home heating oil vs off road diesel

[jplob96]

I have a 1995 Yanmar 6LYM-UTE engine in my boat with 2600 hours on it. I have been using home heating oil the last six years with a fuel cetane booster additive and bio-bor for algae.On a cold start engine puts out a lot of white smoke and there is some raw fuel coming out the exhaust. After engine runs for about five minutes smoke stops. Is there a difference between home heating oil and off road diesel you get at the marina? Both have red dye. Hope I am not causing any engine damage.

 

[djmarchand]

This question has been discussed periodically on this forum and others.

Diesel fuel has to meet a cetane and lubricity spec among others important for performance and life of your diesel. Home heating oil doesn't have to meet those specs.

In some markets they are probably the same stuff as it doesn't pay for the refinery to make different products and the distributer to store and ship different products. But you never know.

David

 

[jplob96]

Thanks David,
I have been using Power Service Diesel Kleen as a additive. Claims it raises cetane 4 to 6 numbers and protects pumps and injectors with Slickdiesel lubricator. If I go back to getting diesel fuel at the marina i guess i can assume that the cetane and lubricity are to the proper spec.

 

[Fouraces59]

For a bunch of years the oil truck that fueled the commercial lobster boats (about 15) twice a week was using No 2 home heating oil and nobody had any problems. I had 13,000 hrs on my Cummins 6BTA. If I got lucky and was the last boat he could leave the ticket in the meter and stop by and top off the house under the boat name. Some guys stuck with diesel from the Marina but many fueled off the truck. My father had over 10,ooo hrs on his Cummins 855

 

[Beamie]

Your alright in my book. The white smoke...as you said....is simply a cold engine, cold air.

Interested and the cost savings after spending the money on the additives. Home heating oil isn't cheap anymore either.

 

[WoundUpMarine]

Ive been working on the tour boats around here the past 10 years or so and we burn through thousands and thousands of gallons of #2 home heating per year, no problems here.

 

[jplob96]

Beamie, Additive is about 6 cents per gal., Bio-bor is about4 cents. Last time I got home heating oil I paid $3.05 per gal. Diesel at the marina is $4.40 now. How do you explain the unburnt fuel coming out the exhaust on a cold start? This to goes away after engine runs for a while.

 

[tomy]

when I started to deliver fuel all hhf and offroad were same product. at time both had high sulfer as a lubricating agaent. as the clean air shit started, refineries were haveing to refine ON ROAD diesel more to eliminate the sulfer. that is way taxed too! the hhf and offrad today has less sulfer, but more the ON ROAD. When I deliver to boat, I always ask owner to make sure they put an additive into fuel for lubricating agaent.

 

[Keelboater]

A little off topic, but it's comming: natural gas diesel conversions. LNG is already in the shipping industry and making it's way into tugs. Costs much less than diesel and burns much cleaner. They say the lifespan of a motor is drastically increased because it is so clean. Cummins has teamed up with Westport for building over the road trucking motors and fleet truck motors in both LNG and CNG applications. I am hearing good things so far. But natgas in a boat? Time will tell. Any takers if they get that option ..........assuming that the safety issues have been well taken care of? There must be Pro's and con's for sure, but if you are a commercial operator you can save a fortune in fuel costs by going natgas, and gain the advantage of an extended life cycle for the motor. The new power is not cheap (yet) for the trucks, but it is being subsidised by Clean Energy Fuels and G.E. Capital. It costs about $8000 more for a natgas diesel than conventional if I heard correctly. The future for boating just might be closer than we think. As the infrastructure builds out for refueling, it might eventually become available at a fuel dock near you. But the best part of it is that the natgas is not imported!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[fugazy99]

if using home fuel just change the filters more often. Its dirtier than diesel.

 

[Beamie]

Beamie, Additive is about 6 cents per gal., Bio-bor is about4 cents. Last time I got home heating oil I paid $3.05 per gal. Diesel at the marina is $4.40 now. How do you explain the unburnt fuel coming out the exhaust on a cold start? This to goes away after engine runs for a while.

