Running old furnace/diesel fuel

[8v-of-fury]

So as it seems, the guy i work for had a surplus of furnace oil from home. He was upgrading his shops heating system and decided to empty what he thought was like 50 liters (turned out to be like 55gal) of furnace oil in to old gear lube drums (I work at a Marina). And then they also emptied the remaining diesel from the big 8WD John Deere.. which brings the grand total of free fuel up to 388L.  Talk about a huge bonus at the year end! lol

So basically my question is.. how much filtering needs to be done? I think it should be good to go, its been in sealed oil drums since removal from where it came from.

Also how thick is furnace fuel? Thicker than diesel? I think i'll wait till summer to burn it if it is.

[chopper03]

Most oil fired furnace used #2 off road diesel, Usually dyed red. Set you up a filter head with a 4 to 8
 micron filter on it and pump the fuel thru that. Or go to your home supply store and get a whole
house water filter with a 5 micron element in it and use that for filtering.

  That way you won't plug your filter on your car which should be a 10 micron.

[srgtlord]

Or just run it...lol not that I have ever done that

[410]

My father in law has been running furnace oil for years.  He runs it in everything, including his mk4 tdi.  He's never filtered it either.  He might strain it but that's it.

[Toby]

Do not get caught doing that. It is a federal offense. You are burning fuel w/o the road taxes on it. They check OTR truckers all the time for this and there are BIG fines for running off road diesel, which is red. Diesel is dyed green.

At one time diesel fuel had certain lubricants in it for IPs and injectors that fuel oil did not. Not sure if that is still the case however. Today they run 5% BD for lubricity in almost all diesel fuels. It also stretches petroleum stock further so maybe fuel oil gets it too.

[R.O.R-2.0]

Do not get caught doing that. It is a federal offense. You are burning fuel w/o the road taxes on it. They check OTR truckers all the time for this and there are BIG fines for running off road diesel, which is red. Diesel is dyed green.

At one time diesel fuel had certain lubricants in it for IPs and injectors that fuel oil did not. Not sure if that is still the case however. Today they run 5% BD for lubricity in almost all diesel fuels. It also stretches petroleum stock further so maybe fuel oil gets it too.

ive been running red diesel in my cars for years, and my dad, hes been running it too, for most of his life. most cops never think to dip the tank of a VW rabbit or jetta.. hell, most cops are oblivious that there is such thing as a VW that runs on diesel..

i had a beer keg in the back of my first rabbit. 15 gallons. and i had quite a few cops check it out. they always assumed that i had a keg of beer in the trunk of my car, none of them EVER noticed that it was red fuel, and not green.

anyone remember when diesel was still golden colored? and had sulfur in it still? i had some high-sulfur diesel not too long back, and i really couldnt notice a difference, other than it smells just like i remember diesel smelling when i was a kid..

i think that if we treat our diesel with some sort of lube that it is every bit as good as the high sulfur stuff..

anyways, ive never had a problem running furnace oil in my diesels. i dump 2 cycle oil in every drop of fuel that goes in my car, so i dont care what kinda fuel it is, its not going to hurt my injectors or pump. might clog my filters, but its fine on the hard parts..

make sure the fuel is clean.. now days, #2 diesel, heating oil, off road, all of it.. it all comes from the same original tank. its just got different additive packages now..

the only difference between #2, and dyed #2, is the dye.. the fuel is exactly the same..

[Toby]

FYI: They check OTR trucks all the time. Not much chance of getting caught, mostly because its easy to dip a semi tank. No so easy on a car. In Washington state they check the fuel in the vehicles owned by people with a permit to buy off road diesel, so beware of specific spot checks if you go north. I have seen the WSP dipping tanks of pickups while the owner was pumping off road diesel into a pump tank in the back.

They fines are huge.

[ORCoaster]

What confuses them the most is our WVO systems.  They don't know what that crap is.  And if they do there is no law that says we can't burn it to get down the road.  So they can't decide to write a ticket or not.  But some are thinking otherwise and going to try to pass laws so we pay extra on the taxes based on fuel use.  A self reporting deal at that.  I only used 200 gallons all year, honest, trust me.

[maxfax]

A self reporting deal at that.  I only used 200 gallons all year, honest, trust me.

We more or less have that now in PA..  And since WVO is not classified as an alternate fuel it's the full bore road tax on the stuff..  But like you said, no one knows what the hell the stuff is..  Let alone they have to realize that 1) yes they made diesel cars way back when 2) there is a second tank somewhere.....

I feel that if fuel had remained at 5$ a gallon or higher they may have cracked down on it.. But since it's now "cheap" many have given up on burning the stuff..  To cover my butt I did keep "a record" of how much of the stuff I put in the car..  If for some insane reason they would have caught me I would just have to claim that I pay my fuel tax quarterly, and then actually pay something that particular quarter..

Seems that now that the states are grasping for revenue they are checking more diesel cars for dyed fuel in this area..  They tried to check my niece in her 300SD when she was pulled over for speeding, Like Toby mentioned, cars are a pita to check..  Good thing for her...

[chopper03]

Just dump a couple quarts of used motor oil in each fill up. Everything is black then, can't tell
what it is you are running.

[Patrick]

Do not get caught doing that. It is a federal offense. You are burning fuel w/o the road taxes on it. They check OTR truckers all the time for this and there are BIG fines for running off road diesel, which is red. Diesel is dyed green.

You might be right about colour of fuel in your state, but everywhere is different. here in Ontario off road is red too, but you can get several different colours at the road pump depending on what refinerey it came out of. If teh refinerey sells across the border they dye their fuel accordingly. Some is green, some not. Back in the day I used to fill my OTR truck in Indiana at Martin stations with red fuel.....  Just tell them you put ATF fluid in it for a lubricant to make up for the low sulpher fuel!

[Toby]

Its not a state requirement. Its federal, so the entire US is that way. I strongly suspect that Canada is the same way, since a Canadian truck is subject to the same fuel regs as ours when on this side of the border. It may be that this change did not happen in Canada until NAFTA.

You are right, back in the day diesel could be a number of colors. Today green is the "tax stamp" that shows you have paid your road taxes. Red means "off road fuel"; no taxes paid.

BTW a quart of ATF isn't going to change the color of green diesel or get you out of the fines.

Chopper03:
Do you remove your air cleaner, as well? Running used motor oil is NOT good for the pump or injectors. What do you think makes it black?

[maxfax]

BTW a quart of ATF isn't going to change the color of green diesel or get you out of the fines.

Pending how small your tank is, the ATF may actually GET you fines..

[ORCoaster]

Does anyone dump a quart of ATF in the 10 gallon tank?  That really seems to be to much.  Maybe I need more.  I add ounces of wax and ounces of ATF. 

[Toby]

What kind of wax do you add to the fuel, and why?