Telling the difference between gas and diesel

[texasjohn]

I don't know if diesel will take out the particular briars you mention, likely not alone. Suggest you go to Brush Busters to see if the recommended herbicide includes mixing diesel with it...some mixes do and this would be a good use for your questionable fluid.

 

[LBrown59]

*I will dump it in my home heating oil tank .

*If you aren't using the fuel in the home heating oil tank in your tractor you should be.
It' the same thing you get at the gas sataion ..

 

[Reg]

I can tell gasoline by just putting my lips close to the open can (closed mouth and lips).
It creates something between a burning and an itching sensation.

I don't need to sniff it.

I would pour it gently to another container while watching for sediment (decant it).
If diesel I would probably put it in the truck, since it would dilute in a much larger volume of known good fuel.
If gasoline I would probably use it in mowers, string trimmers, etc.
Trying it in the oldest, lowest value engine first - just in case.

 

[Mace Canute]

Color difference: Not much between Diesel and Mixed Gas!

Odor difference: Not as much as before, ULSD smells more like old gasoline than "diesel" to me.

Evaporation difference: Huge difference as mentioned, gasoline, even mixed gas, will evaporate quickly above 60*F, diesel will not at any ambient temp.

Feel difference: Diesel has an oily feel, gasoline dos not.

Would I use it if it tested like diesel? Absolutely! Look, no one is going to dump 5 gallons in a NEWER fuel can that costs $15 to avoind pouring it out or recycling it.

If it looks like a duck, waddles like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's a duck!

Exactly right! Right now, somebody is ticked off that they lost their new fuel can that they just filled up!

 

[clemsonfor]

This almost seems like a joke?

I have read the first page and the guys are right. Totally different smells, they feel different, one evaps in 20 seconds the other will make an oily mess. I dont think id use it in anything i had its just not worth the risk. Maybe burn it if i did not see water in the gas, id burn it in my old k10 the day i put it in. Deisel i would burn in trash piles.

 

[clemsonfor]

I hear you folks who say not to use the fuel - an ounce of prevention and all that AFAIK, we only have an annual hazardous materials disposal process available to the public, in the fall. I'm reluctant to simply burn five gallons of the material because of air pollution, though I know in the big picture, that small an amount of fuel being burned is peanuts. Still. So I suppose I can just hang onto the fuel until October, and dispose of it properly.

Maybe I should have just let someone else deal with the lost fuel can

EPA allows diesel to be burned and sprayed onto vegitation. We do it in the forest industry all the time. In a large prescribed burn you can burn hundreds of gallons of 60/40 diesel/gas mix in a day and you use diesel in herbicides to penetrate waxy leaves and bark trees. It is also used to start fires. Pour it into a used hydro oil bucket label it as such to take to your disposal in the fall so you can use the container now.

 

[retiredmgn]

They taste different.

You funny guy.

Whats the difference between an oral or a rectal thermometer??
Taste. :licking:

 

[PoorMansCat]

They taste different.

careful, it could be some old guys portable urinal the he threw out!!

 

[Opti-Mist]

For lack of a safer usage, make stain out of it. Mix 1 part oil base paint to 4 parts fuel oil. Clean diesel fuel would make a great stain. This formulation comes from a paint chemist so it's not just some hokey comment.

 

[chopped]

Or straight as stain it would be called Maine Stain..