It is just incomplete combustion. The block isn't hot yet, the incoming air is cold and the bang isn't that good yet until temps even out. Boost air, not really too controllable on a small engine should be kept warm, above the dew point as to not make water and of course cool enough to get the volume of air per amount of fuel to burn. This is usually between mid 90 and 140 degs depending on cooler cleanliness.

 

[jplob96]

Thanks everyone for the input. I think all my questions have been answered.

 

[snowstorm]

Thanks everyone for the input. I think all my questions have been answered.

the oil co that delivers diesel to me said dont even ask us to put heating oil in your diesel skid tank. the driver said he would be fired that day if he did it. also a big fine for the oil co. there is no difference between on rd and off rd diesel except the dye...red... and the tax. most of the time the fuel will be cheaper if you buy on rd and file for the tax refund with the state and feds. because with off rd they add sales tax

 

[sandytows]

In Portland the commercial fuel dock sold home heating oil also known as High Sulphur diesel (3000ppm) for years and everybody ran it with no problems although you did need to be more diligent about changing filters. HS Diesel actualy provides better lubrication of the fuel system then LSD or ULSD so you can save your money on the lubricity additive.
That being said it is illegal to run HS diesel in an engine on-road, off-road or marine.
It is unlikely a fuel supplier would take the risk of delivering if they know of its intended illegal use.
On Road diesel must now be Ultra Low Sulphur Diesel while offroad can still be LSD but that is currently changing and it will soon all be required to be ULSD.
LSD and ULSD should have lubricity additives when used in engines. In most cases that will be added at the tank farm when the fuel is loaded as "motor fuel"
In many parts of the country heating oil is now LSD anyway, it just lacks lubricity additives.
Only in some northeast states do you still see HS diesel sold as heating oil, and using that in an engine is a big no-no, although most older mechanical diesels won't mind it a bit.
read the link if you want to know more than you ever wanted to.
http://www.epa.gov/otaq/fuels/dieselfuels/index.htm

 

[jplob96]

Thanks sandytows, I think your explanation is right on. I burned home heating oil this last season in a 1995 engine with no problems. Did not know it was illegal because diesel at the marina and the heating oil are both dyed red. As far as the heating oil being HS or LSD I have no glue, but I think I will continue to use the additive just to be safe.

 

[captjohn]

My buddy owns a marina with a fuel dock, he sells diesel. He knows the fuel delivery guy well. The guy admits that the diesel comes out of the same tank as home heating oil when he fills the truck.

 

[Fishinengineer]

Heating oil lubricity

In New York at least, heating oil can contain up to 5% biodiesel by law and it's being encouraged. The lubricity of biodiesel is excellent even surpassing most of the high priced additives. Somewhere I have a study that was done on the additives, I'll see if I can find it and post.

 

[gsous89]

Home heating oil (#2 oil) can clog injectors due to the high sulfur content. seen it happen before, not good.

 

[captjohn]

Not sure where you've, "seen it happen before", because the biggest problem with diesel fuel today is LOWER sulfur content, not high sulfur. You want sulfur in the fuel, sulfur acts as a lubricant, it's in solution (not in solid form), only solids can clog injectors, so it's not the sulfur. Dirty fuel (solid particles that get past the filters) can clog injectors, but sulfur, in solution, I'm not buying that for a second.

 

[BunkerMan]

Aside from all this uls and high sulphur debate I have found that #2 or home heating is just dirty and problematic due to contaminated truck tank or lack of pre filters such at a land or dock based pump. We go thru over 10-15k gal in a season and consistlny have some type of sludge problem thru out the season. I have recently added pre racor filter and my problem has been solved. I run both older detroits and brand new qsm 11's both older and new engines don't seem to mind the #2 but my personal 3126 wants the cleaner fuel so I switched to clear on road for her and now have not one issue. Clear is running about just shy of 4$ a gal I have bio Desiel available to me and was considering a test tank above deck to try it out. Any input would be great