I will concede that air box fires are possible from using too much . Not likely from a back fire . ..Most likely from it not being in vapor , but in a puddle some where .
I use ether on everything that resists starting , I haven't used it on my truck myself .
Now having said all this I will most likely blow up the next thing I use ether on .

 

I have been following this thread, and I am confused. If Ether is bad, or can blow an engine up, why did the Caterpillar loaders I ran have Ether buttons in them? The one loader was new, back in 2000, and it still needed the magic button in winter.
Maybe it wasn't ether? I just remember installing a new can, and remembering the ether smell. We use it regularly on the farm too, but Our diesel's there have no Glow Plugs. Heck we even use it on some of the gasser's there!
Withb all that being said, My truck won't see it.....unless it is an absolute, last resort.

 

I had to use ether almost every morning for 3 years. And yes, it ran backwards numerous times, horrible sounding! Thought it was gp's and relay's, turns out it was a poor ultima battery choice, (low CCA's). I used ether many hundered's of times. after new batteries i never used it again, that was eight years ago, now it has 240000 thousand and still runs great. i did put in a relay bypass switch so i could control the gp's.

 

you mean your powerstroke ran backwards!?!? as in it fired the ether from a hot GP and actually started the engine turning the wrong way, sucking air in the exhaust valves and exhausting out the intake? and then continued to run that way for several seconds/minutes? crazy. how did you know it was running backwards, though and not just running poorly on the ether? was it smoking out the intake?

did it just stop when it ran out of ether? there'd be no other way to stop it, right? as others have mentioned here, it doesn't seem possible that the HPOP and PCM could cooperate to keep it running backwards on diesel fuel...

 

Interesting thread. I don't know much about the subject and have never used ether in my diesel. I have always gone with the majority and just wouldn't use it, of coarse in an emergency I just might. I did a little info searching on the internet on the flash point of fuels or combustible fuel and and found that ether has a flash point about -140 and diesel fuel about 100 degrees higher +40. So what I got out of that was its going to flash or burn as soon as it gets into the cylinders and doesn't really care when and what cylinder it goes into so they may not fire in any kind of order. Fuel usually is sprayed and timed by the IDM to enter the cylinders under high pressure thru the injectors and combustion takes place with the help of good gp's and proper run time for the gp's, Just waiting for the wait to start light is usually not long enough especially in cold weather, watch the amp gauge and you will see that it should stay on under a heavy draw for up to 2 minutes, not usually necessary to wait that long though especially when the weather is warmer and not necessary at all if the engine has warmed up. I think you should wait for the light to go off when warm though, it usually only stays on for just a few seconds, like maybe 4 or 5 seconds. I could be thinking wrong though so comments are welcome

 

Ya, It's a serious truck rattling event! Only happened with the use of ether. Happened maybe 10 times, the first time i thought it was just the ether burning off and it ran for 10 seconds until i turned off the key. After that I would stop it ASAP by turning off the key, The reason i believe it runs backwards is when it was real cold, (15 or less) , at altitude, (8000 ft in Kirkwood CA), over nite with no way to plug in, it would take many attempts spraying and jumping in to start it. And with wet boots, in a hurry, my foot slipped of the clutch, and in first gear it lurched backwards.

 

Good post ..

Thinking out loud here . Spraying an engine that is not injecting fuel normally may be a variable . A running engine that may need a bit of help should easily overcome detonation from pre ignition from the ether . Especially given not all intake valves are open at the same time & those that are closed are making somewhere around 350 -400 lbs of compression ..

An engine not fueling is at the mercy of the spray ..

I'm still looking for someone that had catastrophic damage from the ether ...

 

"I'm still looking for someone that had catastrophic damage from the ether ..."

Rick, Try sniffing it for awhile I think thats what happened to me

 

It can .

In theory , the volume of intake air should draw it back into the engine .

If you stop cranking it , residual (too much) ether can easily burn , If there is a continued source of vapor (Too much) .

 

That might do it ...

 

Not gunna find one....Youll find intake pieces that have been blown apart but never an engine. You can actualy lock them up from using to much either. done that a time or two up nort' in the cold winters trying to get logging trucks started. then you have to sit and wait 10 minutes for the either to disperse.

My pete has a 3406B in it and I ran that backwards once, came up to a stop sign riding the Jake, normal procedure was flip the jakes off and tap it out of 1st in one motion, thus no need to step on clutch...I hit the headlight switch by accident and it almost died. I taped the throttle and instantly had buzzers and lights going off in my face Looked down had no oil pressure and saw smoke out the front right side of the hood. Turned the key off and realized what had happened...when you touch the throttle the jakes turn off and I caught it just at the right time, I already had it in neutral and the smoke was from the exhaust coming out the air cleaner.

I also saw a 10 year old driving his grandpa's old 2 cylinder 720 JD in a tractor pull, he let it go right down to almost stalling then pulled the clutch...The old 2cylinder JD's still had the oil bath air cleaner and that thing blew oil ALL OVER the hood instantly. That poor kid put his hands up and had no clue what happened. The local tractor salvage guy ran over and pulled the decompression valve to shut it off.

Diesel Rod

 

I wouldn't chit you Chris, you're one of my favorite turds The technology has been around since 2002 or so.


That requires a sled with E-start though. All the electric reverse on most modern sleds is, is a button on the handlebars. Start it up, push the button, engine stops and starts itself back up in reverse. Push the button again, sled shuts off and starts in normal rotation.

 

here's my air box after my ether experience, belt wasn't routed right. might have something to do with it.... feel free to make fun of me!

 

I guess in the end , common sense wins out with ether ....

 

Common what?? Hahhaaa!