#2 Heating Oil

[ncridgerunner1]

A few months ago a friend changed over his heating system and deleted his oil furnace. He had almost 200 gallons of #2 fuel oil left in his tank and the oil company said they would not pump it out. He offered me the fuel to burn in my tractor but I told him it was not worth the risk of engine problems for me. It seems someone else took him up on the offer and in burning this oil in some of their equipment.

It seems to me between the age of the oil and the probability of contaminants using this oil is asking for problems. Anyone have experience with this?

 

[greenie]

Heating oil is the same product as #2 diesel. The difference is taxes and the legality of running on the road. In my state heating oil is also ultra low sulfur. I've run my 790 John Deere compact tractor on heating oil for 26 years without an issue.
Heating oil has a very long shelf life; people have 40 year old tanks of it in their basements that are never drained empty or cleaned that keeps their homes warm.
It sounds like you passed up over $600 worth of fuel for your tractor.

 

[RjCorazza]

If properly filtered and stored the #2 would have been fine in your machine. I got 250 gallons of heating oil about 15 years ago that I pumped out of a basement tank. I filtered it on the way out, stored in 55 gallon barrels, then filtered it again before going into my tractor and mower.
In my case, I screwed up with the last few gallons and contaminated the tractor tank with water, but I got it straightened out eventually.

 

[Streetcar]

When I had oil furnace I lived close to fuel depot. My tank was filled with heating oil, off road diesel and regular diesel, based on what they had left on truck. Interchangeable except for color

 

[chim]

#2 Son replaced his oil furnace with LP gas. I used about 100 gallons in my tractor. The dispenser here has water block and "teensy" micron filter.

 

[old and tired]

For my 20 yo tractor that doesn't have high pressure rail (or any emission crap), I would use it. If I had a newer tractor, I would not risk it...

I burned 40 gallons of old heating oil from my neighbor, tractor never skipped a beat.

 

[bdhsfz6]

When my father sold his yacht, it had 400 gallons of diesel that had been sitting in one of the fuel tanks for over 5 years. I pumped it into 55 gal drums and transferred it to a 500 gal storage tank. I used it in my tractors for several more years and had zero issues.

#2 fuel oil has a shelf life similar to that of fruitcake. Filter it well, remove moisture, add an anti bacterial agent and you'll be fine.

 

[ncridgerunner1]

When talking about filtering are you fellows talking about using one of the canister filters that are used on heating oil tanks or some other method?

 

[RjCorazza]

When talking about filtering are you fellows talking about using one of the canister filters that are used on heating oil tanks or some other method?

The heating oil filters are likely too low of a flow for use in transferring fuel. I use a sediment bowl filter with water block element, followed by a 2 micron particulate filter. Both are designed for fuel transfer flow rates at somewhere in the 10gpm range. A typical boiler oil filter is probably in the 5-10 gallons per hour flow rate.