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Distilate Fuel

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SproutW

02-28-2005 02:01:40

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For years I thought Distilate fuel is today's kerosen. Did some searching through the archives and didn't find a whole lot of information. Sounds like they stopped using the distilate fuel years ago. I've got an old IH article that explains you could purchase distilate at half the cost of gasoline and kerosene. Anyone remember using distilate fuel, or have further information they would like to share? I sure would go for a fuel that is half of the cost of gasoline!!!

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Michael Soldan

02-28-2005 15:20:21

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Re: Distilate Fuel in reply to SproutW, 02-28-2005 02:01:40

Sprout, the letter series and most all distillate burning tractors had to have shutters and a heat shield that fit around the manifold . You had to close the shutters till your heat guage showed in the high end of "RUN". The heat shield bolted around the manifold and kept the heat in so the fuel was vapour by the time it hit the cylinder. Remember that distillate tractors had low compression heads and started on gasoline , then switched over to distillate. My dad always said that when it came time to plow the old M pulled better on distillate than on gasoline, put a stream of black smoke into the air and "Pulled like a trooper"..... Mike in Exeter Ontario

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Hugh MacKay

02-28-2005 07:34:54

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Re: Distilate Fuel in reply to SproutW, 02-28-2005 02:01:40

Sprout: Just to add to what Cowman has told you, my understanding is after refining became more sophisticated they were able to eliminate that waste, thus the end of distilate.

Back 60 years ago kerosine was also much less expensive than gasoline. Must have been volume that ended that.

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SproutW

02-28-2005 06:09:10

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Re: Distilate Fuel in reply to SproutW, 02-28-2005 02:01:40

Thanks for the information and seems to make sense. I know it was not the best fuel in the world but a tractor designed to burn a fuel at half the cost of gas. You just gotta love that. I'm still making my hydrogen powered tractor anyway.

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Nebraska Cowman

02-28-2005 04:09:54

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Re: Distilate Fuel in reply to SproutW, 02-28-2005 02:01:40

Distilate was a product of an outdated refining proccess. As each grade of fuel was drawn off there would be some of the product that was contaminated with the next grade. All these were put in a separate drum and blended and the result was "distilate" fuel.

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PAULIH300

02-28-2005 03:18:30

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Re: Distilate Fuel in reply to SproutW, 02-28-2005 02:01:40

From what I read,distillate was a mix of gas and diesel.If thats correct though,how do you get spark plugs to cleanly burn diesel fuel? Must have been a low percentage of diesel...???

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terryger

02-28-2005 08:37:12

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Re: Distilate Fuel in reply to PAULIH300, 02-28-2005 03:18:30

the engine had to be red hot and the poorer fuel would actually pre-ignite from the hot cast iron and spark plug combo. many of the carbs also pumped water into the cylinder at the same time to claen the carbon(due to poor combustion) out of the cylinders.

this is where the term "dieseling" comes from in modern gas engines. preignition will keep 8 cylinders running after shutoff so 2 cylinders was pretty easy to run regularly in this fashion. just not as efficiently and as long as we want these days. compared to a horse it was a miracle!

kerosene can be lit and as such will burn better. #2 diesel(what we use today. would not work on that application. coal oil(a by prodcut of coal)was in the same basic category as kerosene as was lard renderings. fuel as we know it today was not the same in those days. "corn squeezins" or as some know it "moonshine" could also be run as fuel but was often used to fuel a different kind of "motor"

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Super A

02-28-2005 08:27:14

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Re: Distilate Fuel in reply to PAULIH300, 02-28-2005 03:18:30

The engine had to run pretty hot for one thing, to properly vaporize the heavier fuel. And you started them on gasoline and then switched to distillate when they were warm.

My Super A, which my grandfather bought new, was set up to run on distillate. He remembered the fuel, but said he always just ran it on gasoline.

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