Petrol & Kero don't mix????

I remember my old man telling me to stay away from kero unless it was to burn it.

When he worked in the Midland rail yards, in the late 40's, they used it as a cutting agent when drilling or sawing. He told me to never use it to wash bearings or internal engine parts.

When I worked in a factory operating rollformers (making corrigated iron and perlins) we used it as a lubricant when rolling galv between the rollers.

But why the two do not mix is a mystery to me, they come from the same base product. I'd say it would be the additives, maybe?

Someone with petrochemical knowledge will speak up shortly, I'm sure.

Used to drive an old International tractor that you'd start on petrol (hand crank too - no starter motor) and when it was running you'd switch it over to the main tank and run it on straight kero. That seemed to work fine.

Father in Law used to own an old David Brown tractor (about 1957 model I think) that was supposed to be started on petrol and switched over to Kero onc it had warmed up. Some of other farmers around the place to him he could run the thing on straight unleaded, so he did, no problems.
Can`t see why it would cause any problems mixing petrol and kero, only 3 things I can think of is
1 - I think kero may attract moisture (not 100% on this one, someone may correct me on this).
2- materials it is made out of may not be suitable for use with petrol ?? But I see this as unlikely if it could be used with either petrol or kero.
3- They want you to spend more money by buying another another pump :) .

I use a kero/petrol mix to fuel my Coleman dual fuel camping stove. Tends to burn better and hotter than straight kero and is easier to light.
Instructions say to use straight kero or coleman fuel only. Only difference being the regulator tube from the tank to the burner should be changed over to suit either kero or coleman fuel.
But it all works fine for me :)

Cheers.

Trying to get back to the question :-)

Only thing I can think of is that is illegal to run an engine on a non excise fuel like kero.

Also some damage could occur depending on the engine and the quantities, older engines you may get away with a small amount.
The last great petrol price increase in the late 70s (went up 50% in about 6 months), a friend experimented with running his subaru on shellite, which is similar to kero. Up to about 30% shellite worked OK with a bit of fiddling on the timing. But this is now illegal, so be warned.

And if you add metho to your petrol tank to disperse the water, up to a cup per tank seems to be OK.
Bumps up the octane rating too by a couple of points, and helps to stop pinging in older leaded fuel engines running on PULP.

could also be if using kero lanterns they would tend to go whoooosh or bang with a bit of petrol in the mix
not that kreo lanterns are real popular these days

steve

Ah the days of kero tractors,,,Inter AW4 if I recall, many hours cold bum even with wheat bag on steel seat.

Only reason I can think of is why you would be advised not to use kero and petrol is IF there is check valve in the system (haven't seen the gear you are referring to) it may retain petrol in it and could, (remote I know) contaminate a kero lantern fill or similar after use on petrol.

Just my thoughts,,, as I've used all sorts of containers for petrol and kero and had no problems mixing the 2 liquids,, as stated in previous post the "mix" is usually minute.

Barry

Are they any good? I just use a jiggle hose at the moment.

sorry yeah back to the question, id say they are doing the lawyer thing and covering their asses, and if you nuy a couple of pumps then they will be very happy. as long as the lines are drained then the dilution rate between fuels isnt even worth worrying about.

http://www.franksemails.com/video/m030806explode.wmv

Petrol and fire fighters don't mix either...