As the title suggests I have 3 or 4 litres of a 50/50 diesel/E85 mix left over from an experiment with my workshop heater, in the past I would just have mixed a litre at a time in when refilling the tank on my vehicle but am concerned about doing it with a Common Rail & DPF equipped engine, also the petrol in the past would not have contained anywhere near the same amount of ethanol.

 

Am I being overcautious? My MK1 Octavia ran better with a few litres of diesel contaminated petrol added to each tank.

 

What other suggestions? A dip for unseizing rusted parts, dose it into my 80's Kubota diesel tractor?

 

I tried it in the diesel blown air heater to try and stop the problems of flameout at low power settings and also because it is much cheaper, it worked really well and for the first time I could use the thermostatic control but as I had expected the lack of lubrication wore out the dosing pump, it was putting out less and less fuel at a given frequency, the combustion chamber temperature gradually fell until once again the familiar E8 Flameout error.

 

Had it worked better I was going to move to a 100% E85 and 2 stroke oil mix, I could do this with the remaining fuel but dont want to risk my new dosing pump when it arrives.

 

Does anyone else use one of these Chinese Webasto clone diesel heaters? They are certainly quite good if you like tinkering, unfortunately its an obligation 😆

Edited 7 March, 20233 yr by J.R.

I have been thinking about buying one of those Chinese diesel heaters to heat my conservatory, havn't yet pulled the trigger but from the countless Youtube video's i've watched I already feel like Ive been tinkering with them.

 

I would like to burn some waste engine oil in some kind of mix as some claim you can, some claim you can't but from what I've seen you either have to filter it (being used diesel egine oil full of soot probably doesn't help things) or be prepared to clean the combustion regularly. Have you run anything 'dirty' through yours? 

 

Regarding the E85, I wouldn't put it anywhere near a common rail given that it has managed to wear out a basic solenoid pump