Inlet blowing instead of sucking

Hello, some mates and I have been trying to start a 1985 110 2.5 Diesel that's been sat untouched for a few months. We went to squirt some easy start into the inlet manifold, but found that it was blowing air out. So much so that all of the easy start blew away. Can anybody suggest what might be causing this and advise how we can remedy it? Many thanks from all of us working on Big Car.

Inlet valves are leaking by the sounds of it or the valve timing is out, something like that

You say on your webpage that they might have siezed open, this is very not likely as the pistons would knock them up when it came up, if a valve stays down and the piston comes up it will smack it a good un, hence why when the timing belt goes you get bent push rods...

Take the inlet off, and squirt some engine oil down each valve, then try starting it, if it goes then you possibly just need to sort your valves, replacements or just grind them in.

Some valves are stuck a tad open, OR one or more valves have burned or cracked faces or seats.

Whatever, it sounds like a valve problem.

Because of that you should take extreme care trying ether-spray starting aid as you may be enveloped in flames should there be any one cylinder compresses enough to light the spray and spit a flame into the inlet manifold.

Safety specs would be bottom-line precaution.