Running a small engine on kerosene?

turbofiat124

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Your probably asking yourself, why? When kerosene is $3.00 a gallon and gasoline is $1.97 a gallon. What's the cost savings?

I use kerosene in my parts washer (which holds 10 gallons) which is much cheaper and doesn't stink as bad as that naphtha based stuff that you would normally use. I use kerosene as an engine degreaser in a spray bottle and also to mop my garage if I spill oil on the floor.

When this stuff get's dirty and it's time to chain it out, I strain it through some SS wool and a large funnel to remove the big junk then a coffee filter to remove the smaller bits into used 1 gallon oil jugs. I had been using it as an accelerant to burn brush, trash, etc in a pump sprayer. But this year we have had a drought so I have not dared burn anything. Plus now that I own a trash compactor, I can throw most of this stuff in the trash can and let the trash man deal with it.

So I got about 15 gallons or so of this dirty kerosene in oil jugs laying about. What to do with it? I have a 50 gallon drum I pour used motor oil, ATF, gear oil, or anything petroleum based in and a guy picks it up to use in his waste oil heater. I could do that but I got to thinking wonder if I could use it in one of my riding mowers.

OK so I did some research and found a good link but can't see to find it.

B&S and some other companies used to sell dual fuel engines ages ago.

The engine needs a low compression ratio (~6:1) because kerosene is low octane and will detonate in a modern OHV engine. From what I read, the engines that were not OHV (the kind with the valves next to the pistons) have a C/R of around 6:1 and do not need any modification but the OHV engines have a C/R of 8.5:1 and could possibly detonate .

The kerosene needs to be heated a bit. Like a piece of copper tubing wrapped around the muffler to get it hot before you turn it in. You start off on gasoline then switch to kerosene once the fuel is heated. Then switch back to gasoline before shutting the engine off.

I've seen some YouTube videos of people simply putting kerosene directly in the tank but like allot of these folks I'm not sure if I'd do that. Kind of like these people who run push mowers off 1 lb propane cylinders by removing the carburetor and sending propane directly into the intake. Then regulating the engine speed by the fuel mixture (opening the valve letting more propane in).

I mean if I wanted to do it right, what would I need to do?

C/R: I've heard you can stack a couple of head gaskets to reduce the C/R but on an OHV engine, that would require resetting the valve lash and to be honest after I replaced the head gasket on my 21hp Intek, that sounds like more trouble than it's worth.

What if I used a no-foul insert. That should definitely drop the C/R down however it does not alter the "squish band". So I don't know if the squish band needs to be increased or I could get by with a no foul sensor.

Like I said, there is really no cost savings involved if you are going to use fresh kerosene. So it's not like I am wanting to set this engine up for permanent use.

Actually I have two Snapper rear engine riding mowers I would like to piece together and make one out of. Both lawnmowers have issues with the rear ends. The rear end in the later model is stuck in 3rd gear and the older model is locked up completely. I think the chain broke on that one. The older mower has an 8 HP Tecumseh engine and would make a great test mule. I don't care if that engine blows or not. I was too cheap to replace the 12HP B&S engine when my mom ran it out of oil so I bought a new 8HP Tecumseh engine and it has no balls when used on a mower with a 33" deck.

They actually make dual fuel engines that are marketed toward 3rd world countries. Like for generators and water pumps. Maybe kerosene is cheaper in those countries or it's safer to store large quantities of it instead of gasoline. I'm not real sure what the reasoning behind it is.

I'm not real sure why it's more expensive in the US than gasoline or diesel. Especially since they don't add any octane boosters to it like they would gasoline.

My guess is even though price usually dictates supply and demand, there is probably little demand for it today since everybody uses propane and natural gas for heating.

We had a couple of these heaters back in the early 1980s and they stunk up the house. Anytime I smell burning kerosene it "takes me back" to my teenage years.

Maybe kerosene has to be trucked in instead of being transported through the colonial pipeline and that's why it costs more.

From my understanding the only real difference between gasoline, diesel and kerosene is the number of carbon atoms. Supposedly each of these can be manipulated from the side draws on a cracking column. So if the supply for gasoline goes up, the refinery can make adjustments and produce more gasoline than diesel or vice versa.
 

Rocky J

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On this video from they claim there engine is running on oil and it looks like it is, like you said it gets hot enough its flammable. I am not sure where they are going with there research.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSkwFl9Vzos
 

bertsmobile1

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Kero is more expensive because it is more expensive to make.
Power Kero is almost the same as Jet A1 .
Lighting kero ( the blue or pink stuff ) is distilled so that becomes more expensive again.
Then there are distribution costs.
back when every fuel station sold bulk kero it was cheaper than petrol but now (Down here at least ) it is all sold in containers it is a more expensive as you have to pay for the packaging and shipping of the same.
You will need to work out the correct jets.
On most of the old kero gear we had there were 2 carbs, you ran the engine on petrol to warm it up then turned the changeover valve to run on the kero carb.
Much the same as duel fuel LPG cars.
 

reynoldston

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On most of the old kero gear we had there were 2 carbs, you ran the engine on petrol to warm it up then turned the changeover valve to run on the kero carb.
.

