Kerosene in tank??

[NYSail]

Hello all,

Was at the yard yesterday when I happened upon a gent that was filling his fuel tank with kerosene instead of diesel. He says he fills the tank at the beginning of each season with kerosene with subsequent refills with regular diesel. He says it cleans everything out and is good for the engine.

Now I do know that adding kerosene to my home heating system is a good thing and in fact many people use kerosene, I have never heard of using it in the engine.

Any thoughts on this??

Greg

 

[Sailm8]

There is less lubricating than with diesel. I would be afraid of wear on rings etc.

 

[Sandy Stone]

Plus, who knows what the cetane rating, etc might be? If the engine manufacturer doesn't recommend it, I wouldn't do it.

 

[fireman416]

Plus, who knows what the cetane rating, etc might be? If the engine manufacturer doesn't recommend it, I wouldn't do it.

Some places add kerosene to diesel tanks to thin out the liquid in colder weather. When I was in the army we would add Naptha to a sluggish diesel engine to give it a little extra upmth......pretty sure it also helped bring a quicker death the said engine as well

 

[RichH]

Regular diesel fuel has a cetane number of approx. 48
#1 Kerosene has a cetane number of approx. 40

The cetane rating determines how fast the 'flame speed' is, similar to the Ocatane rating in gasolines.

There are additives that can boost cetane numbers.

 

[Bill Roosa]

How many years has he done this?
if it is stupid but it works, it ain't stupid.
The fuel does not lubricate the piston rings, the engine oil does that through the oil ring connected to the piston connected to the connecting rod connected to the crankshaft which all have holes to deliver oil under pressure to the rings. that said a diesel can burn just about anything that passes as an oil if it is clean. I don't see kerosene having a clean problem. lower cetane numbers just means more knock, diesels live on knock BTW so that would not disqualify kerosene out of hand based on a 4% difference in cetane number.

 

[kloudie1]

The lubricity and viscosity (two separate properties) of diesel are needed to make the high pressure injection pump and the moving parts of the injectors themselves last a long time. If the fuel is very cold ... below freezing most of the time while running, it is OK to mix a little kerosene in to get the diesel to flow a little better. I would not mix in more than a few % maybe less than 10..?? otherwise, the new diesel fuels with the low wear additives are fine .. put in something like Seafoam at their recommended dosages if you need to "clean things out"

 

[finding41]

I have a buddy that runs used cooking oil in his old Toyota Land Cruiser (I think it has a 4 cyl Mercedes... early 80's, lots of rust.)
He can run max 85% veg and 15% diesel in the summer and as things get cooler in the fall he adds kerosene to get it thinner. He keeps the 15% diesel and thins down the veg oil%. In the winter he can't get more than 5% veg or things gum up.
He told me it cost him $400 to commute to work (12 miles) last year! I think he may be using colored diesel as he is on a farm...
It keeps going and going without any problems that I've heard of.

 

[capta]

oops

 

[capta]

When we were in Rarotonga on we were offered all the jet fuel (kerosene) we wished because the 55 gallon drums had been stored vertically and a bit of water had intruded. Not so hot for jet turbines but just fine for a well filtered diesel engine. With some research I found that diesel was basically kerosene with 4% oil for lubrication, so we added 4 gallons of 30 weight motor oil to each 100 gallons of jet fuel and ran it without problems. I would hesitate to use kerosene w/o adding the oil, though.

 

[Dan Johnson]

Had a diesel Benz in the early 80's that the dealer had to tow in one January after sitting for several single-digit nights at an airport. Diesel had "gelled"--he let it warm up in the shop for half a day then added some kerosene to thin it out. Ran fine and didn't gel after that when treated each winter with some kero during extreme cold spells.

 

[Big Windy]

When in doubt read the manual for the engine.

 

[AirborneSF]

As stated, kerosene is sometimes added to diesel in the winter to help stop it from 'jell-o-ing'. Kerosene burnes 'cleaner' than diesel, which keeps stuff from gumiming up, it won't hurt anything to add SOME to your diesel. You can also buy diesel additive at auto zone, which will hepl do the same thing. You would do well to add some additive to STOP the microbial growth in the tank. .02

 

[anchorclanker]

Some kerosene, not a whole freakin tank full. Mercedes doesnt build their injection pumps, Bosch does. Bosch builds them for lots of diesels, foreign and domestic, and they DONT LIKE straight kerosene.

Oh, its a diesel? They will burn anything, like used drain oil and veggie oil? That's why the junk yards are filling up with old Mercedes diesels and you find so many for sale with smoking engines. These guys run them on that garbage for 30, 40, 50K miles, until the cylinders coke up and kill them.

All the MB manuals I have recommend up to 50% kerosene in temps below 0F. Above 30F you shouldnt need it, and at moderate temps youll get the best performance and efficiency from #2 diesel. Sometimes thats all #1 diesel is, just 50/50 #2 and kerosene. In fact, MB years back even suggested up to a gallon of gasoline could be added to an almost full tank, to aid cold weather starting or help clear gelled lines. Up to a gallon, not more.

Also, be very careful to consider what the Army is doing. Some time back some of the smarter heads realized they used a lot more jet fuel (JP4) than diesel and/or gasoline, and considering the logistics of moving all the fuels they use to the battlefield, it just made sense to make everything burn one fuel, JP4. But JP4 is not kerosene, and its not diesel either. And the diesels they run on it are altered to burn it. Making the assumption that what they are doing is what you can/should do, could cost you an engine.

This is one of those times where dad would say "if someone jumped off a cliff, would you follow them?" No, I think I will hang back and watch a few times, first. 30K miles in a toyota burning veggie oil isn't a long enough test. Neither is seeing some idiot filling his diesel tanks with kerosene.

 

[StinkBug]

I'd venture to say that the main reason junkyards are filling up with old mercedes diesels is because they are 30 year old cars that are rusting and falling apart, and weren't very good cars to start with. FWIW there are a LOT of people running used veggie oil and biodiesel in much newer vehicles without problems. You do have to engineer the systems properly and have a lot of filtration, but it can be done safely. You'd be surprised how many big diesel trucks are rolling around smelling like french fries.

That said, I dont know many (any) people running kerosene. I'd be much more worried about killing the injection pump than the motor though. Those things can be delicate and EXPENSIVE.

 

[Steve Dion]

I would venture to say that most of those MB are in the junk yards because the rest of the car fell apart before the engines crapped out.

 

[anchorclanker]

I'd venture to say that the main reason junkyards are filling up with old mercedes diesels is because they are 30 year old cars that are rusting and falling apart, and weren't very good cars to start with. FWIW there are a LOT of people running used veggie oil and biodiesel in much newer vehicles without problems. You do have to engineer the systems properly and have a lot of filtration, but it can be done safely. You'd be surprised how many big diesel trucks are rolling around smelling like french fries.

That said, I dont know many (any) people running kerosene. I'd be much more worried about killing the injection pump than the motor though. Those things can be delicate and EXPENSIVE.

Uhhhh, never mind.