How to know if it is diesel of heating oil?

[vital_spark]

A friend of a friend (OK hardly know the chap) has offered me around 100L of diesel at a knock down price as part payment for something. He said it's a bit old so I should probably mix it 50:50 with new stuff. I would be using it in my trusty old Volvo Penta.

However, another person has told me this guy once boasted about using heating oil in his old land rover and he might be trying to pass this off to me as diesel and hence the advice to dilute it down with diesel.

So, if I take a peak, is there any easy way to tell what it is or if he is trying to pull a fast one? It would be road diesel so would we white, well clear, anyway. Smell? Easy test? I wouldn't touch heating oil, bit don't mind diesel a couple of years old if it looks clean.

Great forum BTW, have been reading for a while.

 

[rotrax]

A friend of a friend (OK hardly know the chap) has offered me around 100L of diesel at a knock down price as part payment for something. He said it's a bit old so I should probably mix it 50:50 with new stuff. I would be using it in my trusty old Volvo Penta.

However, another person has told me this guy once boasted about using heating oil in his old land rover and he might be trying to pass this off to me as diesel and hence the advice to dilute it down with diesel.

So, if I take a peak, is there any easy way to tell what it is or if he is trying to pull a fast one? It would be road diesel so would we white, well clear, anyway. Smell? Easy test? I wouldn't touch heating oil, bit don't mind diesel a couple of years old if it looks clean.

Great forum BTW, have been reading for a while.

The heating oil that I have seen has a slightly yellow tinge.

 

[SAMYL]

35 sec heating oil is basically deisel whereas 28 sec is similar to paraffin. You can burn the 35 sec stuff in your engine but dilute it as he says.

 

[YachtAllegro]

Sounds dodgy to me. There's a lot of theft of heating oil in some places.

Cheers
Patrick

 

[ffiill]

Depends whats knock down-current price for either red or keroscene is about 68p a litre.
Diesel of whatever variety has an oily feel to it if you rub it between your fingers.

 

[Spyro]

The heating oil that I have seen has a slightly yellow tinge.

So does some road diesel. Last time I put some in a can from morrisons it was slightly yellow. I put it down to there being up to 7% bio diesel in it.

 

[nigelmercier]

35 sec heating oil is basically deisel whereas 28 sec is similar to paraffin. You can burn the 35 sec stuff in your engine but dilute it as he says.

To check the viscosity, cut the bottom off a 1 litre Coke bottle, make a small hole in the lid, fill with a known quantity of your normal fuel and time it to empty. Repeat with unknown stuff and compare.

 

[CAPTAIN FANTASTIC]

Put two drops of each type of fuel on a piece of glass, next to each other, then tilt the glass and watch (or time) which fuel will be running down the glass faster. The faster will be thinner viscosity.

 

[ianj99]

A friend of a friend (OK hardly know the chap) has offered me around 100L of diesel at a knock down price as part payment for something. He said it's a bit old so I should probably mix it 50:50 with new stuff. I would be using it in my trusty old Volvo Penta.

However, another person has told me this guy once boasted about using heating oil in his old land rover and he might be trying to pass this off to me as diesel and hence the advice to dilute it down with diesel.

So, if I take a peak, is there any easy way to tell what it is or if he is trying to pull a fast one? It would be road diesel so would we white, well clear, anyway. Smell? Easy test? I wouldn't touch heating oil, bit don't mind diesel a couple of years old if it looks clean.

Great forum BTW, have been reading for a while.

Most diesel engines will run on a wide range of fuels from neat veg oil to kerosene. If in doubt, add some 2 stroke oil to it and / or Millers Ecomax.

The main side effect will be increased diesel knock due to a lower cetane number and the Millers will solve this. The 2 stroke oil boosts the lubricity and will quieten it down as well.

The main reason to be wary of dubious fuel is contamination which can block the filters in no time. Bad enough on the road, but potentially dangerous at sea if the engine stops when you least want it to.

Do NOT as I was told about yesterday, try to run it on hydraulic oil, however!!
Unbelievable but true and the vehicle wasn't a 1950's Landrover, it was a 2006 Discovery 2.7 TD V6. No wonder the farmer who had just bought it wondered why it was no longer running too well......

 

[lenseman]

So does some road diesel. Last time I put some in a can from morrisons it was slightly yellow. I put it down to there being up to 7% bio diesel in it.

All British 'red diesel' has both red and a yellow dye. The red dye can be scrubbed out using kitty litter but the yellow dye is bonded to the diesel molecules and cannot be removed by a lay person.

Customs can test for yellow with the correct equipment but usually it cannot be seen.

 

[vital_spark]

Thanks for all the good tips. Interesting stuff. I'll try and get a look at it over the next few days.