Diesel

[Steve]

Ether will help start an old engine, or an engine running on old fuel. I use it on my oldest tractor which doesn't have electric glowplugs. An alternative method is to start a small fire near the air intake. Once old diesel engines are running they're not too fussy about fuel, it's starting them that's difficult.

Turning these engines over fast enough to start is going to be a challenge unless we can keep lead acid batteries working, my tractors don't have crank handles and even if they did it would require far more effort than several humans could produce. I have a dump truck that can be started by hand, because it has a small 8hp engine with de-compressors and a huge flywheel, the technique is to crank it as fast as possible with the valves open then quickly close them and let the weight of the flywheel start the engine. This can be done without ether, but takes longer.