How come it seems "once" you use ether to start a tractor you always need It (or the tractor does). I have tried and tried to start my D4 with out ether- but lots of white smoke later and no start i shoot it with its drug and it fires- The Old farm tractors I have that the Family has owned since new will start without ether(even in the winter) . If my Dad had ever caught me useing ether on one His tractors-- God for bid -- the peach tree switch would have come out.

That is a very good question. Essentially what happens is that the ether washes the very thin layer of oil off of the cylinder walls and through the combustion process the ether also leaves a glazing layer in the cylinder that the rings cannot seal against well. The more you use ether, the more it gets hooked on it. If this is a problem that you have just started to have, getting it hot and running the crap out of it may help. Heat can help break down that glazing and it helps seat the rings into the cylinders again. If this has been happening for an extended amount of time, it might be too late. Tearing the engine apart and honing the cylinder and re-ringing might be your only option at that point.

in the great white north, we call it the "ether bunny". ether is a fact of life and used in very small doses.

thansk
KoO
Published Author

I've always had the thought that you can make one a "dope addict" was a myth. By the time you need to use starting fluid to start an engine, it's usually caused by low compression, fouled injectors, timing off, something and it only gets worse with time and not from the use of starting fluid. ........unless you load an engine so heavily with starting fluid that you break some rings, bend some rods or something.

I don't think a little whiff in cold weather ever hurt one or made it become a hot weather dope addict..

Interesting theory on ether use but......I think the fact that Cat used a permanent plumbed ether system along with direct electric start on most all their equipment at one time is being overlooked.
More likely a sequence of events as "old 3T lover" describes.

That story of coming addicted has been around for years and if you lived in cold winters like me you,d know it,s a myth but first you let the starting engine build up some heat in the engine and then if it doesn,t fire you only give it a little sniff and normally they will fire right off.With direct starting you need the glow plugs to warm it up a little and then if it doesn,t start again give it a little sniff.We had so much work going on here in the winter in the coal strippings with equip. and you couldn,t play around trying to get things going in the morning.As I said you turned it over to get some heat in them and then with it turning you give a sniff or two and away they,d go.

you know i thank you for your repleys--- and i understand that ether lowers the combustion temp of diesil and if we didnt have ether(I spent 40+yrs building Highways in Texas) we would use a gas soaked rag and smother the air cleaner untill it fired. And at low temps only ether would work.Dad just never believed in ether.He came from wwii using old cats to salvage planes from Alaska(NCO pilot) they used old " up and over cable D7s". He was dead set on not using ether on the farm tractors.He said it was addictive and now I go to crank my old D4 and with out that shot of ether it aint gonna happen.
I guess there is a lot of myth and maybe - maybe some truth to it all and guess I will have to give my old D4 its shot just to start it and thank God Dad's not here to see it. Thanks to all ---Jim

My dad was always worried about running the pony for a long time because they cost more than the main to rebuild and had cooling issues, so he would always have the guys get the main spinning as soon as the pony got up to power then gave it a little wiff of either.

A few years back we went to rebuild one of the old 9u's that had 23,400 hrs on the main and in that time it went through 5 pony motors according to our records.

The key to all this is a "LITTLE" ether. There is no way that a motor is "drug addicted" It is as Old 3T lover said, basically, use moderation.
If the motor is that tired, ether didn't cause the problem unless you gave it an OVERDOSE:D
I personally don't have any problem with using ether "sparingly" in some cases.
Don

You mentioned Farming
I remember in the 60 s you had to be careful on john deeres- some motors did not take either it at all, slightest sniff would break piston.