Howdy All,

Just bought a new 05' and i'm loving it to death! I work at an airport and have access to "Jet-A" fuel for free. I worked at an airport in Arizona before moving to Florida, and we would use jet fuel in our fuel trucks and associated diesel engine vehicles.

Anyways, is it really safe, have any negative affects at all? From what I understand, Jet fuel is a more refined diesel fuel which is more clean and pure... thoughts?

 

This was a discusion awhile ago here is a link

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/s...light=jet+fuel

ryan

 

Thanks!

Chris

 

I called the service department at my local Ford Dealership after that thread and spoke to the Shop Foreman regarding using Jet Fuel. His answer was that he has always been curious about that. I think deep inside, he wanted me to let him know how it worked out. When I asked him if it might cause some warranty issues, he said that if something failed in the fuel system, that Ford would take a sample of the fuel and have it analyzed, and that they would most probably leave me hanging for any repairs. Power Stroke Engines are waaaaaaaay too expensive for me to take that chance so I elected to not use it. Also, I recall hearing that there might be lubricity issues regarding jet fuel. Don't know for sure but for me, it just wasn't worth it.
If you do decide to try some, let us know the results.

 

We tried running one of our tugs with JetA. Wasn't too long before the injectors were trashed.

 

Jet-A has no lubrication, less cetane rating and no road tax.

 

it's closer to number 1 kero then diesel. above said i agree. possible failer.
myself i have on 1 case been only able to get some kero when we ran out. i added 1 qt of 30 w oil to 10 gals. never had a problem. this is something my gp would also do on the farm in the winter in his diesel tractors he never had one fail to start or had any problems with the fuel systems.

 

On Naval ships, all the diesels were run on Jp-5. The only thing deisel fuel was used for was burning in the main boilers, not something that requiers much of anything except flammability.

 

Jet fuel is $ 4.35/ gallon at my Airport. I dont know who in the world would be giving it to you for free but I bet they dont know it!

 

interestingly enough, the college i graduated from(Embry Riddle Aeronautical University) and a french company *ARGH* Scemca (i believe i spelled it right) are working on a diesel powered Cesna type aircraft for the one reaon that jet Fuel is cheaper than regular AvGas......so just a point to ponder

 

I graduated from the Prescott campus in May... flying in Florida now.

I get the free fuel from when they do quality control checks on the fuel trucks in the morning... 90% of the time the fuel is perfectly fine.

cheers.

 

Funny you should say that. We were talking today while filling the airplane about this and we talked about the sumping of the tanks or draining our airplanes fuel tanks when we go in for service. Each time is has to be at least 300 gallons if we dont go in on fumes. The fuel is technically contaminated but I would think it could work in the truck assuming the lubrication problem could be taken care of. We filled the tanks and though just the few pounds in the bottom of the tank could keep us going in the truck for a while. Also I never asked our fuelers what they did with the stuff they took off the trucks each morning.

 

At all the airports i've been around, they just put it in a barrel and they have a company come pick it up to reclaim it... in AZ we just used the sump fuel in the GPU's and kept the trucks topped off, never had any problems.

 

We ran our fuel trucks on the same fuel that was pumped out for aircraft. Now that I think of it the trucks have internationals in them.

 

The FBO's are not giving the Jet A away for free by any means. The truck tenders are required by the fuel suppliers to "sump" the trucks twice a day for a gallon each time, once in the AM and once in the PM. This done to prevent any buildup of water in the tender. It's a mandatory safety precaution that we're required to perform in aviation.

This sumped fuel is normally placed in a 55 gal drum. Some of the operators that have tugs with diesel engines will use that fuel in the tugs, otherwise it's picked up a "salvage" liquids truck.

Jet A or A1 is somewhat different than JP4 or JP5. As is stated above it has less lubricants and should not be used on a regular basis in a truck diesel unless some added lubricants such as 10W40 oil is mixed in with a tank full.

The major problem about using this fuel is that it is subjected to a lot of contaminants from the barrel such as dirt and water.

Also as was stated above, Jet Fuel is nothing more than a high grade of kerosene with some anti-bacterial additives thrown in. Some refiners such as Phillips and Exxon also add an anti-icing compound to keep the water particles suspended at the much colder temps at the higher flight levels.