costco honda generator

[The Daring Dufas]

Thanks for the link, it clarified some of what I've heard.

TDD

[harry]

You can add paraffin (kerosine) to diesel to stop it gelling in cold weather. (Mix thoroughly). As well as visible water in fuel there can be dissolved water. For most applications this doesn't matter. However in extremely low temperatures ice can form so blocking small jets/apertures. This can't be filtered out but there is a filterlike device that chemically removes dissolved water in fuel. They use them on airfields, usually adjacent to the regular filters. Ocassionally you see a combined device.

[daestrom]

ISTR this is even true with pipelines. When company 'A' puts several thousands of barrels of #1 'into' the pipeline company's head end, the pipeline company will deliver the same number of barrels out the end point without actually trying to calculate transport time or any such. The fuel that goes into company A's tank could have just as easily been put in by another company shipping the same product.

As it is a totally fungible commodity, the pipeline company just logs how many barrels in one end and that many barrels belong to company 'A' at the other end.

But as far as #1, truck fuel, and aviation, is it still all the same now that road diesel has to be that special (more expensive) ultra-low sulfur stuff? Or is home heating oil (#1) and aviation jet fuel also ultra-low sulfur now?

daestrom

[George]

I think maybe you meant add kerosene to lower the amount of parafin? Parafin is what is responsible for the gelling effect.

[Richard W.]

My mother ran out of heating oil and asked if I could bring her some. I didn't have a barrel, but the oil distributor said he had an empty I could borrow. When I got there he was filling it with #2 pump diesel. The same stuff you would put in your diesel pickup or tractor. He said it was the same stuff and my mother's furnace ran just fine.

Richard W.

[harry]

What you call kerosine in the USA we in the UK call paraffin. Like hoods & bonnets. Bumpers & fenders. Trunks & boots. :-)

[harry]

Thre are two sorts of heating oil. 25 sec and 35sec. (That's how we measure the viscosity in the UK.) 25sec (kerosine) is for vapourising burners. [Basically a big wick]

35 sec (= to diesel) for pressure jet burners. 25 sec can be burnt in a petrol engine. However the engine needs to be hot before it will run. In days of yore some agricultural tractors ran on this (known as Tractor Vapourising Oil). They had two tanks, you started the tractor on petrol & then switch over to the kerosine / TVO Smelly exhaust.

[Bruce in alaska]

I can't speak for everywhere, but up here in Alaska #1 diesel is JetA50 Grade, at the Distributer and I believe that ALL our fuel is Low-Sulfur with a Lubricant Additive Package added to fuels used in Injector and Turbine based ICE's. Since I burn only #1 in my Gensets, so that I only have to have one grade of fuel here at the cabin, which has a Open Pot Diesel Burning Cookstove, and is my Primary Heat, and Hot Water source. The fuel I get has the Lubricant Additive Package added, and the same tanker barge delivers to the AirStrip in the next town over, from the same tank, on the same trip.

[The Daring Dufas]

That's the kind of thing that causes plane crashes and running out of fuel in mid flight. Gallons? I thought you meant liters.

TDD

[The Daring Dufas]

I believe the only difference is dye and taxes. The DOT is always after truck drivers using home heating oil to run their trucks because it doesn't have the road tax included in it's price.

TDD

[Eric]

No, he meant _litres_! ;^)

[Richard W.]

I believe you're right on that. I met a survivalist once years ago. All his cars and trucks were diesel. He used home heating oil in everything. He claimed to have over 10,000 gallons stored up. Never bought fuel at the pump unless he was traveling. Every spring when the heating oil prices would go down, he filled up his tanks.

Richard W.

[Richard W.]

I have seen some of those tractors, but the more common one is the International which is started on gas and switched over to diesel when it got warm. Some of those engines are fairly large.

Richard W.

[Richard W.]

I have known people who do the same thing, only they started to have to much injector pump problems. They started adding 1 quart of 30 weight oil to a 25 gallon tank to put the sulpher the older diesel engines required. That was quite a few years back they were doing this.

Richard W.

[Stormin Mormon]

Mr. Survivalist is at risk of big fines from the DOT.

[Stormin Mormon]

Had a couple friends who managed to, often, run out of home heating oil. Diesel runs fine. Home heat oil also works fine with kerosene.

[Stormin Mormon]

I think I heard that started during world war two. When gasoline was rationed, but kerosene was much easier available.

[Percival P. Cassidy]

Yes, my late father had Fordson and Fordson Major tractors that were like that, but I don't recall the smelly exhaust. The Ferguson he had might have started off that way too, but he put a Perkins 3-cyl. diesel in it.

I am guessing that they were optimized for running on TVO. Apart from the greater cost of gasoline/petrol (even the red-dyed "commercial" petrol, when that was available), they might not have run as well on the latter.

Perce

[Percival P. Cassidy]

My late father had an International TD9 that started on gasoline and then changed over to diesel, but my understanding is that it was simply because hand-cranking a diesel engine like that was impractical, not because it needed to warm up. The compression ratio was much lower when it was in gasoline mode, and cranking was far easier.

Perce

[harry]

It was Massey Ferguson over here. A very small tractor. Harry Ferguson invented the three point linkage. With it, this tiny tractor could do the work of a much bigger tractor of the tiime. Only the early ones had it (around sixty years ago) Later ones had a diesel engine. There are still lots about working on farms. TVO is no longer available so they use heating oil now. Don't see how you can change the commpression ratio of an engine (except model aero engines) The engine had to be hot, the TVO needed the hot spot to vapourise it. (pre crossflow technology) Many early diesel engines could be hand cranked, they had a valve lifter, a little lever on the crank case (side valves) It held the exhaust valve open, you cranked like hell & then dropped the valves and it started (hopefully) They had big flywheels in those days, stored lots of energy.