Using starting fluid?!?!

[strokin94]

I have a neighbor that has a 1991 7.3 idi. He was having issues starting it in the cold and I mentioned it may need GP or check the GPR. He instead used starting fluid to get it running. I beleive this can cause premature ignition which is bad for the motor. Is this correct or will it cause no issues?

[thbd77]

the gps can make it ignite before it is suppose to.

[strokin94]

so using starting fluid isn't bad for the engine?

[1978psd]

Over using it is, it will bend the push rods. My dad had to use a crap load on his old work truck because it had low compression 400k+ miles on it with tons of hours ideling. If he uses a wiff of it to assist in starting it it is ok but I would check the glow plugs, they are easy, real easy to check on an IDI. Get a test light and hook it to the positive terminal of the battery and pull the wire off the top of the glow plug and stick the screw driver end of the test light on the top part of the glow plug and if it doesn't light up then its a bad GP. If they are all good and you can hear the GP timer ticking once the WTS light goes off then he has other problems. Let us know what he finds out

[FordGuy100]

If you use ether, dont use the glow plugs. As mentioned, the glow from the plugs can cause the ether to preignite, and do some serious damage.

If you HAVE to use ether, make sure the glow plugs dont come on, and be smart about it. Ie.., dont use that much, just a wiff. Should take right off. Only circumstances that you should use ether is you need to use the truck, and its either too cold to start with glow plugs (lets say anything below -15*F a fuitile effort, but with a good IDI it can do it without being plugged in), then I would rather use ether than burn out the glow plugs and starter, or if the glow plugs dont work and you need to use the truck.