White smoke with a diesel usually is unburnt fuel, often found when starting a cold engine. Cold diesel engines, particularly indirect injection ones, use some form of starting aid to get them running. Diesels work by compressing air inside the combustion chamber. Air gets very hot when compressed a lot. In a diesel, it gets so hot that when diesel fuel is injected into the combustion chamber where this very hot air is, it ignites on it's own. Hence, no spark plugs in a diesel are required.
However, cool air is drawn into the engine when the engine is starting/running, and when the engine is cold, it needs a bit of help getting the air from ambient temperature to the 500C or more it gets to for ignition. Glow plugs are small heating elements that heat the air in the cylinders (pre-combustion chambers on indirect injection) to aid starting. Very important things, those glow plugs.
All glow plugs I've dealt with use battery voltage, typically 12 volts. Some only need it for a very brief time, like the ones in my truck, for a 3 second blast. Any more than that and I risk burning them out (done this twice now. Ouch $$$). My B6100 can be glowed for up to 60 seconds. Also very important is a strong battery. You can wind a diesel over all day, but it will never start if it isn't spinning fast enough, like a half dead battery would do. Also, the glow plugs draw lots of power, so a good battery is needed. Ether is nasty stuff, as it burns VERY hot and burns easily, so not only does it threaten to burn pistons, it wants to burn too soon, hard on bearings (that's why a loud knocking from ether start-ups).
I hope this helps. Sorry for such a long answer. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
