Road Diesel in Boat

[Halo]

Off on a trip this weekend and want to leave before the marina fuel berth is open
Any problems with using a few cans of road diesel ?
I did this before and had no problems other than fuel cosnupmtion seemed to go up
Any thoughts please
Martin

 

[sailorman]

The continentals use it all the time, its all they have

 

[TonyBuckley]

I have never used anything other than road diesel.

 

[prv]

Road diesel if anything is likely to be better than the harbourside pumps.

Pete

 

[Toutvabien]

Road diesel if anything is likely to be better than the harbourside pumps.

Pete

If you draw some anchors on the cans you will easily get away with it.

 

[prv]

Road diesel if anything is likely to be better than the harbourside pumps.

If you draw some anchors on the cans you will easily get away with it.

Pete

 

[LittleShip]

There the are many on here that will tell you about using road diesel (white) in your boat. It shouldn't cause any problems but be aware that it will have a certain percentage of bio in it. It may cause some problems with long term storage and on older style engines.

Use a god addative with it, again there are many on here that can help out with that advice to.

Tom.

 

[charles_reed]

Pete

1. Arguably cleaner and less likely to be infected (which is my experience)
2. I'm as confused as you are.

I've been using nothing but road diesel in my boat engine for the last 14 years - but during that period I've fitted a new motor. I did use high-sulphur diesel when I was in Tunisia but noticed no improvement. As someone who's run diesel-engined cars for 25 years I'd exhort against adding ANY additives (supposing that was the previous poster's reference), they're, at best snake oil and at worst will do real damage to an engine, especially a modern one.

 

[Kelpie]

Harder to see if there is water in the separator.

 

[DanTribe]

Use a god addative with it, again there are many on here that can help out with that advice to.

Tom.

Can you get this god additive from your local vicar?

 

[Lakesailor]

It'll only work if you believe.

 

[sailorman]

Can you get this god additive from your local vicar?

The water in the agglomerater will be Holy Water

 

[Daydream believer]

Can you get this god additive from your local vicar?

He will also throw in a quick service if you ask

 

[LittleShip]

Ok smartarses..... iPad use layful:

Tom.

Ps Marine 16 can be used in modern diesels and helps clean injectors, or so they told me.

 

[nigelmercier]

I've always assumed that diesel is diesel, and they just bung in the dye for tractors. I've never had a problem buying from a garage, apart from lugging it for a mile back to the boat. Those 20 litre cans are quite light when they are empty.

 

[pandos]

It is the same stuff, except coloured and cheaper....

 

[Avocet]

It's all we've ever used and it hasn't done Avocet's engine any damage this last 20 years!

 

[alahol2]

It is the same stuff, except coloured and cheaper....

Not necessarily. Premier marinas (some/all?) sell a particular marine diesel. They say...

"WP Marine's Advanced Marine Diesel 10 is a low sulphur fuel containing 10ppm (parts per million) sulphur. This high quality fuel is recognised as FAME FREE and is guaranteed by Esso to contain less than 1% bio element.

Advanced Marine Diesel 10 also contains Soltron®. Specifically developed to work with marine diesel at a dilution rate 10,000:1, Soltron® contains a blend of 20 naturally occurring enzymes which combine inside the fuel tank to optimise the combustion process and enhance fuel efficiency. Soltron® also provides lubrication in low sulphur marine fuel oil and neutralises bacterial growth from contaminants. "

 

[cryan]

Not necessarily. Premier marinas (some/all?) sell a particular marine diesel. They say...

"WP Marine's Advanced Marine Diesel 10 is a low sulphur fuel containing 10ppm (parts per million) sulphur. This high quality fuel is recognised as FAME FREE and is guaranteed by Esso to contain less than 1% bio element.

Advanced Marine Diesel 10 also contains Soltron®. Specifically developed to work with marine diesel at a dilution rate 10,000:1, Soltron® contains a blend of 20 naturally occurring enzymes which combine inside the fuel tank to optimise the combustion process and enhance fuel efficiency. Soltron® also provides lubrication in low sulphur marine fuel oil and neutralises bacterial growth from contaminants. "

Sounds like sales waffle.

Road Diesel is known legally as DERV -Diesel Engine Road Vehicle. Diesel sold for boats is known as Marine Gas Oil. The difference is taxation. My previous employer was a HMRC dyeing station as we used to receive and sell on fuel bunkers for naval and merchant vessels. Different suppliers may have their own ingredients but the only specific legal difference is the taxation class. We could, and did, receive white fuel from suppliers but before we could pass it on to ships it had to be dyed and then classed as Marine Gas Oil. Sometimes we would receive Marine Gas Oil from naval ships coming in to refit and before we could sell it on we had to re-dye it (even though it had already been dyed) and either keep it classed as MGO and only sell it to other ships or we could re-class it to what I remember being called rebated off road fuel or we could class it as waste oil and sell it for heating use. The MoD were a nightmare as they often sent white fuel from their depot which sometimes meant us doing an all nighter dyeing the stuff as you only get a set time to dye it before the HMRC start demanding the tax up front.
Fuel classed as Marine Diesel Oil is a much heavier fuel, usually black in colour and far less refined. There is also Intermediate Fuel Oil which is quite sludgy and Heavy Fuel Oil which is basically bitumen and used as fuel by deep sea vessels.

Most MGO is now sold as ultra low sulphur (the same as for road vehicles) as emissions regulations around the world get tighter. Quite often Ships have tighter regulations than cars these days.

 

[GrahamM376]

Been using white road diesel here for years in common with hundreds of thousands of EC boats, red not available. No problems whatsoever and we see far fewer with fuel bug than in the UK.