question about fuels

[A Guy]

I was on the US side in Massena NY to do a P/U and wanted to fill up my 1.9 TD.  This was the first time I had taken my car over.  I was surprised to see two different types of fuel.  One was a low sulfur diesel with a lrge warning on it and the 0ther was kerosene at a much lower price.  i ended up just putting the diesel in but wondered if I could have run the cheper option without any loss in driveability.  can someone chime in here and shed some light on this for me.  Thanks in advance.
Out.
Greg

[Kudagra]

I believe that the Kerosene dosnt have the lubrication that the diesel fuel has.

[anarchyx34]

You guys dont have kerosene up there? Kerosene isnt really used for vehicles/engines, but more often for kerosene-fueled heaters and other types of heat generating equipment.

Like one of these things:


A diesel engine will burn it, but like was stated above dosent have the lubricating qualitys (dosent have to). You can mix it with diesel from what I've heard if you have gelling problems in cold weather.

[sethyboy85]

That and if a cop/proper authorities with nothing to do saw you filling up you might spend a night in jail till they clear up the confusion after trying to explain to you that it's a $30k fine for running NON road taxed fuels (most kero ain't taxed) in the US

[clbanman]

I believe that the Kerosene dosnt have the lubrication that the diesel fuel has.

We have a kerosene option on our trucks with Cummins engine, and it involves changing out the injection pump. That's the only difference, and with that pump it's considered a dual fuel engine. I am not familiar with the internals on the pump, but am assuming that the differences would be seals, etc. to make up for the lubrication issue. Now how much difference is there between kerosene and the ultra low sulfur diesel?

[jtanguay]

if you don't mind mixing your fuel, i'd go with kerosene and a lubrication additive.   you would need to religiously add the lubrication additive though.. or suffer the consequences!

[sethyboy85]

Now how much difference is there between kerosene and the ultra low sulfur diesel?

In the very near future NONE all Diesel, #2/red dye Kero will be 15ppm

at least in the big state of US

[clbanman]

On a related note, I was going through some of our service bulletins, and we sent one out stating that low sulfur diesel fuel has up to 15% lower specific energy content than regular diesel.  Now this was issued in 1991, so I don't know if there are hard scientific numbers to back this up or if it was a CYA just in case there were problems or issues with the newer fuels.

[A Guy]

So don't use straight kerosene.  We do have kerosene up here but I've never seen it at the gas station.  I was just shocked at the diff in price.  If I had half a tank of diesel could I fill up w/kerosene without any issues.  
Thanks to all those who chimed in.
Out.

[Doug]

Why do you want to risk your pump lubrication for a couple of bucks saved on kerosene?

[RabbitJockey]

kerosene isn't the same as diesel anyways, it's more than just a lack of lubrication, i was under the impression that the new diesel had more enery content.  i dunno about all the griping about ulsd killing pumps though, it has new "safe" additives in it for lubrication and pump seals and all that ish,  they can't/won't just change to crap that will kill all our cars.

[RabbitJockey]

oh yeah and the difference in price is the lack of road tax.

[jantd]

Hi guys,
Just read an interesting article about differnce between traditional diesel and new low sulfer one, the power was tested on a 2.0tdi 140HP VW engine.5 different diesel brands were tested, of which shell and bp.Result: for ALL brands, the tradicional diesel delivers between 0.5 and 2 BHP MORE than the new generation diesels,(which cost 5cents more! )If you know that bp advertises 8.2 % more horse power with their new generation diesel....interesting .

[Benjamin]

it will kill your pump like said before

when we need to go to the technical control in Belgium, aka aircare, just put some kerosene in the car, you will see very good result, after this test, i go to the pump and i fill the car full, so i dont need to drive on straight diesel.

when you have to much smoke and you need to go to the aircare, its a smart tip.  :wink:

Greetz, Benjamin