Ether on a diesel engine

Dave

Those damn solinoid jobs with can uner the hood are junk. The one on my 1066 started feeding the engine ether at random while working. It very soon got a Deere system. For guys thinking of changing there IH ether injection to Deere, the Deere has a finer nozzel.

Other uses for either, seating beads on large tires. This is a 2 man job. First have long air hose with quick atttach for valve stem & hand valve at tank. Squirt small ammount of John Deere either in tire, throw in match from a distance at same time open air valve. Works every time.

I had circulating block heaters on 3 of my diesels, frost plug version on my 1066 and nothing on my combine. I used block heaters always if tractors were near electricity. The frost plug type heaters must almost be plugged in continuously as they are quite slow. A 1,500 watt circulating heater will at -20F start a diesel after being plugged in for only a couple of hours, and it will be much like a summertime start. The circulating heaters will actually make the engine block feel warm, and a warm start is much less engine wear. Unless your diesel is miles from electricity, I'd go block heater, and if your not using it everyday, I'd make that a circulating block heater.

By the way, when new, most diesels with glow plugs had a warning not to use ether and glow plugs at same time. You can use glow plugs and block heater at same time. I never considered my block heaters a starting aid, but rather an engine warmer. It's long been said,"75% of engine wear occurs in the first 5 min a cold engine is running".

Use small amounts or the engine may kick back and break teeth on the flywheel or starter drive.

As with all my answers feel free to take with a grain of salt.

used in moderation, it does not hurt an engine at all (unless of course, the engine is all wobbled out to start with).

Almost all manufacturers' use either as a cold weather starting aid on their diesels.

Allan

Thanks for all the input.

Dave

Now here is my real emergency starting kit and this is where the no leaks count. Cast iron fry pan, fill it with barbeque charcoal, and place it about 3" under the oil pan. I've started the 560 and Deere both that way should the ocasion make it necessary. It's best to block off the wind side under the vehicle. I started my 6.2 diesel that way one morning. I discovered my block heater had a broken wire, thus hadn't worked overnight.

We had a logging contractor in our area, faced with 5 diesels every morning to get going. He geared up quick couplers on the heater hoses of his pickup. He could circulate that through diesels in the bush. Two problems with that one, you froze in the pickup while waiting, plus the 5 blasts of cold coolant on the pickup each morning proved to be quite hard on pickup engines. In the end he bought a small diesel generator, pulled all the machines in a huddle, chained and locked generator to one of the machines, and generated power for the tank heaters.

My operators went through that winter, never had a boost fom the 24 volt truck. The other guys at that location were always having trouble even with ether. Another little trick we did that winter, at Christmas I noticed breaks in battery cable covering, machine was about 8 years old on second set of batteries that were 3 years old. During the Christmas shutdown I installed all new battery cables right up to factory specs. You could notice the difference in cranking almost immediately. Interesting too, those batteries lasted 6.5 years. I always say it pays to clean up battery cable terminals long before they say NO. That machine that got started 5 days per week all winter, had a lot better battery life than my tractors, that were rarely started in winter.

Next time you have to use ether, just warm the can up, you'll not believe the difference. Don't get it too hot, they will explode. A couple of guys took my advice, put the ether can on camp stove and forgot about it. They burned the camp.

Thanks again,

Dave

Link

Take Care,

Dave