Foraging Fuel

[Paul]

In a disaster or post apocalyptic scenario, he who owns the fuel will reign.

Prices soar in emergencies and profiteering will become the norm.
Fuel will be carefully guarded and only available for essential services and those who can pay A LOT.

Consequently fuel is possibly the most important thing to forage for.
You must drain ANY sources of fuel into your vehicle at EVERY OPPORTUNITY. BOLO for motor oils as well.

Don't just use the "suck the tube" siphon technique.
Apart from it tasting foul, it is not good for you and can cause vomiting and diarrhea which in a survival scenario is not wise.

I use a simple 3 meter 9 mm plastic tube with a diesel bulb pump which you can get from a number of sources for under £8.00

It takes about 15 minutes to fill a 20 liter Jerry can using one of these pumps (timed from a test with my heating oil).

If you can't get the cap off a car filler, I've got a steel pipe 15cms long, 9mm OD which will spike into the tank bottom hose from underneath.

A note on Number 2 Fuel from Heating Oil Tanks.
This is NOT diesel but might run in older diesel cars and you will lose a bit of power. It works for me in a diesel generator without any obvious difference.

[bigpaul]

sorry Paul, but i see no point in wasting my time foraging for fuel or paying exorbitant prices when i cant access spare parts or replace my tyres...so i will be going down the Donkey cart route and living an Amish type life(without the religion)

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in a post apocalyptical world anything moving ...especially at speed...is going to be highly visable....diesel vehicles are far too noisy to not be noticed....low profile will be the order of the day.

[Paul]

That I'm hoping will be one of the beauties of a post apocalyptic world, you won't need money for tires, just a farm jack and a damn good wheel wrench.

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Still prefer a bit of speed though, how else are you going to out run the sheeple.

[bowdrill]

Put oil with your heating oil to run in diesel cars so I've heard

[Paul]

(7 September 2012, 21:03)bowdrill Wrote: Put oil with your heating oil to run in diesel cars so I've heard

Have you any quantities, mixes etc?
It would be handy to know as I was told that diesel has all sorts of lubricants in it which heating oil hasn't.

[Tigs]

after we had our ground source pump fitted , we had a couple of hundred liters of oil left it ran / runs the landy with no problems at all , but found if i added 1/5th veg oil to it ,it run a lot smoother the same is true if you add 1/5th diesel to it too

[Paul]

Hi Tigs
Being mightily thick about all this as electronics is my buzz not chemistry,
I'm thinking what you are saying is 4 liters of standard No. 2 heating oil to 1 of supermarket veg oil.

So per jerry can i.e. 5 gallons 20 liters(ish) add 4 bottles of supermarket veg oil.

Is that right?

[Tigs]

yeah roughly , i have never been that accurate with measuring it out , and i can only speak about old diesel engines ours are over 10 years old now , i dont know how it would effect new diesel engines , also during the winter / colder months it would be wise to add ethanol to stop it freezing or thickening

[NorthernRaider]

Add nail varnish remover ( acetone) to improve the cetane rating, DO NOT try and improve the OCTANE rating you will blow up your engine.

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Folks add various stuff to bunker oil or veggie oil to make it run better in diesels, Parafin to stop it or ordinary diesel from waxing up, Acetone to make it burn better with less laquering, even a pint of petrol into a tank of diesel if its waxed up in the cold.

[Tigs]

never used nail varnish remover in it but it does contain Ethyl acetate which is is the ester (chemical compound ) of ethanol and acetic acid as well as acetone, could be better than just ethanol !!