The Fordson Tractor Pages Forum

....steady now!

I am currently rebuilding a Ford BSD444 (non turbo) engine from a Sanderson teleporter 2 which has been started on Ether for a while mainly due to the operators not being able to understand how the thermostart device works.

It started very well on the Thermostart but breathed heavy and was down on power, this is what we found when number one piston was removed:



Sorry about the picture quality, the pitting in the crown is from bits of ring and some pieces of ring are imbedded into the top. Some of the ring lands are smashed off and the small pieces of ring fragment have made thier own path to the combustion chamber.

The injection system checks out ok with all injectors fine and the pump tested ok.

So a warning to all, if it wont start then fix it.....or in this case, learn how to start it!

Mark,
Many thanks for the warning.
Why/how does ether cause this damage?

My understanding is that becuase ether is much more volatile than diesel it ignites at a lower compression ratio i.e. whilst the piston is much further down the cylinder bore. This then loads the rings much more as the piston is rising against an expanding gas (as opposed to the standard where its pretty close to TDC at the combustion point).

Hence the rings shatter, the lands can be damaged and I have seen two with bent rods!

I must say, this is by far the worst piston I have seen and only number one was affected (which is also the first in the inlet track)

Hi
This either/ or head stud stretcher as we call it in canada is evil on motors I have worked on a few motors that have been force fed it . From my tractor pulling days I have seen it sit in the top of piston crowns on the first cylinders to fire in a motor then when the power and all the goodies are cranked on it burns the crowns out due to hot spots, also it dilutes the oil in the cylinders so they start dry. .

I have worked on loads of Belarus tractors where it has stretched the head bolts or pulled the threads in the block causing the gaskets to blow. The last one the head was so full of it the valves where stuck in the guides and it broke the rocker shaft and I had to beat the valves out with a punch. also on this tractor the muffler was full of unburnt either and fuel. To get the muffler clean we had to set fire to it with a propane torch and it roared like a jet motor blue flame and all .
This stuff should be banned for the damage it causes to equipment. There was a clip on youtube of a guy using it on a diesel when the glow plugs kicked in it blew the head off. I guess he didn't know about not using it with the glow plugs
Regards Robert