Propane instead of ether

So I am sitting here in the house while it is snowing outside and -4 degrees. So my little old mind is wondering if a small amount of unlit propane from a bernz-o-matic torch instead of ether would aid in starting. Seems that someone must have tried this and if they survived would like to know how it worked. I don't particularly like to use ether but sometimes it is the only way when it is this cold. Maybe it is just the cold affecting my mind.
 
If you are careful with the either and don't spray too much. I think it's safer than propane.

I was at an auction in the fall of 2013. The guy had about seven farmall M and H tractors. His son hired these two clowns to prep the tractors for the sale. The morning of the sale None would start. The clowns were shooting propane into the breather, Both the clowns were smoking. The propane was getting so strong outside. I moved clear down the other end of the line. They cranked till the new batteries were dead. Some never did start.
 
Propane will not ignite from diesel compression heat as easily as ether.
I have several tractors running on propane, at very low temps (-30F) if they will not fire on propane, just a sniff of starting fluid will get them firing and running on propane.
 
Use the torch to warm the intake manifold. I've done this in really cold weather. The warm air/fuel mixture will help a cold engine start easier.
 
Phil tribbets I dont feel that's a stupid question. I had honestly thought of that myself on a gasoline engine aiding with the gas to start but I just never had a way to test it. Maybe butane instead of propane. Personally I try to avoid ether at all cost. I do not own a diesel engine either. Only gasoline.
 
(quoted from post at 23:25:12 02/02/15) Sorry I will try not to ask any more stupid questions on here.

Not a stupid question at all. I tried it some years back. It didn't help at all. Told my dad what I was up to, and he was the one to suggest warming the intake manifold with the torch. If you only have a few cranks because of a week battery having the manifold warmed up will help.
 
Propane has a fairly narrow range of flammability. Somewhere from just over 2% to about 10%. If the air/propane mix is not in that range it will not ignite. ether has a much wider range, somewhere from about 2% to about 40% or even higher depending on the composition of the ether. (Note: One of the properties that makes acetylene so dangerous is that its flammable limits are from about 2% to 100%.)

It is very easy to get too much propane into the engine which will cause the engine to be "flooded". This happens easily when the temperature is near the boiling point of propane, about -42°F. It takes heat to convert propane from liquid to vapor. If there is not enough heat in the convertor to vaporize the propane as it moves through some of the propane goes through as liquid and then boils off in the mixer or manifold cause the mixture to be too rich to ignite.

As far as getting propane to ignite in a diesel engine it takes about 850°F to ignite propane. Diesel fuel is about 500°F.
 
I saw a guy once a long time ago point a lite propane torch into the air cleaner of a cold ( motor running )school to get it to warm up guicker and run smoother I was in another bus so don't know how well it worked
 
Now THERE are a bunch of interesting concepts. Some dangerous, some not, some hillbilly... I'd like to see from a distance all those concepts tried out. Shoot, let's have somebody even try the old British Field Marhsll concept of the shotgun shell starter....
 
(quoted from post at 15:25:12 02/02/15) Sorry I will try not to ask any more stupid questions on here.

I'm pretty sure rick deere wasn't addressing you.

He was addressing the idiots who were trying to start the tractors at that auction with raw propane, and smoking while doing it...
 
(quoted from post at 12:46:30 02/03/15) Now THERE are a bunch of interesting concepts. Some dangerous, some not, some hillbilly... I'd like to see from a distance all those concepts tried out. Shoot, let's have somebody even try the old British Field Marhsll concept of the shotgun shell starter....

Warming an intake manifold will help start an engine in subzero weather. I have a friend who grew up on a dairy farm here in Wisconsin. One of his chores was to get their old Case DC started so he could take out the manure. The temperatures were well below zero, and the DC cranked pretty slow. What he would do was to heat some water on a hot plate in the milk house. When it was boiling he would take it out and pour in on the manifold before he started cranking the motor. It would fire up right away. I had to do the same for my DC in subzero weather, only I used a propane torch to warm up the manifold.
 

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