Kerosene

[magnus]

Can kerosene be used as a main source of fuel on an 6.0 engine? I have heard very mixed stories, but not a lot of write up as I know in the US, kerosene is more expensive than diesel.

Anyone have any info on this?

No, and I believe the reason is that its to dry and doesnt lube the fuel system.

[magnus]

what if you run it with a blend of diesel, and/or additives?

[Jake]

I'd like to know for 7.3's too.

[elibenson]

You can definitely run kerosene in your diesels. It comes in Low Sulfur and Ultra Low Sulfur varieties. I know that in marine applications, people use it a lot. It is supposed to clean up your injectors, pumps, etc. If you are worried about lubricity, you can never have enough, just add some more lubricant additive.

If people are running strait transmission fluid, waste motor oil, etc, Kerosene sounds pretty tame, in my opinion. I really wouldn't be afraid of running it strait, but if you worried about lubricity, add some additive.

[HVAC SuperTech]

you better filter it well before you add it, and not to call BS on elibenson, but Jon knows his stuff, so you might really wanna check into this before you just stick some in your tank.

[elibenson]

I am not planning on putting any in my tank. I do know for a fact (I helped put it in there) that the boats that I used to work on ran a tank of kerosene every week or so to (supposedly) keep everything cleaned in the engine. I tell you what, they did run clean. No smoking, no knocking, reduced diesel-noise, etc. This was a time when marine diesels were still using high-sulfur diesel. Nowadays they are using Low or Ultra-low sulfur. I think at the time people were thinking that you needed to clean up your engines after running some really nasty dirty diesel in them. I don't know what the long term effects of it were, but the engines were continuing to work well after I left that company.

Now, running it in your road vehicles is not economically feasible. I can buy a lot of diesel for the price of kerosene.

[magnus]

where I am from, the kerosene is about 40% lower in price than diesel, that is why I asked, but I dont want to risk anything. After some research, I know some ppl run it 20% kerosene and 80% diesel, and then some 2 stroke oil etc, but then I might as well just run 100% diesel as 2 stroke is expensive. I also read of few ppl running it 80% kerosene but man oh man...too much information, and I'm lost haha

[RedDye01]

the two stroke thing seems to work. I've ran it in about 5 tanks. I just use the little bottle of tcw3 from wally world. Quiets it down quite a bit. doesnt do anything for mileage. Having a quiet engine on a 500 mile trip is worth a couple extra bucks to me.

[elibenson]

I wonder why kerosene is cheaper. Are you sure it's not heating oil that you are thinking of? I have heard of people running heating oil too, but I don't think I would. l think it is very high in particulate matter, and would probably do a job on your injectors.