That buddy who swore by brake cleaner as starting fluid nearly killed my F-150

My friend Dave from the fencing league kept telling me to just spray brake cleaner into the intake on my old 94 F-150 when it wouldn't fire up after sitting for 6 months. Said he did it all the time with his Chevy and it worked fine. Third time I tried it, the whole engine bay backfired so hard it blew the air filter housing clean off and melted some vacuum lines. Turns out brake cleaner has no lubricant properties and can actually ignite way hotter than ether. I got lucky nothing caught fire for real. Now I just use actual starting fluid like a normal person, or better yet, pull the fuel line and prime the carb right. Has anyone else had a bad experience with shortcuts like that?

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butler.mark8d ago

Had a buddy try starting his old Dodge with WD-40 once, said it was basically the same thing. Engine ran rough for like ten minutes and then just died, never ran right again.