Antique cars: gas /kerosene mix :)

[cfz2882]

guy seen me with my 1917 Dodge and asked what fuel I was using in it-told him it was pump gas,and he suggested antique cars-with there long-stroke,low compression engines,run better on a ~3:1 gas/kero mix and also mentioned a 400 ci.1975 ford he has runs better on the mix Any one here try this with antique/vintage cars?

 

[qsd-dan]

From what I understand, before the widespread use of leaded gasoline, the concoction of fuel used back then was basically on par with what's known today as white gas.

 

[lowefficiency]

Sounds like the old distillate tractors. There are endless debates in the classic tractor world on what the old fuels actually were, how to replicate them now, and whether that is actually the right thing to do...

 

[d-jones]

Kerosene, Diesel and Jet A are very similar fuels. So much so that in a pinch they can be used interchangeably to a degree. I can't imagine anyone suggesting that Diesel should be added to gasoline in any ratio to make the engine run better, so why would Kerosene be different? Now my curiosity is piqued, so I'm going to have to look into this and try to figure out if there's anything to it. Great. Another distraction.

 

[robbinsandmyers]

Im not sure about how old fuels were blended, my knowledge goes as far as regular leaded gas being banned now. In fact I knew a guy that got 10 years for pumping Ethyl

 

[viewsaver]

Many, MANY old 2-cylinder John Deere tractors were built that ran on kerosene. They used a small tank of gasoline for starting and then were switched over to kerosene once they were warm. Kerosene does not vaporize nearly as well as gasoline so the heat of the engine was required.

Furthermore, the kerosene tractors had very low compression ratios because kerosene has a very poor "octane" rating. The tractors also had a facility by which radiator water could be fed into the engine during high load operation to minimize knocking.

Kerosene is a rather poor fuel for spark-ignition engines. It was only used because it was very cheap.