Oil & Fuel Anyone try adding pump/nozzle to home heating oil tank?

[daTeacha]

I have heard that the cetane rating of diesel is pretty consistent while that of furnace quality fuel oil may vary somewhat from one load to the next and so it is not wise to use furnace oil in diesel engines. Knowledgeable comments on this issue would be appreciated.

It appears that the business of taxes varies from state to state -- of course.

In Ohio, you can get off-road diesel either by delivery or pick-up yourself. You can also not pay sales tax (the road tax is not on the off-road stuff) if you sign the little form that it's for farm use.

When drawing fuel from a bulk storage tank, watch for water that has condensed in a non-full tank. It will settle to the bottom and be easily drawn off from a bottom tapped tank. Give serious thought to putting a trap in the line to keep the water out of your engine.

 

[sandman2234]

If your going to buy it at the local gas station or truck stop, it isn't going to be dyed, unless they have a separate tank for "off road use only". At truckstops, when truckers fill their reefer units, it is "off road use only" but isn't dyed normally, as it comes out of the same tank. Most of the time we have to either note it as we program the machine with all the info that is required to ID us with our credit cards, or simply pay the tax and later request a refund due to the "off road use"
If your using it for your tractor and tractor only, off road use taxes don't apply for your fuel, so don't worry about getting hit with the back taxes when anyone looks in your tank. Put it in your towing vehicle and your liable to find out what they are talking about.
David from jax

 

[LBrown59]

I have heard that the cetane rating of diesel is pretty consistent while that of furnace quality fuel oil may vary somewhat from one load to the next and so it is not wise to use furnace oil in diesel engines. Knowledgeable comments on this issue would be appreciated.

Since home heating and diesel is the same thing here how could there be any difference ?

 

[nspec]

There are way more types of diesel than you guys think. There is Low-Sulpher (LSD), Ultra-Low-Sulpher (ULSD), each of which have 2 quality grades, marine diesel, premium diesel, off-road, on-road, heating oil....I could go on and on.

While any diesel will burn any type, I know for a fact that some fuel pumps will not last long with certain types. This has to due primarily with the sulpher content and the lubricity. Also emissions related equipment will fail very rapidly with the wrong type.

Here are a 7 of the No.1 oils currently out there (No. 2 is home heating oil)

This specification covers seven grades of diesel fuel oils suitable for various types of diesel engines. These grades are described as follows:

Grade No. 1-D S15輸 special-purpose, light middle distillate fuel for use in diesel engine applications requiring a fuel with 15 ppm sulfur (maximum) and higher volatility than that provided by Grade No. 2-D S15 fuel.2

Grade No. 1-D S500輸special-purpose, light middle distillate fuel for use in diesel engine applications requiring a fuel with 500 ppm sulfur (maximum) and higher volatility than that provided by Grade No. 2-D S500 fuel.2

Grade No. 1-D S5000輸 special-purpose, light middle distillate fuel for use in diesel engine applications requiring a fuel with 5000 ppm sulfur (maximum) and higher volatility than that provided by Grade No. 2-D S5000 fuels.

Grade No. 2-D S15輸 general purpose, middle distillate fuel for use in diesel engine applications requiring a fuel with 15 ppm sulfur (maximum). It is especially suitable for use in applications with conditions of varying speed and load.2

Grade No. 2-D S500輸 general-purpose, middle distillate fuel for use in diesel engine applications requiring a fuel with 500 ppm sulfur (maximum). It is especially suitable for use in applications with conditions of varying speed and load.2

Grade No. 2-D S5000輸 general-purpose, middle distillate fuel for use in diesel engine applications requiring a fuel with 5000 ppm sulfur (maximum), especially in conditions of varying speed and load.

Grade No. 4-D輸 heavy distillate fuel, or a blend of distillate and residual oil, for use in low- and medium-speed diesel engines in applications involving predominantly constant speed and load.

NOTE 1輸 more detailed description of the grades of diesel fuel oils is given in X1.2.

NOTE 2裕he Sxxx designation has been adopted to distinguish grades by sulfur rather than using words such as "Low Sulfur" as previously because the number of sulfur grades is growing and the word descriptions were thought to be not precise. S5000 grades correspond to the so-called "regular" sulfur grades, the previous No. 1-D and No. 2-D. S500 grades correspond to the previous "Low Sulfur" grades. S15 grades were not in the previous grade system and are commonly referred to as "Ultra-Low Sulfur" grades or ULSD.

 

[WifethinksImworking]

I am sure there are a lot of different diesel fuels. All I know is that in a semi-rural area in PA, the fuel company will use the same diesel oil for home heating and for farm fuel tanks. That is what the delivery guy told me but I did not get any fuel specs. The J.D. 20hp tractor ran fine on it. We also had a gas station that also had a red dyed fuel pump for off-road diesel. I was told it was the same as on-road diesel but had a red dye. I did not find out if it was different than home heating oil.

 

[daTeacha]

Thanks Nspec. I think your response serves to highlight why it will be a pretty long time before we see diesels commonly used in cars here like they are in Europe. There is just too little uniformity in the quality of the stuff commonly available and too many people who don't differentiate between the types available anyways. I can get on-road, off-road, and furnace oil.

The distributor who handles bio-diesel here will blend in the bio any way you want it from B-5 to B-100 in either on or off road colors. The normal off-road has more sulfur than the on-road according to the pump labels and is priced differently even after the taxes are considered. I can also get on-road blend low sulfur with the non-tax off-road coloring added if I want it, but it costs more than the regular off-road due to being low sulfur. Same with the bio blends -- if you don't want to pay road tax they will just dye it for you, no matter how they blend it otherwise. I don't know if anyone has asked for a high sulfur bio blend for off-road use, but I'm sure they would mix some up if you wanted it.