
Here is how a normal startup goes:
The autostart panel gets powered.
It closes a relay that turns on glowplugs. My genset does not have them, and that is not hooked to anything. On a carbed car, it could power a solenoid to set the throttle and choke.
It also turns on the electric lift pump for the fuel. In a gas engine, it would turn on the ignition.
Then, after a time delay to let the glow plugs get hot, it turns them off and turns on the starter. If it does not see cranking speed after a few seconds, it stops and retrys.
While it is cranking, it is ignoring oil pressure and temp and all other sensors.
Once the engine speed exceeds cranking speed, it turns off the starter, waits about 10 seconds and starts monitoring all sensors. Including overspeed, since its a diesel.
If one of the sensors trips, or the flyspeed goes faster than a set speed, it shuts down the fuel lift pump, stopping the engine. LEDs on the front panel tell which sensor caused the shutdown.
You would need a switchover device to take it out of the circuit and restore the control to the regular ignition system once you got in.
The hardest part would be the prox sensor, and it would not be hard as long as you took your time. Mine is a round threaded rod about a foot long. You would need to drill and tap a 1/2 inch fine thread hole in the side of the housing. The flat end of the sensor needs to be at right angles to the flywheel teeth so they go by it straight across and not at an angle.
Then you screw in the sensor until it lightly touches the flywheel teeth, back it out a turn or two and tighten down the locknut.
Different sensors have different sensing distances, but it needs to be close to see the gaps between the teeth.
There would be some fiddly bits in getting it all just right, but most of the hard work is already done by the panel. I'll post the brand name and some locations for buying prox sensors later.
)..and crank it long enough without de-activating the starter too soon..
