Perhaps he was afraid that if it hurt one it would hurt another

Hello TractorDon, you should know an Old Diesel Cat with a Gas Pony Should (Would) Start without Ether , Even my old D6 2H 1936 Ex Farm Machine starts after 2 minuites on its own system.

On the other hand I have a friend with a Ford 7.5 Ton Truck, that actually use's liquid ether, and has a hand pump injector system built into the inlet manifold, the engine fuel sysytem has no COLD START METHOD, and was designed to used ether as a souce of cold start - even on brand new factory trucks .

And finaly I own a 4 ton dumper with a lister 3 cylinder diesel, it only starts with either , it has its own can of easy start jammed in the air intake bracket , I am just getting a few extra hours before I do a complete engine re-build

Cylinders can get Glasied up from normal running when the engine isnt running at its best I.E. Not Working Hard, I havn't tried it myself, Get a spoon of VINKOL and let the intake sniff it in, Its surpost to rough up the bore without doing too-much damage.

Attached piccy of dumper under nornal running, NEEDING ETHER START LOL.

hello catman ,were you been ,hows the shed going ,bruce oz

What is VINKOL and where do you get it. Does it work the same as a little BonAmi powder?

.

I've been told that some military applications came with a ether canister built into the pony intake systems. They were designed for quick start when in combat operations.

Has anybody seen that before?? It was described to me as a canister system like an air pistol cartridge.

Aloha from the home of Pele' the fire volcano Hawaiian goddess....

Haole Cat, The Cat tractors had those ether aid set ups on the little later tractors and a can screwed on to the unit and then if needed you gave it a little push on the lever to inject it into the air intake.Bon Ami was used many years ago but Cat didn,t recommend it anymore when the cam ground pistons came out and the new style keystone rings.I used it years ago when it was ok and did work well. Today if it,s just glazed cylinders causing slobbering then working the engine with a full load for a couple hours will eliminate it unless the rings and or liners or both are worn out then a rebuild job is in the making.I,m pretty sure the cans of starting fluid you buy is diluted and not pure ether if I recall.I never saw it done but I,ve heard of guys using gasoline to use as a string aid. My dad had an old DDH Cletrac years ago and there was a fair sized plug in the intake manifold ad he,s take a section of news paper and dipped it in some fuel and light it a fire and stick it in the plug hole and let it suck the heat in and it helped to start it.It was direct start and no glow plugs and when new the tractors came with a blow torch to stick in that intake hole for heating the intake air on the Cletracs.

Following this thread with some interest and suprised at the different opinions and observations. On the JD 4020 there is a recepticle of sorts on the dash panel that is used to insert the either can without the spray tip on it when turning over in cold weather starts. Makes a big difference in the winters, when the turnover time may be limited. The disturbing thing is that it sounds just like an injector knock! Have never been able to use it without making that disturbing sound, it fades in a matter of seconds though. However, come summertime, she starts easily without any 'juice'. Long as the starter isn't dragging and the batteries are up to snuff. On the smaller 4 cyl. JD either is sprayed into the air intake and starts easily in cold weather and without the 'knocking'. Never has knocked. The other system apparently 'jets' the either directly into the cylinder or closer to it and most likely in a liquid state. The smaller tractor also starts easily in the warmer weather without any apparent ill side effects.
The Ford backhoe which is durn' near wore slick out never needs either at all, go figger' that. Smokes like a sailor when runnin' too!
This all for what its worth.

YellerCat, What happens ether fires at a lower compression so you get a knock and I,ve had the engines lock up if too much was sprayed in at once.The main trick is knowing how and when to use it and if a starting engine is on the tractor or engine turn the diesel over for a little bit to get some heat in the cylinders and then with it turning over give it a snort or two and usually they,ll fire off.Sometimes it takes another quick sniff after it starts to get it running smoothly and keep running.There is a lot of myth on using it but the 36yrs. I worked for the dealer and rebuilt engines for them and never saw one that I thought was damaged by using it and in this cold area it was used extensively by all who worked tractors all winter esp. the coal stripping jobs. As I mentioned before Cat had an ether aid setup on tractors as an attachment.

I have used a bookoodle of cans of ether in my time, and it isn't even really cold here. Probably because of running mostly JD equipment.
Where many other companies had some other cold weather starting aids, with the exception of some imported Yanmar utility tractors JD branded and sold many years ago, none had anything other than an ether injector. Those Yanmars had a version of the fuel burning "manifold fire" heaters that is in the J series D2 parts book. Pretty neat concept!

I'm like you Yellercat, I never used a standard JD injector that worked like I like. I can manage a lot less knocking by spraying it in the air filter inlet or even in the same bolt hole where the standard injector line tapped into the manifold. I think they just meter too much in through their setups. If you have a cab on it etc, it is convenient to just hit the button and let it knock instead of spraying and then going aroung and cranking it or having someone else on hand to help get it started.

A local machinist who was perhaps the best in the business around here told me that he repaired an engine with a hole in a piston that he attributed to gross overdose of ether. He said "the boss's son" had just kept spraying and they didn't give up until the dipstick blew out of the skidder engine. I think most folks would not have abused the product or the machine like this.

I think the main thing when using ether to start an engine is to have the engine turning over before the ether is applied. If it's squirted in before the engine turns, one or two cylinders are going to get the most and the rest virtually none. This is where the "knocking" come from. .the ones that got the most.