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Step 7Ether Injection for Diesel Starting
My biodiesel truck was embarassing me by being hard to start. I'd wait for the glowplugs to heat up and crank and crank and eventually it would fire up and blow a lot of white unburned fuel smoke out the pipe. I knew it was "bio-smoke" and probably very healthy for the planet, but it looked like hell.
Then I remembered the weird valve and crate of ether cylinders I'd scavenged off a doomed boat.
So I tee-plumbed it up to one of my vacuum lines and ta-daa! I had built in starting fluid injection.
A couple of taps on the valve and my beast fired up like magic. I'll figure out why it's so hard to start later.
Once I returned to my parked truck to see that some junk had shifted and pressed the lever down. "damn!" I thought. I've filled the engine with that crap and made it into a bomb!. How do I start my car without blowing it up? So I read up on the valve. No problem. It's a really nifty gadget. It doses out only 3ccs every time you press it.
It's intended to mount upside down and dose out 3ccs of liquid ether, which gives you about 300 shots per can. There's mineral oil mixed in as a "top cylinder lubricant". I ended up mounting mine with the valve on top, to dose out vapor and get more shots. My truck is getting plenty of fuel, so cylinder lube is no problem.
If you don't have this fancy stuff you can do the same thing by just running a vac line into your cab and spraying start fluid from an aerosol can. Pinch the hose when it's not in use. Be careful where and how you place your ether can. Ether is very flammable. If it leaks or gets crushed it can blow you up or knock you out and asphyxiate you, just like the nice old doctor in "Cider House Rules".
Then I remembered the weird valve and crate of ether cylinders I'd scavenged off a doomed boat.
So I tee-plumbed it up to one of my vacuum lines and ta-daa! I had built in starting fluid injection.
A couple of taps on the valve and my beast fired up like magic. I'll figure out why it's so hard to start later.
Once I returned to my parked truck to see that some junk had shifted and pressed the lever down. "damn!" I thought. I've filled the engine with that crap and made it into a bomb!. How do I start my car without blowing it up? So I read up on the valve. No problem. It's a really nifty gadget. It doses out only 3ccs every time you press it.
It's intended to mount upside down and dose out 3ccs of liquid ether, which gives you about 300 shots per can. There's mineral oil mixed in as a "top cylinder lubricant". I ended up mounting mine with the valve on top, to dose out vapor and get more shots. My truck is getting plenty of fuel, so cylinder lube is no problem.
If you don't have this fancy stuff you can do the same thing by just running a vac line into your cab and spraying start fluid from an aerosol can. Pinch the hose when it's not in use. Be careful where and how you place your ether can. Ether is very flammable. If it leaks or gets crushed it can blow you up or knock you out and asphyxiate you, just like the nice old doctor in "Cider House Rules".
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If the ether hits hot glow plugs it can, and usually will, cause backfiring that can damage your engine.
Side note, I've been using ether, with top end lube, in mine for years :)