heating oil as fuel

I've been told that you can run a diesel engine on domestic heating oil. I don't intend trying it as it would be naughty but is this true? he said he mixes it with a quarter diesel.

Regards. Mark.(AKA, Mr.Nice.)

Reply to
Mr.Nice.
Loading thread data ...

It's near enough the same stuff, but with a red dye in it. You don't want the excise boys catching you running it though - you'll certainly get a fine and you may get a holiday.

formatting link

Reply to
EMB

Works perfectly well, but has different (less) excise paid on it - which leads to considerable interest by law enforcement agents if you get caught doing it! Several garage proprietors in this state got caught doing this last year on a large scale. JD

Reply to
JD

On or around Thu, 16 Sep 2004 22:21:55 +1200, EMB enlightened us thusly:

there are in fact 2 classes of heating oil commonly sold, C2 and D, and diesel engines will technically run on either, and also on AVTUR, (AViation TURbine fuel) hence why all the military contracts are now for diesel engines.

However, it doesn't have the same additive pack in it, which will mean more emissions, and less lubrication of the pump, and eventual failures of all kinds.

The C2 oil ain't red, but don't let that fool you; it's got chemical markers in it, as indeed so has the red stuff.

Reply to
Austin Shackles

there is a lot of propaganda posted about using kerosene in diesel engines but yes you can run diesels on kerosene heating oil , its white also ,no red dye at present .

in order to have some lubrication you can use motorcycle 2 stroke oil mixed in , i dont know the mix quantities but you can play with that and at 23p per litre for heating oil its up to you what you do .

you can also add fuel additive like MORRIS MORENDO DD .

there are 2 types of burning oil , one for heating systems and one which is essentially TVO [tractor vapourising oil ] or lamp oil ..

fact : in the mercedes ML370 4x4 owners handbook it states you can run in winter when its very cold on a mixture of 50/50 diesel and kerosene , what better an advert ..

there used to be 2 grades of summer and winter diesels at garage pumps depending on time of year but now its just one thin diesel mix all year round , and if you notice its almost as thin as kerosene now anyway .

if using kerosene mix youll use slightly more fuel per mile than if using white diesel because its a bit thinner than diesel .

50/50 diesel/kero mix is ok to use but dont use solely kerosene on the road for long , it may not wreck youre injector pump but it will shorten its life somewhat due to lack of lubrication .

for MOT purposes its a good idea to use kerosene , as emissions from a smokey old diesel engine will be lower if running on kerosene .

Reply to
M0bcg

On or around 16 Sep 2004 18:47:39 GMT, snipped-for-privacy@aol.com (M0bcg) enlightened us thusly:

I bet it has chemical markers in it though.

Reply to
Austin Shackles

May do but doesn't need them, the CO2 to H2O ratio in the exhaust gives it away.

The kerosene has a lower cetane number and generally burns less readily in a ci engine.

AJH

Reply to
sylva

There is also a marker chemical as well as the dye that shows up under chromatographic analysis as a steep spike even when diluted with fresh revenue based road diesel for some time afterwards. If you get caught, even if your fuel doesn't look pink, any sample will still give a peak at the timed interval during analysis and it's up to you to prove how few miles you used non-revenue fuel for. The customs and excise might even let you buy your vehicle back if you are lucky...

Dan

Reply to
Daniel A

Do you actually have people going around sampling your fuel?

Or is this an urban myth?

Seems hard to believe.

I can understand them checking fuel retailers but individuals?

Ron Emu Plains, Australia

Reply to
The Becketts

Yes!

Our Customs and Excise are second only to the present UK Government in terms of the amount of their interference in our private lives. (As part of the govenment machine I suppose that's to be expected)

Not only under Blair have we become more of a police state but a more heavily taxed one at that - they can't keep their smutty fingers out of anything.

Reply to
Dougal

Having lived in the bundu for a while, I would love to witness the Aussie reaction to a fuel test in the middle of the dry.

John H

Reply to
Hirsty's

Yes they do. I can bear testament to how nasty the fsckers get when they find the wrong diesel in the vehicle too. When I was living in Wales I got sprung in a company vehicle with red diesel in it (accidental fill up by a plonker I worked with) and all hell broke loose. They let us off with a warning after 3 weeks without the vehicle and much legal intervention.

Reply to
EMB

Flamin' heck!

Do they do it at random or because someone has told them you are using untaxed fuel?

What about biodiesel? Do they query that too?

Ron

Reply to
The Becketts

On or around Mon, 4 Oct 2004 23:22:03 +1000, "The Becketts" enlightened us thusly:

"proper" biodiesel no, as it's sold officially and has a (reduced) duty on it. However, they're not amused by people buying cheap cooking oil to run their cars on.

Reply to
Austin Shackles

there is definately no red colouring dye or tracers in central heating oil , it is just plain old kerosene , white in colour .

i buy enough of it for use in heating systems to know the difference .

the only one with a colour dye in is paraffin , same as in the old "esso blue" , but thats LAMP OIL . .

heating oil is 23p per litre .

if you do wish to filter any then i think you need fullers earth and a decent fuel filter .

Reply to
M0bcg

Wrong!

There are two types of heating oil around in the UK. One is what most would descibe as red diesel and the other is the kerosene that you recognise.

David

Reply to
Dougal

On or around Mon, 04 Oct 2004 20:23:18 +0100, Dougal enlightened us thusly:

although I'd lay good odds that there are chemical markers in both. HMC&E take a very dimm view of people using non-duty-paid fuel in vehicles and take considerable steps to make sure they can find out if you are.

Reply to
Austin Shackles

My stop was random - they were testing all sorts of diesel vehicles.

Reply to
EMB

Well, it is red diesel -- it's what we ran the farm tractors on. We never had any hassle from Customs & Excise, even when we were running a car on diesel. It was sometimes a bit confusing what the supplier wouid call it.

But then we didn't turn up at a livestock market with a trailer and a diesel Land Rover. They do seem to do a lot of checking that's somehow targeted, where they expect to be able to sample a lot of vehicles.

Reply to
David G. Bell

On or around Tue, 05 Oct 2004 08:38:37 +0100 (BST), snipped-for-privacy@zhochaka.demon.co.uk ("David G. Bell") enlightened us thusly:

and also where there are likely to be more offenders.

however, there are 2 grades of heating oil commonly available, C2 kerosene and D. I expect diesel engines will run after a fashion on either. The military's decision to have everything diesel powered is about being able, if needed, to run the vehicles on AVTUR (AViation TURbine fuel) which is also kerosene in some form.

Reply to
Austin Shackles

MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.