[AT] Fuel Oil vs. Diesel Fuel

[Charlie V]

I will most likely be corrected on this, Joe. since it may not be
accurate.  As I recall from a Diesel mechanics course that I took over
50 years ago, heating oil is #5.  Diesel is #2 and Kerosene is #1.  I
believe these numbers derive from the cuts (after gasoline) in the
refining distillation process from crude.  I keep in mind that when
our local school district got the first real cold day with the new low
sulfur fuel a couple of years ago, they ended up with about 25 of the
buses not running at the same time.  The fix was found to be to add 15
percent Kerosene.  I did the same to my '86 Ford F-250 and that also
solved it's cold starting problem so I assume the kero not only
prevents jelling, but also improves volatility a little.

Charlie V.

On Fri, May 6, 2011 at 9:28 PM,  <jahaze at aol.com> wrote:
>
>
> Is there any difference?  Here's why I'm asking.  About a year ago I mentioned to the list all the troubles I was having with a Ford 6000 Diesel I had picked up cheap.  I tried everything and could not get it to run, or even fire so I had given up.  My neighbor asked me about it last week and wondered if I woud sell it to him.  I told him everything I thought was wrong with it, made no guarentees that it would ever run and he decided he would like to buy it anyway (I sold it for what I had into it, which wasn't much).  Anyway, after he messed around with it for the past week he was about to haul it off to the scrap yard when he checked the fuel tank.  He said it was full of fuel oil.  After he drained out 25 gallons, he put in Diesel fuel, and had the damm thing running within five minutes.  After the smoke cleared, it actually ran pretty good.
>
> I always thought they were the same thing (maybe it was kerosene?).  Anyway, I guess the person I got it from must have filled it up with the wrong stuff and that's why he could never get it started (me either).  Either way, it runs now and my neighbor got a decent deal on a big old tractor, I got the big ugly thing out of my yard, and got my money back to put into another project.
>
> Enjoy, Joe
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