Older diesel engines =lower grade fuels?

[mickshep]

Over the last few months there has been an awfull lot of posts regarding the red diesel issue. Thankfully my usage is very small but a good number of MOBO friends will be effected by the hike. Years ago I used to run vintage motorcycles, some of these were not happy running on premium grade petrol. I was advised to add a little parrafin to the fuel to'water' it down, I've no scientific back up to this but my 1930's side valve ran noticibly cooler and a lot smoother. This has set me wondering if adding veg oil to diesel might be more effective in older, more agricultural engines designed to run on less refined fuels than might be the case with more modern, high performance, high reving diesels. The next question is of course, is it likely to cause damage trying it out? Cheers all. Mike.

 

[Heckler]

The council of which i was a member until recently! has started to run its gritters etc on a 30/70 mix of veg and white diesel, better consumption, smoother running and no probs, been doing it for 2 winters now. the engines range from MAN to Peugeot to Ford and all manufacturers were involved in discussions.

 

[mickshep]

Cheers Stu. Now that's what I call usefull info. Do you know if they used any aditional addatives? Mike.

 

[Heckler]

we bought the blend from an outfit in llandudno, they mixed it we think with a de waxer but dont know what, try emailing the fleet manger, i am pretty certain it is graham.tayloratdenbighshire.gov.uk.
have bought some 5 micron filters myself and am going to experiment with filtering my used chip oil and blending it at 10% to start and work up, i suppose you are aware that all road diesel is now supposed to contain2.5% as of a few days ago? also we can make 2500 litres a year tax free ourselves for personal use?

 

[sailorman]

a bit like the chap who had a Donkey
started to feed it 10 % sawdust 90% oats
all went well so he gradually increased the Ratios
eventually got old Neddy on 100% sawdust & saved a small fortune on feed
after 3 weeks on sawdust the Donkey Died /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[uforea]

The problem as I understand and was explained on here some time ago by a Forumite who was involved in the fuel business is the low sulphur content of white diesel. Apparently the older engines need the sulphur to protect the exhaust valve seat amongst other parts of the engine. From personal experience of running my old YSB12 on road fuel this is probably true as after about 70hrs running it began to get difficult to start and in the end all the batteries in the country would'nt get it going. When the head was removed and the valves stripped out the state of the exhaust seat in the head had to be seen to be believed. It has now done 200+ hrs and starts first time whatever the weather.

Ted

 

[Heckler]

yeah but, we did it properly, consulted with the donk manufacturers, ran the yard hack on it for 6 months etc, MAN actually said they would still guarantee the donks. The welsh assembly were v interested and sent scientists to check our results and held us as an exemplar, so really, who is the donkey?

 

[sailorman]

my example woz a joke see /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Heckler]

hee hee, me as well! notice the hammer is back!
stu

 

[bumblefish]

I thought that there was already 10% biodiesel in most 'normal' diesel now? There is a garage near Lewes that sells straight biodiesel and it is much cheaper than conventional, I was considering adding some to my Landrover tank! Also I am quite sure my 1972 Bukh 10 would run on the original fuel such as coal oil!