Kerosine in a gas engine?

[earlyre]

hey old timers, help my memory here,
back when i was a wee lad( I just don't remember the WHY....
am i crazy? were they crazy?
anyone care to enlighten this youngling?

not talking about running straight kero, jut adding a couple gallons to the gas tank.

 

[Astro14]

They were crazy...

You could have added Naptha to the gas tank and it would have run...but neither of those things would help it run well...

Now, for a diesel car in the 70s, I added a few gallons of Kero during a severe cold snap (single digits) because the fuel in CT wasn't winter blended and the poor car barely ran. Thinning with Kero helped it considerably...

 

[eljefino]

My FIL does it to an air cooled 1910's era Franklin because, according to him, otherwise the octane is "too high" and it runs "too hot". Uses about 10%.

 

[Charlie1935]

Probably for lubrication of the valves and upper cylinder lubrication. There have been many myths and stories thru the years.

 

[eljefino]

They did make tractors in the 1940s with about 4:1 compression and spark ignition that would run on gas or kerosene. Believe you had to warm them up on gas.

 

[CourierDriver]

ur better off with tcw3, 2 cycle oil, 1 oz to 5 gallons if u must do it. I used it for a few years, its ok, sparkplugs were always good to go, no fouling, you can check it all out on http://www.ls1.com/forums/f48/been-testing-91206/ have fun.

 

[Charlie1935]

I've been using TC-W3 for 2 or 3 years in my 87 Dodge D100, 96 Dodge 1500 & John Deere riding mower. I've noticed very slight gain in gas milage in the trucks anlong with smoother operation. In the mower gas consumption has decreased at 25%.

 

[HerrStig]

I've heard of people throwing ATF in the tank. Of course kero probably isn't any worse than some of the "additives" distilled from snakes.

 

[volk06]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
They did make tractors in the 1940s with about 4:1 compression and spark ignition that would run on gas or kerosene. Believe you had to warm them up on gas.


These were called all fuel tractors. They had a small gas tank and the larger kerosene tank. The tractor had to be started on gas in order to get the engine hot enough to run on kerosene. Deere made quite a few up until the late 50s. Kerosene was a lot cheaper to run until after WWII, gasoline became more affordable. People switched the heads on the tractors and run them on 100% gasoline to get more power.

 

[tommygunn]

You may be thinking about old timers adding kerosene to the oil to clean out the oil pan, not the gas tanks.

 

[Eddie]

I remember my dad adding ~ a quart to the oil. He would run the mix at idle for 5 minutes or so and drain the oil. This was to flush out the pan. I suspose one could use keroscene as an upper cycl lube.

 

[expat]

Ford had a small Marine engine in the 60's called the Watermotor, you would start it on Gas then switch to Kerosine.
In England at that time, Kerosine cost less than Petrol.

The compression was about 7-1

 

[CourierDriver]

Originally Posted By: Charlie1935
Originally Posted By: CourierDriver
ur better off with tcw3, 2 cycle oil, 1 oz to 5 gallons if u must do it. I used it for a few years, its ok, sparkplugs were always good to go, no fouling, you can check it all out on http://www.ls1.com/forums/f48/been-testing-91206/ have fun.



I've been using TC-W3 for 2 or 3 years in my 87 Dodge D100, 96 Dodge 1500 & John Deere riding mower. I've noticed very slight gain in gas milage in the trucks anlong with smoother operation. In the mower gas consumption has decreased at 25%.


Good feedback .

 

[Saleen0679]

Some big name fuel cleaners/treatments still use kerosene as the main ingredient.

 

[Charlie1935]

Originally Posted By: Eddie
I remember my dad adding ~ a quart to the oil. He would run the mix at idle for 5 minutes or so and drain the oil. This was to flush out the pan. I suspose one could use keroscene as an upper cycl lube.


I remember my Dad doing the same.
He also used Drano drain cleaner as a cooling system flush.

 

[mgm13]

Back in 1958 I had customers at the Shell station I worked at that routinely would at a pint or sometimes quart of kerosene to thier tanks.Passenger cars nothing fancy-the thoughts were that it helped prevent vaporlock in the summer.
Vaporlock was a real problem at the time-we used pack the fuel pump with ice and put clothespins on the fuel lines between runs at the dragstrip.

 

[earlyre]

Originally Posted By: tommygunn
You may be thinking about old timers adding kerosene to the oil to clean out the oil pan, not the gas tanks.

not unless you added oil through a flap in the rear quarter panel, or behind the license plate....
it was definitely in the fuel.
fairly certain it was dyed red as well.

 

[friendly_jacek]

Originally Posted By: Saleen0679
Some big name fuel cleaners/treatments still use kerosene as the main ingredient.


+1

My guess is addition of naphtha, kerosene or diesel in small amounts would clean carbs.

 

[mechtech2]

Maybe their memories are floating a bit...
Kerosene and products that contained kerosene were often used in the crankcase for cleaning.

 

[Shannow]

Originally Posted By: Saleen0679
Some big name fuel cleaners/treatments still use kerosene as the main ingredient.


They use it as a "filler", not an ingredient. The additive components are expensive, and don't need much, so $10 for an eyedropper would not reflect value for money. A half pint looks much more respectable, and kero doesn't have the dangerous goods aspect that cutting it with petrol would.