Whats wrong with starting fluid

[HGM]

I have an old friend that owned,operated and worked on dozers. We were talking one day about the use of starting fluid(Ether) and diesel engines. He told me that over the years he had learned a way to use Ether that didn't harm the engine. He said use a clean piece of cloth, spray the Ether on the cloth and hold it over the intake of the air filter while turning the engine. I've tried it and it works but on most engines you will need one person to turn the engine over while the other holds the cloth over the air intake. But it does work.

Gasoline on a rag works just as well and is my preference after WD-40..

Yes you all are correct on the Perkins engine. You can use Ether on a Perkins for one winter in daily starting and it'll get to the place you have to use it at 45 deg. to get it started for the rest of the engine life. I know because my Dad did that on a 135 MF.

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Any diesel can become "addicted" to it.. The problem is the rapid rise in cylinder pressures.. Its way too volitile to be ignited in an engine without causing damage.. A small amount may be ok, but do you want to risk your judgement on the correct amount on your engine??

 

[john_bud]

I refuse to use ether. If an engine needs something 10 times as volitile as it's normal fuel .

Good points, Farm, but either is more like 1000 times more volatile than diesel fuel. Probably even more than that.

Back to the main posters question:
Why is ether "bad"? Think about how a diesel combusts fuel. It compresses it about 17:1, that heats it up, the heat starts the combustion and POW! the piston is on it's way down. What happens with ether? When the compression gets about 4:1 or 5:1, the ether is hot enough to combust and does. The piston is still on it's way up, in fact it's a LONG way from the top. This "pre-combustion" volatilizes the diesel in the combustion chamber, heats the combustion chamber and fuel. The piston keeps going up and compresses, but now it goes above the normal 17:1. (Due to the pre-combustion of the ether). The fuel gets hotter than it would otherwise and normal diesel combustion occurs. All of that, in moderation, is fine and will get that cold finicky engine started.

BUT--- if you put in too much ether, the heat of combustion may start the combustion of the main diesel charge --- while the piston is still going up. Cylinder pressures can exceed thousands of PSI and the ring lands are holding it all back. The con rods are also under tremendous stress far beyond design parameters. The crankshaft, which normally flexes back and forth, is slammed back and can be flexed past it's elastic limit. So, just a small tiny whiff can get you going on a freezing cold day. But too much can break ring lands, bend con rods and break the crankshaft. The line between enough and disaster is not all that wide.

That's for normal operations. If you used the glow plugs and it wouldn't start, then use the can of SF before the glow plugs cool, you will have an explosion in the intake manifold, head, and air cleaner. {oops!}


If cans of starting fluid had metered nozzles that only gave 1/3 of a second worth of a shot, most of the evils of ether would be eliminated. But people are free to squirt as much as they feel like squirting and problems occur.

jb

 

[Soundguy]

Here's an important thing to think about.. diesel burns.. gas and either tend to explode..

Soundguy

 

[kmdigital]

Also, don't ever use ether in a diesel engine with a precombustion chamber. The equipment that comes with the ether injection systems are always direct injection engines. It has something to do with potentially damaging the precombustion chamber due to the sudden explosion and burning of diesel fuel in this chamber, which it isn't supposed to do. This is particularly true because the glow plugs are also located in this chamber.

 

[DavesTractor]

I've seen two Yanmars with bent rods from use of starting fluid. As described above, it appears they were ran out of fuel and instead of bleeding them, starting fluid was used generously. I can't be sure it was the cause, but I believe it was. Oddly enough, the pistons looked OK. On the contrary, we had an old IH diesel with a built in metered starter fluid button. Best to stay away from starter fluid for a modern diesel I believe.