Add a little Diesel

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My Father-in-law was a terrific mechanic that grew up in hard times, on a farm in South Dakota.

I always noticed that Darold’s vehicle’s had a ton of miles on them and run wonderfully.

After, one day making an error of mistakenly putting a gallon or so of Diesel fuel into my brand new 94 Harley Road King, Darold shared that, not to worry, he had always added one quart of diesel fuel to each tank full of gasoline in all his vehicles.

The Harley would run, so every 50 miles or so, I stopped and put in more gasoline to dilute down the diesel.

To my amazement the bike run quieter, “so quiet I thought I was riding a Honda” (LOL).

I know before starting this, that this will start a bevy of nay sayers, but we have had nothing but positive results by occasionally adding a 2/3 tents of Diesel fuel per tank of gasoline (when convenient) in all our vehicles.

I/we add a small amount of Diesel fuel in every vehicle we have, yes, all are fuel injected, no, we have never had a fouled plug, yes, we can document in increased gas milage.

We have taken brand new motorcycles, SUV’s and pickup’s and added diesel fuel to their tanks, to start the break-in process with added top end lubrication.

Recently we drove to Lake Havasu Arizona to pick up our 19’, I had forgotten to add Diesel for a while to the pick up we were driving and don’t drive often, except when needed, because of it’s gas milage.

Somewhere East of Denver, I notice that the gas milage was 16.2 (on the readout), I added a half gallon of Diesel (to start the process), by the time we were to Grand Junction, driving the speed limit on cruise control (through the mountains, up, down etc.) the readout indicated 17.4.

What I was after, was to raise the engine/cylinder lubrication because of the anticipated added stress of pulling a CD at Interstate speeds on the return home trip.

Anyway recently, because of the threat of 4/5 dollar a gallon gas and since we can document that we drive over 400 miles per week, opted to purchase a smaller vehicle for economy sake.

I never could see how buying an expensive car to save gas could work out, so I reversed the equation and assumed that an economy car had to perform at 30 MPH, when compared to 16 MPH.

The difference of 16 MPG and 30 MPG at $4.00 and/or $5.00 per gallon gasoline, gave a range of purchase price/s that would pay back in 3.5 to 5 years.

Anyway, we purchased a used, dealer certified, 2010 lease car with 30,000 miles.

This used, American made, four cylinder car run perfectly, on the first 150 mile highway trip/leg (running at or 1 mph over the speed limit on cruise control), the best milage readout indicated was 27.9 (after resetting every 15 minutes or so).

On the return trip, I filled up and added 3 tents of a gallon diesel (running at or 1 mph over the speed limit on cruise control), we then received read outs of up to 33.6 (after resetting every 15 minutes or so, on the same leg in reverse).

Overall with road miles and in town driving miles, we are averaging 30.4 MPG (actual miles/gallons= calculation).

We will continue to calculate the actual milage as we refill this vehicle.

One thing I did notice, hauling an additional 100 lbs. of “stuff” on one leg did directly translates to lower (2/3 MPG) gas milage.

That would not be surprising except that it seemed that a fairly small amount of weight can and will make a noticeable difference in the economy class of vehicles

Yes, I have for years added diesel fuel to four stroke marine gas tanks to clean the system and add upper end cylinder lube/valve stem lube etc. without any problems.

I’m sure this will be beat to death on this thread, but if you have a vehicle that you want to try adding diesel to and when noticing the improvement, please report back. 

Hope someone is listening.

Regards,

Ron Fisher  
 
I know some folks add Marvel Mystery Oil and other additives to gasoline.

When I pumped gas as a teenager, the owner didnt sell any of these elixiors b/c he felt they were ineffective, a waste of money, fouled spark plugs and catalytic converters. The same for adding honey additivies to motor oil. He recommended regular tune ups and oil changes, keeping tire pressure at recommended pressure or as marked on the sidewalls, rotate and balance tires, and your foot controls the gas mileage.
This was the late 60's and early 70's. Plus he added to want see some proofs! ASE reports, etc to back up the claims and
falsehoods. All of the gas he sold was filtered at the pump and he would not do oil changed without changing the oil filter and a full chassis lub.

Sorry having flashbacks


just m2cw and I had a lot respect for him and helped me with my goal of getting a college education. God Bless you, Bill Bayh
 
I think I'll wait until one of our engineers step in . Could it be like mystery oil that maybe increases the compression one would then get better mpg??

Just dont try mixing gas into a diesel engine I dont think that would work to well?

One of Lifes mysterys to get better fuel economy on boats and cars We have always put in synthetic oil and it seems to get a little better mpg
 
Besides the upper cylinder lubrication, the greater gas mileage with the diesel fuel added can be attributed to the fact that a given volume of diesel fuel has more energy stored in it than the equivalent volume of gasoline.

