[Milsurplus] Gasoline and diesel storage.

[Clare Owens]

Hi Ken,

I'm not sure about mold in diesel fuel but back in about 1979 the company I
was working for was installing a plant monitoring and energy conservation
system at a Cummins Engine Co. Diesel engine plant outside of Jamestown,
NY.  They were extremely careful about the air quality in the plant, which
we monitored, but also were very concerned that they were keeping their
stored diesel fuel fresh.  It was used for the testing of the completed
truck engines.  They told me that they had to dispose of one tank of fuel
that had been left untouched too long.  Not a small quantity.

Another diesel fuel story while I'm at it.  For many years the owner of the
motel next door to our house was a guy who was an operating engineer -
dozers, Gradalls, etc.  He drove a VW Diesel, which he fueled from a 250
gallon furnace tank he had the local home heating oil company keep filled
with #2 fuel oil, which he said was identical with what he was using in
those large earth manglers.  Worked fine for him in the summer and in our
Buffalo winters.

Funny thing is that my last 10 years of full time employment was at a
Caterpillar assembly plant here in NC.  But I still drive a gasoline
powered car.

YMMV,

Clare


On Mon, Jan 11, 2016 at 12:06 PM, Kenneth G. Gordon <
kgordon2006 at frontier.com> wrote:

> On 10 Jan 2016 at 20:36, Mark via Milsurplus wrote:
>
> > "Oh, I agree! Gasoline doesn't store well, and diesel isn't a lot
> better. "
> >
> > Last year I ran some 30 year old diesel fuel in a 671 two stroke diesel.
> A
> > bit harder to start than normal but ran just fine. Looked odd, had turned
> > kinda orange color. Had a big RACOR filter inline. No water collected in
> the
> > filter.
>
> My understanding is that diesel can accumulate MOLD in it. Otherwise, it
> most certainly should store better and longer than gasoline....which
> turns to varnish eventually.
>
> One time, when I had several Model "A" Fords, I came across an original
> Model "A" Ford single-bolt cast-iron Zenith carburetor which had been
> left full of gas for so long that what was in the bowl had turned to a
> tar-like black varnish. It took considerable effort to clean that up.
>
> Ken W7EKB
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