Starting Fluid

Whats your opinion on using starting fluid to start a cold engine?

My old CJ7 is really hard to start if it's been sitting for any extended length of time. Once it fires one time it'll start right up.

I've always heard that using starting fluid becomes addictive to carburetor so I've never used it. Always wound up pouring a small shot of gasoline in the carb to get it to fire that first time.

Jeeps been sitting in my garage for 6 months and I decided to start it up. I knew it was gonna be hard to start but This time I decided to try the starting fluid.

I cranked it over till I almost ran the battery down and sure enough...no fire. A couple squirts of the starting fluid and the thing fired right up. Didn't even remove the air filter. Just sprayed the outside of the filter.

I decided I'm just gonna keep a can in the console. So much easier than pulling the breather and finding just the right size container to gently pour just the right amount of fuel in the carb.

So...what do y'all think? Is it really that bad to use the stuff as a starting aid on a cold engine?

 

I have no problem with it. It's ethyl ether. Ether is just a more volatile hydrocarbon. Its main advantage is it stays vapor at cold temperatures, when gasoline condenses on the cold intake tract. Seems like a good thing. Gasoline needs the engine heat to make vapor, ether does not. And it's not going to wash down the cylinder walls, like a slug of liquid gas.

 

I agree with Tim. Also better than wearing out your starter etc.

 

Man that makes me feel really good. I can't tell you how many times over the years I've had to spend an hour trying to get the thing to start that first time. Never figured why it's so hard to start like that either. I'm washing it up real good tomorrow to put a For Sale sign on it. Gotta buy my youngest boy a vehicle. Gonna sell the jeep and the razor. Thanks fellas.

 

What carb?

 

Too much ether can blow out a piston, similar to pre-ignition detonation. More commonly in desiel engines.

Exercise restraint.

 

Diesel engines will indeed turn into crack whores if you start them to often using starting fluid. I would not make a habit of using it all the time, its not good on engines to start them all the time with ether, if you're having that much trouble, there's something else wrong and it needs to be addressed.

 

Can someone please explain how an engine (or carburetor) can become a crack whore addicted to ether?

I thought huffing was just for humans.

 

Easy, it causes problems with valves sealing. I have seen dozens of old diesel tractors that started out with very minor problems and constant use of ether would exacerbate these problems to the point it was the only way to start the engine. It causes similar problems with constant use of being sucked thru the carb with both the carb and valves on gas engines.

 

Don't be using starting fluid if you have glow plugs.

 

WOW talk about getting off on something that has nothing to do with the question. VERY few Jeeps have diesels.

 

I have owned hundreds of vehicles in my lifetime all gas and have never had to use starting fluid. My opinion is if you need starting fluid you have other issues. Could be living in the pnw my whole life that has formed my opinion though

 

I used starting fluid to diagnose a fuel problem, if it won't start, and you shoot starting fluid in and it does, you have a fuel delivery problem.

 

Thanks for the responses.

This jeep has a Weber carb on it. I think it's a 38 MM...for what it's worth.

I've had this jeep for probably 15 years and it's been this way the entire time. If it sits for even a week without cranking it's just very hard to get it to start the first time. Once it starts up I have no trouble at all with it. Fires right up every time. It's got a manual fuel pump on it and I've replaced that recently. It has an electric choke on it and I've got that adjusted as good as I can. Last year I had the carb rebuilt. Not exactly sure what all we done to it but I think the carb is in good shape.

I really can't say what would cause it to be hard to start but I've guess in the past that the gas in the carb just evaporates during the down time and that the manual pump just wouldn't pump enough gas into the bowl to get it to fire.

When it does this I've always just pulled the air breather and dumped a little shot of gasoline straight into the carb. It will always fire right up when doing that. Once it fires that one time then even if it doesn't crank up, it will normally crank on it's own.

Like I said...I have no idea. Sure wish I did though.

 

Do you have an open element air cleaner? Common add-on with the Weber carb. If so, the float bowl will dry out pretty fast compared to the factory air cleaner.

 

I have an open element air cleaner but didn't know it was a contributing factor.

I notice hard starting after like a week and a half +/- of sitting but I know the float bowl is empty or in a general sense that "fuel is not in the carb".
Usually takes 3 or 4 attempts but it does fire up reliably. But otherwise running the engine more regularly it fires up 1 second after turning the key, every time.

I wonder if such abrupt starting is typical with the Dauntless?