Free Diesel ? - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

Charles_B · #1 12-31-2008, 10:29 AM

Couple of months ago I got 50 gals of diesel off this guy who was replacing a backup generator tank, needless to say the diesel was black from sitting, filtered it out and have mixed some with vegoil and ran it in my vehicle, seems to be okay, except not so much cooking oil smell as when I run straight vegoil. Now he says they have to replace the underground tanks they fill the boats from. He figures about 200 gals I can have if I want it. I will get a bit of muck from bottom of tank to filter out but I figure I should be able to salvage some. He says it won't be done until Feb so I have some time, anybody want any when I get it out, free. I figure to filter it to some degree as I pump it out and then finer filtering when I put it in storage, with doses of Startron to kill the bugs. Any suggestions or ideas welcome.

vstech · #2 12-31-2008, 10:40 AM

200 gallons, in a BAD underground tank... that's going to be 195 gallons of fuel and 5 gallons of water. not to mention the crud. if you have a good separator, and time, it's worth it for sure, but water is a tough thing to separate in that quantity.

odie · #3 12-31-2008, 12:57 PM

sounds like a deal to me. a little filtering and letting it settle and some biobor. but it's free!

Dee8go · #4 12-31-2008, 02:10 PM

Wow, 200 gallons. That's $400 or not so long ago more like $800 worth of diesel. Do you have some way to store that much?

Hatterasguy · #5 12-31-2008, 02:29 PM

I'd run it if its clean. I ran about 100 gallons of home heating oil through the SDL this fall that I got for free. But it was perfectly clean, and from an above ground tank. I only pumped the tank down to 8in off the bottom to.

A word of caution if its off road diesel don't run it in the winter, it will start real hard. Below 30 the car smoked like a freight train and skipped like mad, in the 20's it wanted to stall. You have to cut it 50/50 with winter road diesel to get it to start properly. We ran it in my uncles Cat 304 and it did the same thing.

Fuel mileage rocked though, I went from 23.5 to 26.2.

oldsinner111 · #6 12-31-2008, 03:19 PM

Add a quart of turpentine to 50 gallons,to kill animals and raise cetane.

Charles_B · #7 12-31-2008, 05:09 PM

I'm thinking of a few 55 gal drums. I don't think I have to worry about cold weather, so far its only got down into the 50's at night. I live south of Miami Fl. Whats winter? I'm thinking Startron enzyme cleaner to each drum as I fill it and seal it up, unless I get a big pickup to burn off my excess fuel. I mostly run vegoil and just got a Sushi bar as new source, very nice oil, 2 cubies every week.

nickofoxford · #8 12-31-2008, 05:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hatterasguy

I'd run it if its clean. I ran about 100 gallons of home heating oil through the SDL this fall that I got for free. But it was perfectly clean, and from an above ground tank. I only pumped the tank down to 8in off the bottom to.

A word of caution if its off road diesel don't run it in the winter, it will start real hard. Below 30 the car smoked like a freight train and skipped like mad, in the 20's it wanted to stall. You have to cut it 50/50 with winter road diesel to get it to start properly. We ran it in my uncles Cat 304 and it did the same thing.

Fuel mileage rocked though, I went from 23.5 to 26.2.

Your millage increased?!

I ran straight heating oil last month and my millage took a real dive.. What climate did you have during that fall? Im thinking that since the heating oil must burn colder than diesel (my engine had a HARD time warming up) that is where I lost efficiency, cold diesels are pigs..

Hatterasguy · #9 12-31-2008, 05:46 PM

Warm, as long as it stays above 50 or 60 starting didn't seem to change. My warm up time didn't change, might want to check your T stat. Other than a bit more smoke I didn't notice any difference in the way the engine ran.

What I did notice was that I was getting 500+ miles on a tank, something that my car has never done before.

#10 01-01-2009, 03:31 AM

Its not worth risking the engine to cheap out on fuel.

71inka02 · #11 01-01-2009, 09:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by oldsinner111

Add a quart of turpentine to 50 gallons,to kill animals and raise cetane.

I'm sorry - did someone say turpentine? That's a new one for me....! I've seen and 'spoken up' on things like clorox and lord only knows what other things....but turpentine?

Just had to appreciate the beauty of the "forum"....speaking up on my thoughts....And also --- NO NEED for anyone to reply in a effort to 'sell' me on turpentine-Thoughts welcome, but I'm a big believer in fuel additives, but ONLY ones developed and made for diesel fuel.

nickofoxford · #12 01-11-2009, 05:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hatterasguy

Warm, as long as it stays above 50 or 60 starting didn't seem to change. My warm up time didn't change, might want to check your T stat. Other than a bit more smoke I didn't notice any difference in the way the engine ran.

What I did notice was that I was getting 500+ miles on a tank, something that my car has never done before.

I think it was because I have that hard coupled fan behind the radiator, so as soon as the T stat opens the engine gets frozen haha I don't think the poor T stat can keep up with regulating. It was only maybe a week old when I ran the heating oil, and it regulated better on diesel than it did the heating oil during warm up. I really want a visco fan now that im thinking about it..