TVO

AFAIK, 28s oil is called either kerosene or paraffin.

It depends whether the engine is designed as a paraffin or TVO engine. If it is then the oil would be fine. My Dad (and many others) uses a concoction of 6pints paraffin, 1 pint petrol, 1 pint diesel and a dash of two stroke oil to produce a TVO equivalent for his Fergies.

What type of engine is it?

Parafin in a diesel would surely result in pre-igntion problems wouldn't it guys?

Regards, Arthur G

The manual for Lister CS diesels advises that kerosene can be used as fuel so long as some lubricating oil is mixed in.

I have heard of 28 sec kerosene being successfully "boosted" with gasoline to produce a TVO equivalent.

Kerosene is not a single product - burning oils have different compositions to the fuel grades that used to be available. The common factor is probably the distillation temperature range - similar to each other but not identical.

This is my opinion, I offer no guarantee that it is fact.

John

In message , Arthur Griffin writes

Yes but it is a bit different to what we knew as paraffin.

Thanks, I knew there were various different concoctions to do the job, I can see the petrol to add volatiles but why the diesel and 2t oil?

It's hypothetical, the guy suggested he would want a genset to run on the 28sec heating oil he had, I was wondering what sort of engine would cope with it other than a gas turbine or military multi fuel engine.

Did they make the hopper cooled Lister in a tvo version?

Paraffin in the SI engine will cause preigniton because it has a low octane rating, conversely because it also has a relatively low cetane rating it would not ignite as well in a CI engine. Pre ignition as such cannot happen in the CI engine as the fuel injection is what initiates the combustion, if the fuel being injected fails to ignite initially and then ignites after a good portion of the fuel is in the combustion chamber the pressure rise will be sudden, this would give diesel knock I think. I think the main issue with the kerosene would be with wear in the injection pump.

AJH

Andrew, I think you know more about fuels than me!

snip...

To improve the lubricity of the mix. Paraffin tends to dilute the lubricating oil and wash it down into the crankcase in the case of a vertical engine.

Kero versions of the various Listers were available, but are not as common as the petrol ones.

As John says, this is my opinion given in good faith, but I could be wrong :-).

Regards, Arthur G

Best tradition of usenet ;-), thanks for the input both of you.

AJH

I should also say that I tried it out in my CS - made up a pint of fuel with the requisite amount of lube oil.

The engine started and ran fine on this concoction - different exhaust smell of course. Have returned to burning red gas oil, but kero offers an option.

In message , John Ambler writes

In British Columbia all three come out of the same tank with engine fuel lubricant. Most of it is sold as Winter Diesel, the minority as Kerosene or Stove Oil, There just isn't enough market for the Stove Oil or Kerosene here, (Natural Gas, Electricity and Propane are far cheaper) to warrant producing separate "soo similar"products without the lube oil. It's not all the same price though, If you buy it as winter diesel you pay Road Tax and if you buy it as heating fuel you ONLY have to pay the Provincial and Goods & Services (GST) (Like GAT) taxes.

I think this has been a long standing debate in the vintage tractor world, I manage to use a mixture of 85% 28-sec heating oil and 15% unleaded petrol in a Fergie tractor engine designed to run on TVO with petrol start. Other people have said that diesel is required for upper cylinder lubrication and the 2-stroke oil just for the smell!

Regards, Matt Keeling

One of my very early posts to the newsgroup involved some information from South Africa about a TVO substitute, I think it was BP or Shell that gave the info.

Peter

-- Peter & Rita Forbes snipped-for-privacy@easynet.co.uk Engine pages for preservation info: