[AT] O/T GM diesel question

[HaliganBar at aol.com]

In a message dated 11/30/04 9:42:35 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
DAVIESW739 at aol.com writes:

<< Karl why would you use ether if you have glow  plugs and if the glow plugs 
 don't work so you need to use ether then whats the  differance.  >>


Walt,

In your scenario you are probably correct...provided that all of the glow 
plugs are shot then using ether couldn't hurt anything. However, If just a couple 
aren't working properly, which could cause hard starting, then using ether 
would at the least burn up the remaining good glow plugs. At the worst, I guess 
you could run the risk of igniting the ether with the good glow plugs.

Speaking of ether....what is the proper amount of ether to use for starting? 
I rarely need to use ether for starting. However, years ago, we used cases of 
it for starting diesel equipment when I was stationed in North Dakota. On the 
Alert Pad our 16 ground power units were stored outside. We used to 
practically soak the air cleaners on the Hobart generator sets to get them started in 
the winter. The ones that we couldn't get started with the ether(usually about 
half of them) would get hauled back to the AGE shop to get warmed up and have 
the batteries recharged (we cranked them til there was nothing left). I'm 
guessing that our starting methods didn't do anything to help the longevity of the 
engines or the batteries. Ultimately we found that letting the generator sets 
run at idle overnight used only a quarter tank of fuel and insured that all of 
them would work in the morning.

Ironically, the single cylinder diesels on the flightline heaters were the 
easiest to start in the cold. They were the only piece of flightline equipment 
that didn't have a block heater( I think they were air-cooled) or an easy place 
to spray ether. Instead, they had a small bulb syringe (kinda like a small 
turkey baster) that also doubled as the oil fill cap. It allowed you to draw up 
a small amount of oil from the crankcase. You then opened a spring-loaded 
valve and squirted the oil into a port in the head. I can't ever remember a heater 
not starting if you followed this procedure.

So how much ether is the proper amount?

Regards,
Karl