7.3 fuel question

[PowerstrokinIt F250]

i have 7.3 with 320,000 miles on it. does anyone know if running offroad diesel in it would hurt it or not? i know its illegal and not that i would do it but i was just curious.

[SuperCrutyPS]

Shouldn't hurt it - It's just regular diesel dyed red as way of knowing it's off-road-only fuel.

[diablos30]

there is no difference other than its not taxed and if caught you'll get a nice big fine.

[Dirk]

Originally Posted by diablos30

there is no difference other than its not taxed and if caught you'll get a nice big fine.

No ****. I got checked once when traveling. I had ATF in the fuel (testing for any mileage changes\noise reduction) and LUCKY for me, I had the empty bottles in my tool box....

DOT just said ok and let me go. Something about the color wasn't exactly the same.

[ridiculously_necessary]

lol there ya go. keep empty bottles of atf with you, haha

[diablos30]

i dont know how they test it but i would guess its something that only lights up under a certain spectrum of light. kinda like how you put die in your oil to see where its leaking from. so i would imagine if they tested they would know if it was atf or not. or i could be completely wrong.

[Dirk]

Originally Posted by diablos30

i dont know how they test it but i would guess its something that only lights up under a certain spectrum of light. kinda like how you put die in your oil to see where its leaking from. so i would imagine if they tested they would know if it was atf or not. or i could be completely wrong.

They just looked at it and said it wasn't plain diesel, but wasn't the same red as off road fuel. I had about 3qt of ATF in 38gal of diesel.

[diablos30]

there must be some sort of test before they fine you though. maybe some kind of test strip perhaps?

when we tested the diesel tanks in korea for water we had a paste we put on a stick that would change color, maybe they use something like that.

[bigman8u4lunch]

I dont know but along the same topic some temp labor guys that were running a boom lift put a red dye for concrete in it thinking it was diesel and screwed us over cause they didnt say sh** and ran another one that had fuel. fun find the next day.

[furbis]

I have a few trucks that run the rocky mountain region, I was talking to another contractor today and he told me that dot checked him recently, they dip a glass tube into the tank hold their thumb over the end of it (kinda like kids do with straws and pop) he was told if there was any red at all in the fuel he would be fined.

I don't know if they will check pick ups like tractors but keep it in mind if you decide to run dyed fuel. the GOV is looking for any source of revenue that they can find.