Thread: Diesel in a gasoline engine

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the tractors that can use both probably have very low compression gasoline engines probably 7:1 or lower, which I think only needs like 60 or 70 somthing octane to run correctly, diesel probably has that kind of octane.

In my high school days, we had an interesting combination:
a kid that had a 53 Plymouth flathead six and another kid that
had the key to his dad's farm diesel tank...... car smoked on
gasoline and it smoked on diesel. Didnt ping on either. Ran
like crap on gasoline, ran like crap on diesel. Diesel sure was
cheaper though.

mike in tucson

On the way home from work yesterday, the old girl finnaly started loosing cylinders.......sounded like an old truck with a hole in the exhaust. Most people probably thought it was a genuine ford motor
Any hoo I drained it out last night looks like I have 20 litres for the Mower now. The wife used it today and said it was just a bit smoky...hehe. I can afford a blown up mower. Since putting some high performance fuel in the Hotty, all seems to be right in the world again.
Looks llike one of those life learning curves again. They really are great!

Andy.

Probably won't hurt a thing other than a chance at fouling a plug...and smelling like a semi truck...
In the Studebaker world, with today's crap gas, vapor lock is a big problem.
One of the tricks used a lot is to keep your old quart oil bottles and fill them with diesel fuel. Then, at fill up time, add a quart of diesel to the gas tank. The added cetane helps with pinging, and it helps prevent vapor lock. I do this all the time with my truck, as it keeps the rattle down without adding expensive octane boost.
Cheap is good.
Jeff

Originally Posted by gherkin350

On the way home from work yesterday, the old girl finnaly started loosing cylinders.......sounded like an old truck with a hole in the exhaust. Most people probably thought it was a genuine ford motor
Any hoo I drained it out last night looks like I have 20 litres for the Mower now. The wife used it today and said it was just a bit smoky...hehe. I can afford a blown up mower. Since putting some high performance fuel in the Hotty, all seems to be right in the world again.
Looks llike one of those life learning curves again. They really are great!

Andy.

Originally Posted by Matt167

the tractors that can use both probably have very low compression gasoline engines probably 7:1 or lower, which I think only needs like 60 or 70 somthing octane to run correctly, diesel probably has that kind of octane.

The thing about a Diesel engine is how it ignites the fuel. Diesel fuel requires a higher compression ratio then the typical gaser. A 350 Olds Diesel has a 22.5:1 compression ratio!!. The reason, to heat the air that is drawn in on the intake stroke to a high temperature so that when the Diesel is injected into the combustion chamber it ignites. This is why intercooling is really needed on a turbo deisel because the cylinder temperatures can get way to hot and cause a melt down.

Those Tractors your talking about had compression release on them so they could lower the compression to run gasoline. There have been a few around where I'm from in Saskatchewan because of the cold winters. But whatever you do never put gasoline in a Diesel thats designed just for Diesel. The thing WILL explode, literally. A Diesel uses the cetane rating instead of octane rating. Cetane rating is the time the fuel takes to ignite once injected. The higher the cetane number the quicker the fuel ignites. So thats some things to think about Diesel.

We also have a couple old combines with the old Chrysler 318 Polyhemi engines that we run kerosene through them before we park 'em for the winter. We just choke them out and a big cloud of white smoke rolls out of the stacks and there oiled up for the winter (no fuel stabilizer required).