ULSD vs K-1

[ssybert]

Hi guys,

I have a log splitter with a farymann diesel engine on it. I run ULSD purchased from the local fuel station. I also have a kerosene torpedo heater for my shop and a round, wick type stand-up kerosene heater for the upstairs space.

Lately I've been using ULSD in the torpedo heater but have been advised against using diesel for as long as I can remember.

I have an 80 gallon fuel tank w/ pump I'd like to fill with a single fuel. My questions are:

1. Is ULSD equivelant or better to be burning in an unvented heater than K-1 is?

2. If the answer to #1 is no, dont continue doing it... Can I run straight K-1 in my farymann diesel?

Thanks guys,

Regards,
Scott

 

[dirtworksequip]

If you are going with one fuel its going to have to be diesel. You can burn diesel in the torpedo and log splitter engine. I think K1 would be bad for the farymann diesel. The diesel isn't going to burn quite as clean as the K1 in the torpedo,but it will work. One fuel-DIESEL.

Sincerely, Dirt

 

[magyarbacsi]

Depends on in door vs out door use. K-1, once the heater is warmed up, will not smell. I light up and extinguish outside the cabin. If you use diesel, it will permiate the componenets and will always smell like diesel. So if you can tolerate the odor and dont have sensitivity to vapors, i.e. asthma, go ahead and burn diesel in the heater.

 

[Doc_Bob]

You can burn diesel in the torpedo and log splitter engine.

We had diesel burning heaters in the Army. Nasty little buggers . We used to mix gasoline in with the diesel. Burned hot and fast. I was told it was dangerous?
Bob

 

[LRH]

We had diesel burning heaters in the Army. Nasty little buggers . We used to mix gasoline in with the diesel. Burned hot and fast.

I was told it was dangerous?
Bob

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In theory yes, but of course the ratio of diesel to gasoline would determine the real danger level. My father was in the army in Korea, and they actually used gasoline powered heaters in the tents, so it can be done. Aircraft and some motor vehicles use gas torpedo type heaters; I have a gasoline heater in my VW Thing, which the previous owner had been afraid to use during the ~25 years he owned it. When I get all the old dirt dauber nests out of the intake/exhaust pipes, get the old gas out of the feed line and inline filter, thoroughly test the multitude of safety overrides, I plan to bench test it with varying ratios of diesel/gasoline just for educational value as diesel has more BTU's . I bet the army heaters you are speaking of burned hotter (with added gasoline) because of more total fuel; since the heater probably depended on the viscosity of the fuel flowing through a small orifice to limit max output.

 

[LRH]

Hi guys,

I have a log splitter with a farymann diesel engine on it. I run ULSD purchased from the local fuel station. I also have a kerosene torpedo heater for my shop and a round, wick type stand-up kerosene heater for the upstairs space.

Lately I've been using ULSD in the torpedo heater but have been advised against using diesel for as long as I can remember.

I have an 80 gallon fuel tank w/ pump I'd like to fill with a single fuel. My questions are:

1. Is ULSD equivelant or better to be burning in an unvented heater than K-1 is?

2. If the answer to #1 is no, dont continue doing it... Can I run straight K-1 in my farymann diesel?


Thanks guys,

Regards,
Scott

_________________________________________________________________

I have several torpedo heaters; all over 20 years old, and the supplied manuals state either kerosene, or diesel is ok, but that using diesel will require more maintenance; cleaning the spark plug, and the orifice tip if and when needed, and to also expect more fumes. I have used diesel in mine with no detrimental results, but only in open areas/unfinished buildings because of the fumes. The manuals did state not to use heavy oils/bunker oils etc.
Since ULSD is a little closer to K1 than the old HSD, and LSD, I think it would do OK, but still only in non confined areas, as I an sure there will still be some smoke/smell. As for the
Farymann on the splitter; K1 has less BTU's than diesel, and has very little lubricity, ULSD has a little less BTU's (from what I have read) than the other 2 diesels, and has less lubricity as refined, and has requirements for the lubricity level to be restored to pre-ULSD levels before final retail sale, so based on that I see no reason you could not use the K1 in the Farymann if you added some lubricity, and you could add a few cetane points if you wanted via some PowerService additive or similar. The K1 would burn very clean, probably overkill, very clean burn with a slightly reduced power level and a slight increase in fuel usage due to lower BTU level. The wick type would probably be similar to the torpedo; smoke, smell, and get dirty quicker. I have a friend who uses diesel in an old wick type, and has for years in his loosely built barn, and it smokes and smells, but when LSD was used in it last year or two, it was not nearly as bad. I don't know how much better; if any it does on ULSD, as I don't think it has been cold enough to use this year yet. Whatever one fuel you decide to choose will have some drawbacks with some equipment, not much way around it.

