can I run my car on Kerosene?

Lash it in. What’s the worst that could happen? Keep us updated.

What's the ratio of diesel to cooking oil?

I remember doing it maybe 10 years ago, it was all the rage to head up north with a van full of 50L cans. this was with a mid 2000's berlingo.

Aldi did a deal on cooking oil and there was auld lads filling trolleys with the stuff.

It's illegal to use in your car.

The older the car the more likely it is to run well. If you're running neat kero (ie without some diesel, green diesel, 2 stroke etc) then it will likely ruin a lot of your fuel system (eg fuel pump) due to lesser lubricity.

I did it for years, mixing kero with waste engine oil. I remember paying 37c per liter! Old Carinas, 406, anything with a straight diesel and ideally indirect injection is perfect. OM606 comes to mind. I certainly wouldnt put anything common rail or more modern than the early 2000's through it though. They arent built for it.

The trick is to find a local-ish station that has been done multiple times for selling washed diesel. I used to be able to put the green nozzle directly into the car! When I was feeling flush I would alternate between green and kero+waste oil

keep the head down as the Landcruiser is filled with green and send the kid in to pay in cash at my local station.

Holy smoke when did Boards.ie become Banditos.ie ?🙂

It depends on the age of the car, mechanics used put it in for cleaning out injectors etc that was for diesel cars.

Unless it is an old car it will destroy the engine In a very short time.

Best bet as mentioned above is to horse it in and see what happens after a few weeks, failing that ask a friendly mechanic if it is an option for your car.

In the petrol shortages of the '70's and '80's, I know of several taxi drivers that had to use it to stay in business, they called in Rocket Fuel.

Don't encourage him

Just remember where people talk of getting dodgy fuel it usually means there is kerosene mixed into it

Dodgy fuel was along the border and was mostly washed fuel.

Or in some cases people have been known to just fill the car with tractor diesel

A lot of diesels around in the 80's El Richos bought them-not always farmers.My father had one,he wasnt that rich though

Seen it melt pistons in CR tractor engines

Does it not smell, well like Kerosene? There is a serious bang of a smell of it and if you get it on you its nigh on impossible to wash the smell off.

it is less viscous than Diesel, more watery, do not believe Dipetane is the same as it is more viscous.

Northern Kerosene is yellowish in colour, southern is red.

Can a diesel run on it? yes, is it legal? no, it is marked so the same offence as using green or red diesel.

Is it safe for the engine, probably not, I know a lot of taxi drivers that ran on a mix of kerosene and veg oil, pistons eventually melted and engines died, but that may also have been to do with high mileage and no maintenance, they always sounded rough as you like though.

You could probably get away with throwing some in on a tank, but that will taint the whole tank for a long time, in that if you are dipped you are screwed, so if you were doing it you might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb and run on green diesel full time.

I was servicing a car before for a neighbour, changed the fuel filter and noted it was full of green, mentioned it in case he was being duped, he said he threw the odd tank of green in to save money, thing is it was pointless ever putting white diesel in because if he was dipped the green mixed in from 4 or 5 fills ago would show up anyway.

That was disposing of it properly.

Re colour

Kerosene has low octane rating so u need an engine with low compression ratio. Less than 7:1 I think