Gotta agree with Martin. You can of course get a model diesel to run without ether (I've done it), but ony at the cost of running far higher compression ratios with consequent excess heat and stress being imposed on the engine.Moreover, they never run as well without ether as they do with it - nothing else has ether's incredibly wide explosive limits coupled with low spontaneous ignition temperature (SIT). So what's the point? As long as ether remains available, use it! If it ever disappears, then and ony then start messing about with ether-less fuels.