Another thing, I am not a big user of snake oil type products, but I don't fully trust all the fuel distributors as to whether or not they are adding back at least the full prior level of lubricity to the ULSD via additives, and there seems to be no random inspections of lubricity levels, so I add PowerService to all my ULSD as cheap insurance; not stating everyone needs to, nor am I pushing any particular brand over any other. One of my neighbors is in the injector/injector pump repair business, and he is staying pretty busy these days.

 

[Doc_Bob]

Oh yeah, hot as the blazes. Loved firing them up.

Always had a fire guard posted.

Bob

 

[LeTempt]

Not tractor related in any way, but this thread brought back a few memories.

Amry tent heaters...fun stuff. I spent 20 years in the Army (1984-2005) and spent a many night in tents in the winter, usually freezing my rear off. The Yukon heaters (box style stoves) were designed to burn gasoline (or solid fuels like wood or coal). I guess they used to catch on fire all the time with gasoline, so by the time I started using them we were mixing the fuel 50% gas and 50% diesel. They burned clean and seemed to make pretty good heat. Then we went to using straight diesel and had to clean the stove pipes every day. I was a Warrant Officer helicopter pilot and the task of stove maintenance and making sure there was always enough fuel was the WOJG's job (Warrant Officer Junior Grade - usually the most junior WO in the unit). Man this brings back memories...

If the WOJG was good, he could change out the fuel can without even shutting the stove off, but I have seen guys get the hair burned off their arms or eyebrows burned off in a big WWWOOOOOOFFFFF when they would re-light the fire with a hot stove. The Yukon stoves were pretty neat in that they had a nice flat top that you could cook on. We used to heat MRE's on the stove and I can remember more than once when someone put a sealed packet on the stove and got distracted and forgot about it. Typically you would leave it on for a minute or 2 and then flip it over. One time a guy forgot about his bean packet on the stove and it exploded.

Some guys figured out that if the stove was good and warm that you could open the door and throw about a pint of water in the fire and it would instantly clean the stove pipes. The pot-belly stoves were also a hoot. They put out better heat, but took up more space and were not as easy to cook on.

Most of the time we did not run the stoves at night unless we had a fire-guard and this was a good practice because it does not take long to get those stoves so hot they would catch the tent on fire. Still remember one night in Korea....we were sitting playing spades or hearts and you could hear a Soldier outside trip over one of the GP medium side ropes, he got up and ran to the next side rope and tripped over it, got up and tripped over the end rope, then calmly opened the tent flap door and said, excuse me sirs...do you happen to have a fire extinguisher? We ran to the next tent and it was full of smoke but did not catch on fire.

There were small holes in the stove pipes where the sections fit together and you could see the fire up the pipes for a hole or 2. If it got to the 3rd hole it was glowing cherry red and probably about to do a thermal run-away. There was probably a tent fire on just about every big field training exercise or deployment. It looks like the Army has (or is) doing away with the old Yukon and pot-belly stoves...probably because there were so many tent fires.

Jeff (CW4 retired)

 

[mrutkaus]

Funny just yesterday I tried some fresh on road diesel in a dietz cold blast kerosene lantern; it worked ok down low but you couldn't turn it up too high because it smoked. Not much of a smell.

I've got some biodiesel I'm going to try, I've read it works better.

Fresh kerosene of course (not sure if its K1 or not) works great.

Mike