The diesel fuel is denser / weighs more per gallon, and has more double bonds of carbon in it's molecules proportionately than the shorter, simpler gasoline molecule(s). The addition of ethanol has exagerated the differential, no less!!!

From Wikipedia:

As of 2010, the density of petroleum diesel is about 0.832 kg/l (6.943 lb/US gal), about 12% more than ethanol-free petrol (gasoline), which has a density of about 0.745 kg/l (6.217 lb/US gal). About 86.1% of the fuel mass is carbon, and when burned, it offers a net heating value of 43.1 MJ/kg as opposed to 43.2 MJ/kg for gasoline. However, due to the higher density, diesel offers a higher volumetric energy density at 35.86 MJ/L (128 700 BTU/US gal) vs. 32.18 MJ/L (115 500 BTU/US gal) for gasoline, some 11% higher, which should be considered when comparing the fuel efficiency by volume.

(color emphasis mine)

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diesel_fuel

Joe. :teeth :thup
 
Around here (upper midwest), it’s quite common to put in a quart or gasoline with each tank of Diesel fuel (to stop or lower the fuel jelling tendencies) during the coldest part of the winter (not this year, which has not been typical).

We have had Diesel pickups with well over 300,000 miles on them, where the fuel was treated in this manner without any problems.

Regards,

Ron Fisher
 
There are many things to increase gas mileage:
drive slower,
drive with lighter weight
keep the tires inflated to max for that vehicle and load,
drive until the tank is almost empty
Anticipate stops
do not use brakes--let engine compression slow you down slowly
Accellorate slowly


Show me a valid scientific study which shows that adding diesel to your gasoline car tank improves fuel economy. If that were the case, every car would come with instructions to do that!

(Also there is no conspiracy to make us use more fuel)

Sorry, I don't buy it. But I have some really great land for sale here in Florida! It will make you a millionaire (sometime in the next 100 years). But by then, a million dollars will buy one gallon of gasoline!
 
I don't have any positive answer, but consider what the diesel fuel could do to the catalytic converter, and oxygen sensors on modern cars.

Replacing either the cat, or oxygen sensor could eat up any extra mileage gain.

Possibly voiding the warranty could really get expensive!
 
Hi Bob and Larry,

Sorry, was not trying to sell you anything, nor was I making anything up.

Diesel fuel is just one of the many products produced from petroleum, which can include gasoline, jet fuel, diesel fuel, heating oil, and heavier fuel oils.

Have not had any problems, not one with the catalytic converters and/or oxygen sensors on any of over a dozen "of my own" vehicles, let alone others in the family (including company vehicles).

Regards,

Ron Fisher
 
If you think adding diesel to a gas motor makes it get good mileage, try putting diesel into a diesel. My 1983 6.2 diesel gets 20+ MPG typically.....If only my gas F250 would get 11.....

My personal opinion is that adding a quart of so of diesel won't make any significant difference in performance or economy. I think it will play minor havoc with engine management systems, catalytic converters, and possibly create build up on the intake runners. I'd skip it though if it were my motor.

If one really thinks about it, there are 4 quarts to a gallon and around 20 gallons to a typical tank in a car. That means there are 80 quarts or so of fuel. Put a quart of diesel in, and you have a ratio of 1:81. Why would we make our four stroke run on 2 stroke gas?????
 
Remember, as I earlier wrote; “I know before starting this, that this will start a bevy of nay sayers, but we have had nothing but positive results by occasionally adding a 2/3 tents of Diesel fuel per tank of gasoline (when convenient) in all our vehicles.”

Adding Diesel is no different than adding other packaged petroleum products for upper end lubrication etc. they are all burnable fuels and from some level of the petroleum “cracking scale” see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fluid_catalytic_cracking

I understand race car people have also done this to add lubrication etc.

Of 5000 members, no one else heard of this?

Regards,

Ron Fisher
 
Ron,
I first heard of this when I was first driving about 60 years ago. Well aware of fractionation of petroleum products. All gasolines are the same--it is just the additive which is put into the tanker truck as it leaves the depot which makes one gasoline any different than another....
 
After, over 25 years of positive results, I recently had two occasions where I could monitor and measure a noticeable positive change.

I wanted to share those results.

Regards,

Ron Fisher
 
Of course there's a plethora of discussion on the net regarding this. Like anything else, it's hard to separate the "wheat from the chaff" when one looks for reliable information on such a topic on the net.

I like this article because Straight Dope seems to go to a reasonable amount of effort to get expert opinions on most topics.
 
Roger,

The referenced article was written in 2004 prior to the introduction of Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel Fuel.

Since the sulfur was acting as a lubricant, does the removal of most of the sulfur change the situation?
 
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