All our antique duel fuel tractors only have one carburetor but two fuel tanks ?
 

cashman

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Briggs, Wisconsin, and Clinton all made engines that ran on Kerosene. Like Bert said you had to start them up on gasoline and then switch over to kero once they warmed up. But they had only one carburetor. There was a slight drop in power running on kero and the spark plug didn't last as long and the cylinder head needed to be decarboned every once in a while. And they stunk when they ran on kero. The smell kinda reminded me of going through a large airport back in the 1960's and smelling all the burning jet fuel. One time I saw a guy that had a van mounted carpet cleaning machine that used kerosene to ignite a boiler and they accidently put kerosene in the gasoline tank and it had a Kohler CH-25 engine on it. The Kohler started right up cold on the kerosene. But it smoked like the dickens.
 

turbofiat124

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Kero is more expensive because it is more expensive to make.
Power Kero is almost the same as Jet A1 .
Lighting kero ( the blue or pink stuff ) is distilled so that becomes more expensive again.
Then there are distribution costs.
back when every fuel station sold bulk kero it was cheaper than petrol but now (Down here at least ) it is all sold in containers it is a more expensive as you have to pay for the packaging and shipping of the same.
You will need to work out the correct jets.
On most of the old kero gear we had there were 2 carbs, you ran the engine on petrol to warm it up then turned the changeover valve to run on the kero carb.
Much the same as duel fuel LPG cars.

I get my kerosene from a very old BP/Amoco station down the street that has been using the same pump since the 1960s or 1970s off to the side. It has an analog dial, a 2 foot hose and a milk crate to support the can! I don't know what grade this stuff is. I know it's clear.

Yes the stuff you buy at hardware stores in gallon jugs is way overpriced. They also sell .5 liter bottles of pre-mixed 50:1 2 cycle gasoline which is about 10 times the cost if you mixed it yourself. And people buy it!

I myself buy my 2 cycle oil by the gallon since I have a 2 cycle car. I think it equals out to around $.30 per gallon as opposed to those small bottles that treats one gallon which sells for about $1.50. Almost as much as a gallon of gas.

I tried diesel fuel in my parts washer and was not impressed. First of all the government puts a green fluorescent dye in it to distinguish it between road use and farm use diesel and I don't think it contains sulfur. It looks radioactive! This stuff will not dry like kerosene. After a week the parts I had washed were still oily. Also I don't think it cuts dried grease as well as kerosene.

I believe the farm use diesel still contains sulfur (and more at that) and is dyed red because it's not taxed as high. I've talked to allot of truck drivers who have all said that they have been either stopped by police to check what type of diesel fuel is in their tank or spot checked at weigh stations.
 

turbofiat124

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Anybody know what type of plug these engines used? My assumption is it's a hotter plug?

That's another reason why I thought about using a no-foul sensor. I've heard it makes the plug burn hotter so it doesn't foul but also reduces power because it decreases area of the combustion chamber.
 

turbofiat124

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On this video from they claim there engine is running on oil and it looks like it is, like you said it gets hot enough its flammable. I am not sure where they are going with there research.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSkwFl9Vzos

I watched some of the video but kind of got board watching them repeatedly start to engine. Which sucks! It looks to me like they are trying to get the engine to explode just for kicks.

About 10 years ago when gasoline spiked to $4.30 a gallon I tried an experiment. I mixed used motor oil with gasoline. I first started out with 5% oil then worked my way up to 20%.

The engine did not smoke or foul plugs but the exhaust seemed to sound louder for some reason. After a couple of hours the engine stalled so I thought the plug had fouled. Well turns out it was not fouled at all!

I think some of the oil settled in the fuel bowl and would not ignite. I drained the fuel bowl and the tank and added straight gas and the engine fired right up.

My guess is the reason the plug did not foul is because it was mixed and created a better combustion. Where with worn rings or worn valve seals oil enters the combustion chamber after the plug ignites. I don't know.

I gave up on this idea after that.

Someone said that the more 2 cycle oil you put in gas will cause the engine to run leaner. I figured the oil burned. Where else does all that smoke come from when you first start the engine?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANjjNbqd5gc
 

gasjr4wd

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If you know any of the 1st or 2nd gen cummins diesel guys... they'll burn it just like diesel. Many of them burn anything they can get their hands on.
And yes, many, many of us add 2 cycle oil to the fuel. It's a lubricant.
 

RDA.Lawns

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I add oil to my diesel fuel regularly. Every time I fill up.Diesel fuel use to have more oil in it than it dose now.
 
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