Ok guys, need some help with abbreviations.
First, how many fuel types do you guys have? We got diesel, diesel and sometimes you can find plain old diesel.(read with heavy serving of sarcasm).
Second what is svo, wmo, low sulfur and all the other short words you guys use when talking about fuel?
So far I get gas=petrol and propane is what we call LPG (liquified petroleum gas)I think.

 

low sulfur Diesel is pretty much the only type of diesel that is distrubuted by our "gas stations" due to emmisions laws.
And i know u can use Wasted vegstable oil... with some filtering and adding some additives and it will burn like diesel in your truck but u have to do some modifications on ur truck. Sorry i cant help with all the names but hey its a start ...

 

WMO=waste motor oil WVO=waste vegetable oil you can run tranny fluid as well and bio diesel .all have to be filtered to get the majority of particulates out

 

When you say waste motor oil do you mean old engine oil out of our vehicles! If so is that legal over there or is it a only if you get caught type of thing. Tranny fluid would almost get you locked up over here.

 

All we have anymore here for diesel is "ultra low sulfur." Not sure what you guys have down unda' but it's probably better than what we have.

SVO is Straight Veggie Oil, people have run it but it's too pricey for that.

Propane and LPG are used pretty interchangeably here, especially since LPG vehicles and conversion kits are coming onto the market.

As far as running waste motor oil, yes some people dump WMO straight into their tank with some diesel...some people filter it very well (like 2 microns). I wouldn't run it without putting it through a fine filter myself. I've also heard you generally don't want to run oil from gassers, only from diesels. I dunno.

I figure both WMO and tranny fluid smoke like the dickins and stink to high hell too, I don't know if I would personally want to run either unless it was all that was available and I was really in a pinch.

 

I run waste motor oil in my 93 and it loves it. I do filter it and thin it with diesel/kerosene and sometimes waste hydraulic fluid. My 93 has a new injection pump on it and smokes less on WMO, than it does on straight diesel. It actually didn't smoke on the old and worn out IP either. I just didn't get the fuel mileage that I'm getting now. By the way, I work for the railroad and they have been keeping me well-stocked on oil lately! I have over 300 gallons right now.

 

My F150 is LPG and After being on diesel or LPG for so long, I don't think I could go back to petrol. Don't even like the smell of it anymore (I've said too much lol).

I have a small storage tank of WMO mixed with used transmission oil that I sometimes toss in the tank. Usually only about 5L per full tank so its about 1/5 ratio. The truck runs noticably better when this oil is in the tank. Smoke is not higher, and it has more low end torque. EGTs seem to be unchanged, but it pulls slightly better for the same amount of heat.

Its probably illegal in moste states, but enforcement varies greatly by region. Canada does allow for a bracket between 5% and 50% alternative fuel concentration where it does not have to be taxed. But this probably only applies to renewable fuels like biodiesel. You see news stories all the time over here about people trying to drive across the country without burning any petrodiesel, so they aren't exactly hiding it. If this is indeed illegal, enforcement would be politically awkward. Maybe thats why we don't worry about it here in canada.

 

I also burn used motor oil however, All I need to do is buy it new and put it right into the oil filler tube

 

D'oh! I know what that means!

 

1986 #2 diesel had greater than 5000 PPM sulphur.
Then they introduced LSD, early 90's if I remember right, low sulphur diesel that had around 500 PPM sulphur to pass stricter EPA requirements.
Around 2005 we began the switch to ULSD, ultra low sulphur diesel with less than 15 PPM sulphur again to pass stricter EPA requirements.

Diesel was available in 5 grades, #1 which is the most refined and contains less parafin wax, so it don't gell as fast.
#2 is the most common for on road use.
#3 and 4 are what the rail roads, tug boats and the like were burning.
#5 was used mostly in the shipping industry.

As the fuel gets bigger numbers, BTU content increases, the amount of refining is less, so the cost is usually lower per gallon and the amount of parafin wax increases.
So the higher the fuel number, the higher temp the fuel will gell at.

We also have off road diesel, usually dyed red, that is for construction and farm machinery.
It has no highway tax paid on it since the machines it is supposed to go in are usually not on highways, more on that below.

SVO, straight vegetable oil
WVO, waste vegetable oil most commonly used in deep friers.
WMO, waste motor oil

There was a user here recently running straight WMO for fuel.
But WMO has a higher BTU content per gallon and is also very thick for the IP and injectors unless the temp is very high.
And you also have to think about all the wear metals, acids and soot in used diesel oil.
Power and MPG should be great running WMO, but you also have to think about what it is doing to the IP and injector when you are running it.

In the USA, any fuel used to power a motor vehicle designed for highway transportation use is required to use only fuel that a HUT, highway use tax has been paid on.
That is a federal law and also a state law in every state I have looked at the code in.
Since the fuel distributor's are paying the HUT on the fuel they are delivering to the stations in every state, the fuel out of the station pumps is the only book legal fuel.

Some states are checking fuel, some states are not.
The fines can be hefty for running non taxed fuel, in WV it is 5000 dollars for the first offense.

 

EPA = Environmental "Protection" Agency

Protection has a different meaning than you'd think -- actually, no one really knows what it means...

 

Dave is right, every state is different on enforcement and fines, Arkansas has a special exemption for burning homemade biodiesel, but no matter what, if they stick the tank and it is not rosey red, they think its good, I don't think any of them have been trained to know what WVO or WMO looks like, WVO kind of looks like old diesel fuel, just slightly darker, but not red, which is what they are looking for.

 

Last fuel check I went through one of the officers was talking about the french fry truck.

WV sent the compliance officers to Columbus Ohio two years ago for training to detect other fuels.

So you can bet Ohio officers had the same training.

The roads are crap here with the winter weather we have.
I would much rather give the state 1000 in highway use tax so they can fix the worst holes than I would like to fix 1000 dollars worth of parts I broke hitting the unpatched holes.

At least all of the highway use tax money goes into the roads, repair, maintain and construct new ones.
That is a better deal than what they do with my income tax dollars.

 

They have found a solution for that in CA -- highest taxes and worst everything.

I've heard that some state(s) you can get set up to pay taxes on alternative fuels. Don't know any details though.

 

dave,
I spend 8-9 months a year on a tugboat and can assure you that I only know of 4-5 that are running heavy fuel, it's very rare due to the space restrictions on such a small boat. Ships run #2 and bunker.... I've only ever seen one ship in recent time run bunker in a harbor and they were fined heavily for it.
We run #2 offroad fuel.
Due to pollution reasons we are being forced to get rid of the 2strokes, as most harbors are getting cranky, and most goverment jobs are getting more stringent. If we ran heavier fuel we would never be allowed in any US harbor, and certainly wouldn't be working doing contracting for the Army Corp (like we are here).

Personally from a fixing detroit diesel 16v149 perspective.... I like ULSD. We used to change exhaust valves ALL the time. Since the swap to the ULSD I havn't changed one head due to burnt valves (thats almost 2 years kids, and the one main engine has 28k hours on it).

Drew