The main thing about ether is the same thing about adjusting the IP fuel screw.
A little goes a long way.

And human nature says if a little gives me this, a little more will be better.

Not true in either above case.

There are a couple mistruths about ether that are commonly circulated.
Once you use ether the engine will not start without it, it will become addicted.
That is completely false, a mechanical device can not become addicted to anything.

Ether will cause it to over rev.
Only if you use to much.

Ether will stretch the head bolts.
Only if you use to much.

The big downside to ether is the glow plug system which will ignite the ether at the wrong time.

 

well i cant poice my people all the time and im sure that the ether that was used was in large quantities, but the machine was well worn out so i cant cry about the over rev and break situation, but i do agree about human nature....you cant change that

 

one thing about eather it doubles the compression when it fires that is why it can cause so much damage and spraying before cranking causes all the eather to be drawn in to one cylinder which in my opinion is very bad

 

<p>Well, if you're looking for two more cents, how can I resist? I have an E350 with an IDI and 390k miles on her, it's been relegated to a once or twice a year vehicle. At about 150k she got a nice reman pump and 8 shiny injectors. 240k later when she hot soaks for an hour or so she'll crank for an hour and not start. At high engine temps, ether will just stop the truck from cranking. It explodes at about half of a compression stroke, very counterproductive to starting an engine. WD40 however, sprayed in copious amounts right into the air filter gets her going in a matter of seconds with no reduction in cranking speed whatsoever.</p>
<p>On the other hand when the glow plugs weren't working on a third of our fleet of E350's with IDI's in the middle of a New York winter, ether or brake parts cleaner were the ONLY things that would get them to fire. Carb cleaner just wouldn't cut it in subzero temps and WD40 just lubed everything under the hood. As far as a gas soaked rag, not very practical on an Econoline, but I had great luck with it starting Chevy diesels in Korea when I was in the Army.</p>
<p>I guess, bottom line is it all depends on your situation. If I was a hair dresser in North Carolina and my Econoline wouldn't start because it was chilly and the glow plugs didn't work...I'd use the hair spray.

 

well i burned out my plugs again with my manul switch!!!!! i never keep it on over 8 seconds but for some reason i keep burning them out.. so i had to start my truck when it sat over night at -15 and when i went to start it the temp was -5 soooo i was all outa ETHER... damn it from last time.. so what i did was try the wd40.. it didnt even try to fire.. then i got some hair spray from the bathroom of the ol ladys... tunring it over spraying that in. ROOOOOMM ROOOMM ROOOOMM started right up.. maybe instead of glow plugs these engines should come with hair spray injection for cold starts.. the glows i removed that burned out last were champions and autolite mix.. the new ones i put in are ford zd1A made in gemany and sold by autozone... throwing hundred bucks at this truck allot since just last month i put these ones in.. i hav bypassed the crontroller totally and bypassed the fuesable links also.. so when i hit the switch a 6ga cable from the solinoid feeds power directly to the glow plug harness.. i cant believe the good plugs burned out so fast.. like i said i never held it on for over 8 seconds. thinking about putting a mechanical manual switch in instead of the electrical man ual switch and by passing the solinoid next incase its comming on when the truck is off at night.. ive seen battery disconnect ones act up like that on rv's anyone got a better recomendation for better then the ford zd1a glows??? i heard of some type that you could leave on constant one time but i cant remeber what ones..

ray
hairspray works if you aint got ether

 

You got the good ones, ZD1A from Germany = Beru plugs. Those are the ones you want all right.

I saw some on a diesel site somewhere that said they were rated for continuous duty too. They were something like $25 each IIRC....

 

greythorn3,
The stock harness was 10 AWG wire, one for each bank from the relay.
Power to the relay was one 10 AWG from the battery to the relay.
The glow plugs are 6 volt plugs.

With all the plugs good, if you checked the power with a volt meter at the glow plug connector, you usually saw about 7 or 8 volts.

The stock system used smaller wire to cause a voltage drop to the glow plugs when they were heating.

Your 6 AWG wire has about 25% of the voltage drop you would see on a 10 AWG wire.
You are probably running 10 or 11 volts to the glow plugs.

As far as the switch in place of the relay, when you first start heating the glow plugs you will be drawing close to 200 amps, it better be a big switch.

 

well the 6ga wire is soldered into the 2 10 gauge wires right after the FUSABLE LINK.... so it by passes the PLUG and FUSE LINKS... do you think bypassing 8 inches of 10 guage wire with 1' of 6 gauge wire will cause the voltage to increase that much??? i dont think the gauge has anything to do with voltage, i think it just has to do with amperage... correct me if im wrong.


ray

i did increase the wire gauge TO the solinoid from the battery also to 6 GAUGE it had a smaller gauge there.

 

I always put a sticker on the push button jobs I do; to not go over 6 seconds. Just in case you count slow, like me.

 

i went 8 a few times, maybe i should only do 5 sec.. .also what is the timeyou wait between cycle with a manual switch

ray

 

Watts is what does the work with electric.

Watts = Volts x Amps

When you figure wire size for anything, you consider the length of the circuit.
Then you look at the voltage requirement.
Then you look at the amperage requirement.

The more amps you try to carry through a wire that is to small, the more volts you drop per foot.

 

Once you've tried to start it they should be plenty cooled off to hit them again.

 

I have counted in seconds on my 86 [everthing good working order] and the glow plugs were on at least 12 seconds on a cold day....my 84 [when the controller is working], same amount of time.

I have no dout in mind at all, you can burn these plugs up but I believe they reguarly cycle around 10 to 12 seconds.

Some thing I just started doing with the cold with us....I crank the engine 5 to 7 seconds to get the oil circulating then I hit the push button...no loud knocks when she fires up?!!

 

Dave you are smart enough to be an electrician.

Why are you wasting your time pulling levers?