[Vwdiesel] Ford Diesel hard starting

[Scott Kair]

    Our vehicle maintenance division generally goes through about a case of
ether every winter, and I cringe every time I hear a Diesel burning it.  The
sound is pretty distinctive, and the exhaust aroma is barely tolerable even
outside.
    Just yesterday I had to use some to start our two Elgin street sweepers
with 4-cyl. JD turbodiesels, which had been stored outside since December.
It's not something I'm overly comfortable with. We also have equipment that
just will not start without the juice if it's below 35F.
    None, though, have glow plugs.  Several of the GMs with Cat engines came
with devices for crushing small pellets of ether (reminds me of a gas
chamber) near the intakes, and several of the IH/Navstar 466's came with
ether injection systems for cold starting.  None of the systems work- once
the initial charge or jug of juice runs out, replacements are expensive.
    That being said, two of the Cat engines in GM Kodiaks and one JD na in
an ancient endloader have intake heaters.  The ones in the Kodiaks quit
working almost as soon as the warranties expired.  The unit in the loader
may or may not work; it's manual, and I can watch the voltage drop when I
engage the button.
    A few years ago, the transfer pump on one of the sweepers failed while
parked overnight.  It was blocking everything else, including both loaders,
so it couldn't be just pulled out.  One of the mechanics used ether to start
it, and walked alongside it using 100% ether to transport it a couple of
hundred feet to the maintenance shed. I lost a can of pop betting that it
would blow up gloriously before making it back there, and still wouldn't
believe it if I hadn't seen it.
    I think the secret is judicious use.  If I had to use it in a VWD, I'd
definitely disconnect the glow plugs first, use the least amount possible to
get it started, and look into why it was necessary to use in the first
place.  Spraying it on a rag and putting the rag over the intake would seem
to be prudent; we have known issues with head gaskets, and these are, after
all, fairly light duty engines.
    Scott Kair