How to make my no glow project truck, glow?

[76chevyc10]

My project truck is a 76 chevy pickup with a gas motor, I'm replacing the gas motor with a 6.2 diesel that came out of a 1984 chevy Suburban.

My truck is not wired for a diesel so my question is, how do I wire a glow plug system.

I'm new to diesels but I was wondering if I can just run a fused hot wire to a toggle switch then make a wire harness that goes to each glow plug making a manual system, will that work?

Thanks in advance.

[kconnair]

Here is how I would approach making a glow system for your truck.

2 ways I would recommend....


1) Get a glow plug harness from a '85 to 89 6.2 truck (up to 91 for suburbans) and the 2nd generation glow controller. Follow the diagrams in wiring/converting the old (up to '84) system from the troubleshooting section here at the diesel page on how to wire into the truck.

2) Make your own harness using the '85 to '93 glow controller, again following the wiring diagram to convert from the earlier control system.

You would need the individual leads to merge into a much larger gauge (8 maybe?) wire which leads to the switched side of the controller. The other side of the controller has a lead which goes directly to the battery - there may be fusible links in there somewhere too.

I would recommend using the later controller because it is really easy to wire into the system - makes it easy to use, and you will need some type of solenoid anyway because the glow plugs draw so much juice - way more than any run of the mill switch.

Hope this helps.....

Kevin.

[76chevyc10]

I'm new to the diesel world so please forgive me for being stupid but what is a 2nd generation glow controller? I have a thermal controller that came with the engine will that work?

[kconnair]

GM used (I believe) 3 different glow plug controllers over the years...

The first generation glow plug controller (from about '82 to 1984) looks kinda like a mushroom (about 3 inches high, grey metal with a black plastic cap with several smallish wires sticking out) and is threaded into an adapter plate on the driver's side (left) cylinder head at the rear on the intake face of the head, behind the intake. This controller is exposed to the coolant in the cylinder head.

http://www.thedieselpage.com/members/glowcont.jpg

This was used in conjunction with a solenoid which looks like a ford style starter solenoid (but works when the terminal is grounded not energized, and requires a big diode - unlike the ford starter solenoid)

http://www.thedieselpage.com/members/glowrela.jpg

The second generation glow plug controller (1985 to 1993 (?)) looks kind of like a small ignition module, except it has two large guage wires attached to two screw terminals, and terminals for a newer style multiple wire plug. This controller has the solenoid built in to the assembly.

It was usually mounted in the same location as the first generation controller, except it is mounted on a bracket, and is not exposed to the coolant.

http://www.thedieselpage.com/members/glow93-1.jpg

Here is the link to the 85 up troubleshooting page on the members site. The pictures listed above came from the online guide.

http://www.thedieselpage.com/members/guide13.htm

Good luck with your project.

[76chevyc10]

Problem is I don't have access to the members area I'm retired and can't really afford the the 20 dollar member fee just yet, maybe next month. Thanks for your help.

[76chevyc10]

The no glow will glow because I'm using the wiring diagram at:
http://dept.150m.com/diesel2.html