Re: [MV] Cold weather starting aids

From: jonathon (jemery@execpc.com)
Date: Wed Nov 20 2002 - 20:44:40 PST


>. A "small dose" of ether (a small dose for
>me is about one second from a normal aerosol can) may be enough to run the
>engine for one or two cycles and it should be under governor control after
>that.

My flame primer (from a Perkins engnie) that is on my Cummins 4BT died
while away from home and I was no where near a plug for the block heater. It
would roll over fine but would not show any sign of wanting to fire. Three
times, each morning that is, I started the thing with a shot of ether. Let
me describe how small a shot, from 4 feet away I let off the quickest spirt
that I possibly could aimed at the air intake, then ran around and tried to
start it. It took about 2 revolutions and it fired right off. The knocking
noise it made for a second or two after it started running was cause for
concern but it never "took off" on it's own as some suggest.. Experiance
with other diesels also suggests that an extremely small amount often does
the trick and to much will result in very unpleasant knocking noises if not
actually locking up the engine such that it won't roll over tdc because the
ether fired before that, seen this on an old tractor that won't start even
in warm weather without ether.

later,

je



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