That looks very much like the CAV cold start aid that many perkins diesels used, where a heating coil in the unit opens a check valve allowing diesel to flow over the element, thus burning in your inlet manifold and heating the incoming air. These work well and are cheap, I fittet two to a Cummins VT-555 and they worked really well.
You would need to run the necessary electrics as well as fit a small tank that would gravity feed diesel to the unit, (if you are really keen you run your injector return to this tank so it is always full). I simply found an area on the inlet manifolds to drill and tap a thread in, (1"unf if memory serves me correctly), then screwed the unit in and plumbed it in. If there is insufficient thickness of lack of flat spots on your inlet you can get someone to weld a pad on it of suitable size, then drill and tap.
These units have one big advantage over conventional glow plugs, that being the fact that they use far less current due to the fact that you are only heating a small element that then ignites diesel which provides your heat.
Just a little thought though, many diesels, Cummins included were sold with a "measured shot of ether" starting system for cold weather starting, so perhaps CORRECT use of ether may not be the big bogeyman that it is often seen as.
