diesel

Accompanied by the sound of a chisel on slate Burgerman, managed to produce the following words of wisdom

I know people who've used 60-40 veg oil-Kerosene for hundreds of thousands of miles without any problem. Taxi drivers, mainly.

Incidentally for those interested in why a deseasel in a plane there is a bunch of reasons. They are crap in cars for many reasons but great in planes because:

a) Revs. Diesels with turbos (non turbo would not move most likely! Diesels are crap) have a very limited rpm, range. Crap in a car cos you need 15 gears to row it along but good in a plane because at any power setting revs are constant. Its why diesels are great in generators and ships...

b) Revs II. A powerful petrol engine is always naturally higher reving than a turbo diesel - meaning it cannot be connected very easily to the propellor without a gearbox because a) small diameter props are less efficient b) large diameter props cant be used because propellor tips get supersonic which is really bad for a bunch of very serious reasons! So its better to use a larger prop and add pitch and diameter for efficiency and turn it slower for any given power output. Or you need more blades which robs efficiency again...

c) fuel efficiency / weight of fuel/range.

d) no electrics to fail at 5 thousand feet in a wet cloud...

e) less fire hazard

f) jet a cheaper than avgas...

g) more petrol left for me!

DIY Nitrous

But all of secundary effect to airplanes: kerosene stays liquid at very low temperatures. At 30.000 ft it gets rather cold around the wings and tancs of a jetliner: -60 degrees Celsius.

Not correct: kerosene lacks the mayor part of lubrificating effect of diesel. For this reason it should be mixed with automotif diesel at a ratio of 1/1.

The reason why kerosene is cheaper than diesel is called taxes: aircraft fuel is exempt of taxes, regular fuel are taxed around 400% of the ex- factory value.

The colour is different (and added explicity for that reason). House hold fuel is red, automotif fuel white (colourless).

Controls on Europ mainland are very common. Don't know about the UK.

Untill they are caught.

Fines (in Belgium): twice the advantage over the distance on the odometre (it is considered that the car never ran on legal fuel) and confiscation of the vehicle. Extra fines if the man caught runs a transport business.

Don't steal: the State doesn't like competion.

Tom De Moor

But it can be used on its own at 100 percent!

I am thinking of making a pair of 1 inch thick spacer plates for my 3.8 v6 petrol van and running it on kerosene. Well maybe not an inch! But there are many petrol engines with lowered compression in the third world running on paraffin or kerosene or heating oil.

Well my original post did say that and I suggested a small splash of cheap industrial two stroke oil to fix that issue!

Yes we know its illegal!

Wrong - houshold kero is the same colour (like watered down beer) as pump deseasel. I am looking at some here...

Occasionally but when dipped its the same clear colour so nobody is any wiser...

Since its the same colour and smell thats really unlikely to happen even if stopped!

Heating deseasel is red. Heating kero is clear.

I thought they dyed heating oil? Guess not, if you're looking at some there. Where can I get some and what quantity do they sell it in; do they sell it in drums or do they want to fill a tank up?

They do. They dye it pink but thats the diesel. They dont bother with kero it seems. Many years ago I used to fit central heating in farms. I always wondered why the farmers prefered kero fuel to diesel... They can run pink diesel in their tractors but not in the car?

Guess not, if you're looking at some

They turn up in a BFO tanker! They expect to be filling a tank. Err not your car! Get a tank and kero garage heater!

Dont be confused by mericans becase they call all paraffins and kerosene kerosene... Here in the uk they are plainly different. I have JET A, and heating kerosene, and white diesel here in cans. I use all 3 in my little greedy model plane turbine engines. All look and smell the same to me and have the same wqhite frothy head when shook, but the parafin is much different, thinner, and has much less and a "different" type odour to it and is less oily by miles. The turbines run on it though with a drop of oil added...

Not a new idea, I have heard many times that the Germans were using diesel planes in WW2, this says they were about in the 1930s

They had steam planes before that! But mostly they decided that it was a bad plan...

The last time we bought whatever it is we use to heat our greenhouses, they came to check that we actually have greenhouses because the taxi drivers round here had been doing a similar thing.

Heh. I enjoyed reading Irwin Stelzer's article today. There was a bit along the line of "if you don't explicitly state what you want done with them, when you die, the state will take your house and soon your organs".