I know that a lot of you don't approve of WVO use, but I'm currently experimenting with various blends. Not to use as straight fuel, but to preserve oil for long term storage, I would still heat the oil before running it through my IP. Currently I have a barrel filled with the following:

20 gallons WVO (Canola)
5 gallons off road diesel
1 pint regular unleaded gasoline
1 bottle (32 oz?) Power Service Diesel Kleen

In a very unscientific test the other day I took half a soda can full and tried to ignite it with a bic lighter-no dice. When I took a propane torch to it, it took a few seconds to light up and did not flare up uncontrollably. I let it burn for a bit and blew it out. At this point the sample had been warmed considerably, so the next time I took the torch to it, it lit almost instantaneously. Of course stupid me didn't keep a "control" sample of straight diesel around to compare it to. Does it sound like this stuff is behaving like diesel fuel?

 

Is that like a full half a bowl full?

 

Yep. Sounds normal to me. The reason it lit easier the second time is that you don't really burn the liquid, you are actualy burning the vapors. Once you had it burning and put it out, the fuel was warmer than the first time and therefore it was vaporizing more.
Tom

 

When I use diesel to light burn piles it takes a minumum of 10% gas to light it with a match. Diesel will burn if there is something else making the flame but is hard to get going on it's own.

 

Technically Diesel is combustable, not flamable... To early in the morning to try and explain the diference. Coffee aint even ready.

 

That is true. Flamable liquids will lit off with a range of 0-100F and combustables will lite off 100-200F, If I remember diesel is near the top of the combustable range.

 

The flash point for #2 Diesel is right around 140 degrees ....

 

What your dealing with is the Cetane rating...takes at least 40 Cetane to ignite in our trucks. What's the Cetane Rating of WVO....who knows! Your mix result does sound about right. Will it stay mixed? I would think the chemistry of those ingredients is so different that separation in your fuel tank may be a problem.

Your first idea of comparing it to equal sized sample of straight diesel fuel sounds like the best "work bench" test. Get both to at least room temp and maybe shake them both up (more fumes) before testing - for quicker results.

RJ

 

Separation is something I have tested quite a bit and it doesn't seem to be a problem. I've gotten samples down into negative temperatures without any seperation at all. Those samples all had power service added to them as well. The cetane rating isn't a problem as there has been extensive study done on the subject. My concern was that by adding a small amount of gasoline along with Power Service to the WVO/diesel mix would make it too volatile. It is still nowhere near as volatile as gasoline and as far as I can tell it is behaving much like regular diesel. Thanks for the info guys.

 

Sorry, Did not realize you were worried about your mixture being too volitile!
As you can tell, I know nothing about WVO...are you saying its Cetane Rating is high?
RJ

 

I can't remember what the cetane rating is exactly, but I know that it is comparable to diesel. I used to have a link bookmarked but I don't know what happened to it. Anyway, when I was adding WVO to my collection barrel (which already contained WVO, Power Service, and dino diesel to keep the mixture stable) I inadvertantly added a test sample which was 1 pint gasoline and 3 1/2 quarts WVO. I thought it was straight vegetable oil until I caught a whiff of it going in. I was concerned about the fact that now 5 gallons of diesel, 30 gallons of WVO, and a bottle of Power Service (perfectly fine) was now mixed with gasoline. However, it hasn't seemed to make the fuel anymore volatile than normal.