Hi, The petrol station I use has started selling Kerosene (home heating oil) at the pumps.  There are signs that you can be prosecuted for trying to fuel a car with this.  Can any cars petrol or diesel run on this stuff?

I think you might need to stock up on spare engine components if you try. It may be possible with some additives as I doubt there's any lubricants in kerosene. DPF could end up borked. Not worth the hassle I'd say.

A diesel will run on Kerosene, although I wouldn't do it.

In fact NATO uses something called the Single Fuel Policy where all equipment must run on jet fuel, and in deed does.

However, it will not run as well as it should on diesel and you may open yourself upto more wear of mechanical components I.e. pumps and your fuel economy will drop. Additives are available to improve the Cetane index and lubricity of the kerosene but they are not particularly nice (search for S-1750).

JT

I think you just have to mix it with oil, my Mrs relatives used to do something similar in an old van they had.

Very corrosive, will increase wear 5x the rate of normal diesel. Great as a degreaser though.

Day

& in Northern Ireland , the rest of the UK or even the Irish Republic it will get your vehicle seized, if stopped and tested and Kerosene in the tank.

(or the Second Tank)

so even though the OP is just a question on the technicalities, i am sure that HMRC will be paying an interest in the Station with the Kerosene pump.

(they even get a bit iffy if running WVO/SVO with a tiny little bit Kerosene in,

so its as well just mixing Diesel and VWO in cold weather,)

 

Maybe there is a nice handy CCTV link showing the vehicles reg no when in filling the cans with it.

 

george

Was someone on the forum not looking to get a tank?

 

Most of them are multifuel are they not, especially the ones with gas turbines.

What are we talking about Re-bated Domestic Fuels which can not be used on the road.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/hcotegmanual/hcoteg12780.htm

 

george

forget trying to run a car on it .

pour it on something and let it burn like it was meant to do 

 i am sure that HMRC will be paying an interest in the Station with the Kerosene pump.

 

Maybe there is a nice handy CCTV link showing the vehicles reg no when in filling the cans with it.

 

george

 

Why?

 

For years, and still to this day in some rural filling stations and garages kerosene (alternative name in UK paraffin) has been sold without problem.

In the "olden days" when I had a Saturday job working in our local filling station we sold gallons of the stuff for portable heaters, oil lamps and so on, and that is still its main use.

 

I remember old (1950's / 1960's) dual-fuel tractors running on it - start them up with petrol, get them hot and then swap the tap over to paraffin. Mind you, there was a complicated heating system to heat up the paraffin so it would fire, but other than that the engines were pretty basic.

 

Whilst specialised multi-fuel engines may be built for the military, I doubt any standard modern petrol or diesel engine would run on kerosene without major and impractical modifications.

Well at the risk of being accused again of doing down NI,  which i am not.

"The filling station i use has started selling kerosene......"

 

That is a Belfast Filling station i imagine, which is going to maybe be a bit different from the Countryside Filling stations you and me have used for decades.

 

I can tell you a slightly older Diesel Transit and many other Diesel Vehicles still run perfectly OK on Kerosene.

Many are being run on it.

 

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/hcotegmanual/hcoteg12780.htm

The Bottom bit' Extenders'

mixing SVO, WVO, Bio, or Regular Derv, even waste Engine, Transformer oil etc and Kerosene/Paraffin.

 

george

Kerosene is mixed with diesel in toyota hilux's in antartica/the north pole areas ie. where its flippin cold to stop the diesel freezing and their engines have no mods I believe. You can run it unmixed in old diesel peugeot's (the ones before they went to the psa engines). Land rovers can use it as well as toyota's (not sure if its mixed with any diesel) but never give it to a ford engine (psa unit) because they really don't like the stuff ie. the engine will catch fire. I've also heard that a mk 2 octy vrs (not sure if it was a PD or CR) has run on it happily but I've never had that rumour confirmed and it will cause hot spots on the cylinder heads of you drive it quickly. I personally wouldn't say it was worth if because A) your beaking the law and B ) god knows what its doing to your engine.

Edited 17 September, 201312 yr by Blackline Stu

We used to add kerosene to our diesel in the military in 1980's down in the very cold parts of Germany,to stop it freezing up.

Oh and I did manage to seize a military petrol generator after running it on a jerry can of kerosene once, it ran OK for a fair while then stopped dead!

If it has come out of the heating oil tank at the fuel depot it will be a lovely mixture. My experience is that tankers coming back to the depot empty the dregs of whatever they were carrying into the heating oil tank. This is on the basis that a oil burner in a house will burn anything liquid and flammable.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4

Like with all fuels,

other than maybe out of the Petrol and Derv pumps on the forecourt, which you put right into the vehicles tank,

 

If filling cans from some source,

you can just filter it before or while pouring into the vehicles tank.

 

george

Oh and I did manage to seize a military petrol generator after running it on a jerry can of kerosene once, it ran OK for a fair while then stopped dead!

Not really surprised. I used to use it on  cycles to degrease ball races/chains, but they had to be washed in oil  and regreased as it could cause rust. Mixed with graphite grease it forms a good release agent ( something similar to a proprietary expensive product, something like Lusoil)

Kerosene has poor lubricity compared to Diesel, it is more a kin to Aviation Fuel for Jet engines, however, if you mix it with 20 grade hydraulic oil it makes a mighty fine substitute for diesel and I can vouch for this, BTW it is also less obvious than red diesel.  Not that I have ever used such a fuel.......