Oil & Fuel Diesel in gas tank to make tractor pull harder.

[Rustyiron]

You're right, it was baseball cards. Remember the yummy gum that came with it?

 

[LD1]

Yep. Diesel has a very low octane and high cetane, Gasoline is the exact opposite, high octane low cetane. Diesel fuel will make a gasoline engine knock and smoke like crazy.

Im not sure that is right.

I have never heard diesel measured in octane, nor gas in cetane. So dont know how they compare, or how you got that diesel is "low octane high cetane" and that gas is "high octane and low cetane"

Octane measures how resistant gas is to detonation. Higher = more resistant
Cetane measures how easily a diesel fuel can ignite. higher = easier to ignite.

Diesel is a harder fuel to ignite than gasoline. Yet, you call gasoline higher octane (harder to ignite) and low cetane (hard to ignite). The way your description reads, you could put gas in a diesel and it would do no harm, because it would simply be too hard to ignite.

Where I think in reality, if you put diesel in a gas motor, IT would fail to burn the fuel, but gas in a diesel....yep, that fuel will burn, but too soon and too quickly and will destroy the engine.

 

[Turbys_1700]

Farmall designed their tractors back in the 40's to be dual burn. I think it was due to the was and available of gas and kerosene. You started it up on gas, got it hot, and then switched it over to gas. My grandfather's H was designed that way. He ordered it in the 40's. Our newer M model had a higher compression engine and used only gas. I always thought that was a very unique solution to a war time problem IH was trying to address.

 

[LD1]

Farmall designed their tractors back in the 40's to be dual burn. I think it was due to the was and available of gas and kerosene. You started it up on gas, got it hot, and then switched it over to gas. My grandfather's H was designed that way. He ordered it in the 40's. Our newer M model had a higher compression engine and used only gas. I always thought that was a very unique solution to a war time problem IH was trying to address.

Started on gas, got it hot, then switched over to gas

 

[JerryK]

I think he just mistyped and meant distillate... back then they used a lot of different oil based fluids like kerosene, etc. They did not have the elaborate modern distilleries they have these days.

 

[pmsmechanic]

International also made a diesel that started and ran on gas. It has spark plugs and a carb. Once it wa warm you switched it over to diesel and did your day's work. When you shut it off you would run it on gas for a bit so that everything was ready for when you needed to start it again. It was a neat system.

A John Deere D also had two "gas" tanks. One for starting on gasoline and once it was warm you could switch it over to the main tank with distillate in it. If you were working it hard you could inject a bit of water from the colling system to prevent detonation.

 

[RNeumann]

To measure the difference in "power" between diesel and gasoline they use BTUs.

Gasoline 114,000 BTU/Gal
Diesel 129,500 BTU/Gal

These very slightly with summer and winter blends along with other mods to lower emissions.

Some other ways to increase "power"-

Thinner motor oil- less resistance
Less motor oil- cranks won't splash in oil
Smooth tires- less rolling resistance
Remove alternator- less resistance at motor
Remove hydraulic pump- same as above
Oh and don't Forget the playing card!

 

[RNeumann]

To take this thread down another rabbit hole I'll throw in the wiki page I referenced-

Gasoline gallon equivalent - Wikipedia

Note how bad ethanol and natural gas is in comparison. Folks may reconsider some of these products realizing it affects power and mileage.

 

[Patches]

Farmall designed their tractors back in the 40's to be dual burn. I think it was due to the was and available of gas and kerosene. You started it up on gas, got it hot, and then switched it over to gas. My grandfather's H was designed that way. He ordered it in the 40's. Our newer M model had a higher compression engine and used only gas. I always thought that was a very unique solution to a war time problem IH was trying to address.

Friend of mine still uses a Farmall 400 gas/diesel in some of his mowing/raking operations. I know it amazed me the first time I saw it years ago; how do they do that????

 

[pmsmechanic]

Friend of mine still uses a Farmall 400 gas/diesel in some of his mowing/raking operations. I know it amazed me the first time I saw it years ago; how do they do that????

A third valve opens lowering the compression ratio so that the engine can start and run on gas. I don't understand how the combustion chamber fills with gas/air mix etc. because I haven't taken the time to study it.