A gas rag is the best. After glow plug module cycles out. Put rag in air cleaner and crack engine. The mist or atomized gas vapors is compressed to ignite at a slow rate. Starting fluid or kill the engine fluid is a small engine application. Not for diesels. Once the engine fires up the rag will restrict air flow so pull fast before it stalls out. Once the rag is out the fuel system will be primed and good to go. Bleed air intrusion at Schrader valve by filter. Only do this if glow plug module took a ****ter or major air intrusion via fuel leaks. I have been doing this for 20 years. Tested compression on my last idi at 380,000 tested 425 psi all around not bad.

 

i use WD-40 when help is needed.
not a flammable as gas, or as explosive as ether.

 

Also want to point out how retarded this myth is.... ether injector on my pickup for over 3-4 years now and 30+ thousand miles and it still hasnt blown up. Also, ive tried the gas rag and wd40 both because i was out of ether, and neither got my pickup started. Luckily, our diesel tractor about a 1/4 mile away in the field had some in its factory ether injector that i could steal.

 

Yeah... the only time you have issues with ether is when you have glow plugs hot. Otherwise, it'll just burn and will get it started.

Also, everyone says that an engine will get 'addicted' to ether. When I first bought my tan 88, the PO had been using ether on every cold start for years. I did it for a while too, then finally fixed the glow plug system(made it manual), and guess what? It started just fine with that. After years of ether.

That being said, if you need to use ether on a regular basis, you really ought to fix it. A manual glow plug system works great(actually, it can work /better/ than ether in some cases), but in an emergency it's amazing.

 

I 100% agree with diesel engines getting addicted to either, while i see absolutely no logic or reason behind it I have seen what appears to be a dependency on the stuff. Working in the oil field I was sent to run some equipment that the company was looking to purchase for a job. I burnt the cables first day trying to start it without ether, because I don't carry it in my truck before bumming some off the pulling unit crew and using my jumper cables as battery leads. Took about a week of long hard starts every morning, after that it started easy as can be, old Detroit diesel slobbered like hell, but ran like a top. Again I see absolutely no logic, and argued with my dad for years that there was absolutely no way an engine can become addicted(I mean addiction doesn't happen to machines PERIOD), but it sure as heck seems to be a thing. I would love some explanation for it that way I can take the tin foil hat off, and quit believing if they become addicted maybe they can become power hungry too and dream of taking over the planet........

 

Guess I'll throw my two cents in...I used WD40 with success two or three times but since then it's never worked for me. Not sure what the difference is. I may have used the glows to warm them a bit to make it work.
Haven't tried a gas rag, but in a spray bottle it works AWESOMELY.
Ether will pre-detonate in my pickup like crazy. I carry it just incase, and if I BARELY squeeze the trigger it gets a small enough sniff not to pre-detonate.

However I've found that a properly built IP and healthy glow plug system actually work way better than all that!

 

Josh, depends on the ether, mine doesnt like some either. NAPA "Mac's" works best for me, it really doesnt like the pyroil stuff.

Ether addiction is as much, if not more of a farce than "youll blow it up". Its 100% logical. An engine falls into dis-tune, or is wore out to the point that it wont start on its own all the time. Little snort of ether and away it goes, but doesnt need it all the time. So you keep running it and using it, and it keeps getting more worn, and it needs more ether more often. Then you just cant start it without ether, so it must be the ethers fault.

As per IDIs, usually it starts with a burnt plug or two, normally it starts, but sometimes needs help, then you lose another, and another to the point you have to always use ether and now its "addicted"

Not saying ether is better, not saying there isnt risks with it, but frankly, im sick of seeing this still being around. Especially from people with high regard in the IDI community that should, and probably do, know better.

 

i never said ether is bad, except when used with a working glow plug system.
i just prefer not to use it because the WD-40 or PB Blaster works just as good for me, and i always have a can of either one in the truck.
i don't like having ether in the truck because if the cap gets knocked off and it sprays, it is very dangerous. with pb or wd, you just get an oily mess

 

Yup... And a diesel will /run/ on surprisingly worn rings and very low compression, but it won't /start/.
Had an old Perkins 4.108 which had just about zero compression near the end. It would crank over quite fast, and just smoke. Took a /lot/ of ether to get it running, and when cold it would actually start to cool off and die... and you'd have to actually give it a shot of ether while running to get the revs back up. Once it hit like 2500 RPMs, it would stay running, warm up, and stop pouring smoke... but it still had very little power.

We finally replaced it, and the rebuilt replacement fires up a lot better; Still needs just a whiff of ether(No working glow plugs or other starting aids in that bobcat), but... big difference.

 

when you don't understand what is wrong, ether is and can be a band aid to get a diesel started, many things can make a diesel hard to start. some high compression diesels (no glow plugs) can have fuel delivery problems that cause hard starting, common rail systems when working properly start easy. intake explosions are from using ether on engines with intake heaters or glow plugs that have not been turned off or disabled before using ether. newer common rail systems will ignore foot feed so stepping on throttle does nothing..to help starting. IDi's like fuel and hot glows when starting cold. And should start as if they are fully warmed up if the block heater is used over night. diesels do not get addicted to ether. the operator does. instead of repairing it correctly..

 

yep .. 'bonnie' says she doesn't have a problem ..

but then again .. there she goes snorting another hit .. it's like .. an every day thing ..

sometimes i think i'm partly to blame for enabling her habit ..

 

Ether is to be used for starting only. When I drove log truck, some of the lazier drivers would give the truck a shot of ether rather than shift. If done often enough it WILL damage your engine.

 

We have an old Oliver that is the same way, has about enough power to run the post hole digger and thats about it. Was a 70ish hp tractor in its day i would guess. Shut it off and it just keeps spinnin lol... no compression in the poor old girl.

 

... Really? Wow.
Yeah, I can see that. The temps are too high at that point and you'd get detonation instead of a decent burn.

 

I bought a 92 F-350 for a parts truck with an 7.3 that would crank like a gas engine forever and just white smoke like crazy. It was a 330,000 mile non-turbo 7.3, but it had a turbo added somewhere down the line. Pour 3-4 ounces of gasoline in the intake and it'd fire up. Pretty sure the GP's were inop. and that thing had blow by so bad it would push oil out of the breather with any kind of RPM.

But once it ran, it would move around okay. I think it'd need a gallon of oil for every tank of fuel. I sold it to a desperate guy with full disclosure for $100.