Greetings,

Let's put an end to this thread here and now. There is no reasonable cause to use starting fluid in a MB diesel engine, period. I've done it out of my own ignorance when I first got my car and it didn't start but now I know better. The glow plugs do the work for you, and if it doesn't start with all glow plugs working, then your problem is more defined as to not enough compression to build up heat for proper combustion. It will do you more good squirting some oil into the intake manifold then using starting fluid. When the baby don't start and all glow plugs are working and the engine cranks fines, compression is your problem. Squirt oil into the intake manifold as far into the pipe as you can get so the cylinders suck it up quickly and cause a ring sealing effect to raise compression for proper combustion, it will fire up, trust me on this one. If the battery is slow to crank, you can forget the oil, no such luck without proper engine turning. the use of starting fluid just washes down the cylinder walls and removes what oil there was that sealed the rings to the wall, will never start that way. Starting fluid was designed for diesel engines without starting aids such as glow plugs or heating elements.


Charles