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Cat starting engines are not washing machine engines, far from it, I have started Cat engines in -20f with the pup, where the the direct start machines fell flat on their face, Starting engines where designed to heat the main engine and build up oil pressure for easier starting , it also puts less strain on the main engine. A properly setup and maintained starting engine can’t be beat, used them to load dead machines onto lowboys. Don’t forget these machines are 60- 70 yrs old, now days most people don’t understand these engines. They are very simple If you know what to look for. Do you have a service manual?, Did you put a little oil in the cylinders to bring up compression, is there compression when you turn the engine over by hand?, put your thumb over the spark plug hole while turning the engine over by hand. Are the sparkplugs wet or dry. Do you have electric start on the starting engine. Matter of opinion on the direct start isn’t expensive, horse m**** in my opinion . I would check the spark plugs, I had a lot of problems with Champions, I switched to NGK AB-6 ,
no more problems, also had problems with the magneto coil , would fire outside the cly, not inside. Sorry for the rant about starting engines, it just makes me mad at people that don’t understand these engines.