Opinions

I was just thinking the other day about the two 185's my dad has had.  The older one had a manifold heater as a starting aid.  The other has ether.  Which one works better?  What do most people prefer?  I can see how the heater would be questionable if the batteries were already a little low.   I was just looking at the picture I took of the 6070 I took at the Fanetti auction open house.  I see it has both.  I though they usually only had one or the other for obvious reasons!  

Either is bad... it works but too much and you get to take your motor apart and rebuild it... The manifold heaters work good but I like a block heater if it gets really cool they hear the oil and the motor will turn over easier and there is less stress on the motor as it is physically warm.

I hadda D-19 that had the air horn pre heater, from the factory.  All it lacked was the second solenoid, and the wire.  It was my grandfather's tractor, and he believed in ether.  He had a ether can installed on it, as long as he owned it.  Hadda rebuild it a coupla times, as the tractor was a junkie, and knew how to press its own ether button.  Every time I checked, that can was empty, or half empty, and flat, dead, devoid of propellant.  I took it off, hooked up the AH heater, and was surprised how well 2 minutes of preheating started the tractor.  Also was surprised at how quick it would drain the batteries, on a cold day.  As a Backup, I installed a coffee pot style coolant heater. there wasn't a day cold enough in 15 years, here in MD, that that coffee pot heater wouldn't start it, after a half hour or 45 minutes...

It is easy to get too much ether in the motor. If it explodes too early in the compression stroke it will bend the rods. I have used ether but I avoid it as much as I can. I still call it rod bender in a can.

Both systems work if used correctly, Dad told of when he worked at the Allis dealership in the 60's when the 190 XT's were new and one mechanic using only the manifold heater was able to start a new 190 XT diesel at -10.  The first thing he did on his 190 was take the power wire for the ether injector button off the keyed power and put it on the solenoid side of the starter button, and disconnected the wire from the solenoid to the heater.  This prevents the problem Shameless had with an operator pressing the starting aid button thinking it was the starter, then finding the correct button with consequences. I use the heater on my D21 and WD45  diesel, and on the 190 XT III diesel, D17D, 7050, and R50 they use ether (automatic on the R50).  I know some people are dead set against ether, but I plug my equipment in when it is winter time, and the ether is only used on the cool mornings (40-55 degree) when the tractor needs just a little encouragement to get going.

wayneIA wrote: Both systems work if used correctly, Dad told of when he worked at the Allis dealership in the 60's when the 190 XT's were new and one mechanic using only the manifold heater was able to start a new 190 XT diesel at -10.  The first thing he did on his 190 was take the power wire for the ether injector button off the keyed power and put it on the solenoid side of the starter button, and disconnected the wire from the solenoid to the heater.  This prevents the problem Shameless had with an operator pressing the starting aid button thinking it was the starter, then finding the correct button with consequences. I use the heater on my D21 and WD45  diesel, and on the 190 XT III diesel, D17D, 7050, and R50 they use ether (automatic on the R50).  I know some people are dead set against ether, but I plug my equipment in when it is winter time, and the ether is only used on the cool mornings (40-55 degree) when the tractor needs just a little encouragement to get going.

Having the ether system powered from the starting circuit is something they should have done from the factory. Wonder why they didn't do it.

We used either on an 886 with the German diesel with everyone from my dad to 12 year old boys running it. It ran just over 9000 hours when it was overhauled the first time, the engine was actually in pretty good shape considering in the dead of winter it was getting started as the primary "chore" tractor for everything from feeding silage and hay to running the grinder mixer.

When it was overhauled the second time it been run right up to 10,000 hours - the engine was in horrible condition with broken rings on every piston. It had gotten to where it needed either to start no matter the temperature. It was traded after it had run 5000 hours on the second overhaul.    

A little interesting fact:

Edited by DiyDave - 03 Oct 2016 at 8:52pm

We try not to use either. On the newer 6080's and 8050/8070 we will not use it at all. Just plug them in. Both 6080's will start down to 20 degrees. I plug them in after that. We do however have an F2 and L2 combines that are addicted. They won't start below 80 without a little shot of either. But I just give them a 1 second blast in the air intake and by the time I get back to the cab they usually pop right off. They run good other than that. Dad calls either compression in a can. If the engine gets a little weak just add a little compression.

my 7020 starts great with the pre heat, but my d17 needs a tiny little sniff of ether while cranking to fire up on a cool morning