emergency use of kerosene

[nybirdman]

I have kerosene in bulk(home heating)..I normaly buy fuel for the tractor at the pump,but in an emergency situation can I use straight kerosene with-out harming my 2008 tractor?Second question;what is a simple fuel transfer system ,short of a sifon.....drill motor with a small pump?I use about 150 gallons a year of diesel..I don't want to put in tank just for diesel.

 

[radioman]

You can use kerosene in winter when you still have diesel in tank. You will have little less power, thats about it. Using kerosene in summertime is not a good idea, it will burn much hotter and thats not good for diesel engine. During the winter, since its cold out and it helps to ungel diesel with kerosene, its not much of a problem. You will have some naysayers who say don't use kerosene, but people do it all the time.
I used it once, I forgot to add additives and it was too late to go to store so I added kero to my diesel fuel when I needed to plow that night when it was -5. I am not sure if it gelled or not but I wasn't taking chances, I had no spare fuel filters and still on the originals.

 

[Renze]

We've been working on a military tender, cant disclose details but it involves Deere engines. The army has the same problem as you: They want to use kerosene when nothing else is available. Deere prescribes additives because the common rail system will fail because kerosene doesnt lube the mechanicals enough.

Some engines will run fine on it with just a little engine oil added to the fuel, but others will get expensive damages. In Europe, some freaks are running their Diesel cars on used frying oil. The ones with the French CAV pumps have trouble, the Bosch VE pump takes it better. Common rail systems dont like it either.
Inline pumps dont seem to care at all. But just be careful with common rail !

 

[WTA]

I've done it before but only back in teh days when it was cheap. Kero down here is over 6 bucks a gallon right now. Not buying any of that.

When I was in the service we ran all of our portable gasoline engines on JP5 or kerosene. We had little propane cylinders rigged to them for starting aids and once they got started everything was fine. We never added anything to the fuel at all.

 

[aczlan]

I've done it before but only back in teh days when it was cheap. Kero down here is over 6 bucks a gallon right now. Not buying any of that.

$6/Gallon? WOW, that must hurt the wallet. We just filled a 5 gallon kero can at $2.99/Gallon yesterday.

Aaron Z

 

[gerard]

I second the concern about the lubricity, or lack there-of with kero. Mixing w/ diesel is no problem, dont all the time to make up winter blends but straight kero I'd feel better with an additive for lubrication. (The old fuel blends had more sulfur which was what provided the lubricity, now with low sulfur fuels even stright diesel has less lubrication but many of the additives are designed to make up for that)

 

[AKwelder]

my wife had a kerosene heater for the greenhouse when we were dating, and would pick up 5 gallon pails for 6 bucks, it later went to 48 bucks. I still have a couple of the cans that have price stickers that range from 6 to 20 dollars.

Times change, and now we have a diesel drip stove, kerosene is just to expensive

 

[Travelover]

OP, Are you sure it is kerosene in the home heating tank and not #1?

 

[Gator6x4]

I have kerosene in bulk(home heating)..I normaly buy fuel for the tractor at the pump,but in an emergency situation can I use straight kerosene with-out harming my 2008 tractor?Second question;what is a simple fuel transfer system ,short of a sifon.....drill motor with a small pump?I use about 150 gallons a year of diesel..I don't want to put in tank just for diesel.

When Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel first came out several people reported pump damage. If I was going to run the kerosene I would put about 4 ounces of Power Service or some other diesel fuel additive and 6 ounces of Marvel Mystery Oil per five gallons of kerosene. That should protect the pump. I would also monitor the temperature gauge closely to insure the unit was not running hot. Kerosene has a Flash Point of 38 72 C which according to the information I have been able to find indicates it is combustible as well as flammable. In my opinion kerosene because it has a high flash point could pre ignite and piston damage could occur.

Information obtained from WEB:

There are various international standards for defining each, but most agree that liquids with a flash point less than 43ｰC are flammable, and those above this temperature are combustible.
Every flammable liquid has a vapour pressure, which is a function of that liquid's temperature. As the temperature increases, the vapour pressure increases. As the vapour pressure increases, the concentration of evaporated flammable liquid in the air increases. Hence, temperature determines the concentration of evaporated flammable liquid in the air.
Each flammable liquid requires a different concentration of its vapour in air to sustain combustion. The flash point of a flammable liquid is the lowest temperature at which there will be enough flammable vapour to ignite when an ignition source is applied


Examples of flash points
Fuel Flash point Autoignition
temperature
Ethanol
12.8 ｰC (55 ｰF) 365 ｰC (689 ｰF)
Gasoline (petrol)
<−40 ｰC (−40 ｰF) 246 ｰC (475 ｰF)
Diesel
>62 ｰC (143 ｰF) 210 ｰC (410 ｰF)
Jet fuel
>60 ｰC (140 ｰF) 210 ｰC (410 ｰF)
Kerosene (paraffin oil)
>38?2 ｰC (100?62 ｰF) 220 ｰC (428 ｰF)
Vegetable oil (canola)
327 ｰC (620 ｰF)[1]

Biodiesel
>130 ｰC (266 ｰF)
Gasoline (petrol) is designed for use in an engine which is driven by a spark. The fuel should be premixed with air within its flammable limits and heated above its flash point, then ignited by the spark plug. The fuel should not preignite in the hot engine. Therefore, gasoline is required to have a low flash point and a high autoignition temperature.
Diesel is designed for use in a high-compression engine. Air is compressed until it has been heated above the autoignition temperature of diesel; then the fuel is injected as a high-pressure spray, keeping the fuel-air mix within the flammable limits of diesel. There is no ignition source. Therefore, diesel is required to have a high flash point and a low autoignition temperature.
Diesel flash points vary between 52 and 96 ｰC (126 ｰF to 204 ｰF). Jet fuels also vary greatly. Both Jet A and jet A-1 have flash points between 38 and 66 ｰC (100 ｰF to 150 ｰF), close to that of off the shelf kerosene. However, both Jet B and FP-4 have flash points between -23 and -1 ｰC (-10 ｰF to +30 ｰF ).

 

[LBrown59]

1*I have kerosene in* bulk(home heating).
2*I normaly buy fuel for the tractor at the pump,but in an emergency situation can I use straight kerosene with-out harming my 2008 tractor?
3*Second question;what is a simple fuel transfer system ,short of a sifon.....drill motor with a small pump?4*I use about 150 gallons a year of diesel..
5*I don't want to put in tank just for diesel.

1*This don't sound right.*How big is your tank?
Most home furnaces are set up to use HHO which is the same as Diesel.
2*I would not run the tractor on straight Kero. because it doesen't have enough lubricant in it.
3*I would fill the tank with the proper fuel off road /HHO.
Then I would just add a pump to the the tank and fill my tractor with that .
4*150 gallon a year would be well worth a tank and an elect pump set up but you might be able to use the tank you have provied you fill it with the right fuel .
5*Then put the right fuel in the tank so you can add a 12 volt pump .
This way you can use the same tank for the tractor and the house.