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What does All Fuel MEan???

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curtis

04-04-2003 18:00:12




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i was looking at the tractors for sale on this website and they have john deeres that are All Fuel.i know it is sort of a stupid question but can anyone tell me what it means??? Thanks!!




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Clooney

04-05-2003 06:28:46




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 Re: What does All Fuel MEan??? in reply to curtis, 04-04-2003 18:00:12  
Curtis, the term "all-fuel" is a little confusing. Deere did use the term "all-fuel" but maybe multi-fuel would be a better word.

~To understand what it is, & more impotently [why use it] we have to go back before World War-II.... Before WW-II catalytic fuel cracking wasn't used & that meant for every gallon of gasoline produced there was a lot of non-gasoline type products left over, some of those products were distillate & other less refined but burnable fuels like heating oil, & other similar less refined fuels.... Because less gasoline could be extracted from each barrel of crude oil there was a lot of [less useful types] of fuel left over. Those lower quality type fuels were often quite a bit cheaper to purchase than gasoline. Many manufactures & farmers soon found that overall tractor operating cost could be significantly lowered by burning this lower quality fuel. In some areas the cost of distillate type tractor fuels were less than 1/2-1/3 the cost of gasoline.

~In the late 1920's through the early 1940's tractors that could burn this cheaper [tractor fuel] was a big selling feature & some manufactures like John Deere took advantage of the cheaper distillate type fuels available & produced a lot of tractors capable of utilizing this cheaper lower quality tractor fuel. Deere was especially good at producing tractors that could efficiently burn that less refined distillate because of their low RPM long stroke 2-cylinder engines that used exhaust heated SHORT runner intake manifolds & convection cooling.

~While Deere did a good job of designing slow turning engines that could take advantage of the slower burning distillate fuels the engines did require lower compression to effectively use the lower octane type fuels & the cooling systems had to be set up to keep the engine operating temperature above 190° for the fuel to ignite & burn properly. The other limitations of the harder igniting lower cost distillate type fuels was it's inability to start cold. Most manufactures added a second [gasoline only tank] so the engine could be started on gasoline then once the engine reached operating temperature [usually around 190°F] a valve could be turned & the engine switched over to the harder igniting tractor fuel.

~Some of the disadvantages of using those less refined tractor type fuels was more crankcase contamination due to some of the unburned fuel getting by the piston rings, a real pain to re-start the tractor if it was stalled while burning the tractor fuel, more fuel valves to turn & position correctly, the fact that the engine temperature had to be continually maintained at or above 190°F to operate correctly, & the tractor had to either be switched back over to gasoline before shut-down or the fuel had to be shut off & the carb run out of fuel.

~Any questions just post back.....

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John T

04-05-2003 05:04:59




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 Re: What does All Fuel MEan??? in reply to curtis, 04-04-2003 18:00:12  
Mornin Curtis, the JD's referred to as "all fuels" were designed to start on gasoline (the small red capped tank) and then after the heads and manifold and cylinders got warmed up to keep the fuel vaporized, they were switched over (brass 3 way Off/Fuel/Gas Switch) to the then available cheaper low octane heavier distillate or drip fuels (large main green capped tank) which saved money on operation costs. I dont see any drip fuel or distillate around here for sale, but todays Kerosene is a similar product. To be able to run on distillate, the tractors had to have a hot manifold to keep the heavy fuel in a vapor state and the carbs were slightly different. They were slightly lower compression than gas only tractors to prevent spark knock pre ignition when burning the lower octane distillates. They also should not be switched over from the gasoline they started on (easy to start on gas when cold) until the manifold etc was nice and warm.

Hope this helps, God Bless the USA

John T Nordhoff in Indiana

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Wilbur

04-05-2003 07:28:11




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 Re: Re: What does All Fuel MEan??? in reply to John T, 04-05-2003 05:04:59  
JOhn WHy do you say red capped tank? I farmed with those 2 tank tractors for years and dont remember any red caps. The only time i seen any red caps if if i lost one and the one i got from deere were red. i got some old farm pictures here that dont show no red caps least far as i can tell by the pictres



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G-MAN

04-05-2003 14:07:41




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 Re: Re: Re: What does All Fuel MEan??? in reply to Wilbur, 04-05-2003 07:28:11  
The cap on the gasoline tank should be red, and the cap on the fuel tank should be green. This was done to prevent fuel from being put in the wrong tank. It's kind of hard to tell on black and white photos just what color you're looking at. My original "A", "B", and "G" sales literature shows the two different colors of tank caps. Properly restored tractors are also painted in this way, unless you want to get hounded by the "correct police". I believe that some of the gasoline "A"s and possibly "B"s used the little tank as a reserve tank for more gas capacity, but I could be way wrong on that one.

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Otto U

04-05-2003 14:46:05




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 Re: Re: Re: Re: What does All Fuel MEan??? in reply to G-MAN, 04-05-2003 14:07:41  
G-MAN: I have to agree with Wilbur there. Back in the 40s and 50s when I farmed with the A B and H they all had gerren caps. Those red caps were replacment caps and might have been used on the later numbered siries. Even the gas cans back then didn't have red caps. I too have seen restored tractors with red caps but I defy you to find me pictures of any original letter tractors trcctors with red caps just aint so. That red cap thing is something one of those magazines keeps saying bcuse the new caps from deere are red.

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G-MAN

04-05-2003 15:05:41




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 Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: What does All Fuel MEan??? in reply to Otto U, 04-05-2003 14:46:05  
Maybe Mr. Thinker can step in and clear this one up. I will check my sales literature and see what color caps it shows on the "G". It's original literature from 1950 or so.



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Wayne in Tn.

04-04-2003 18:30:14




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 Re: What does All Fuel MEan??? in reply to curtis, 04-04-2003 18:00:12  
Curtis, and all fuel tractor will have 2 gas tanks. One is about one gallon for gas to start the engine on. The big tank was for what they called back then (tractor fuel) it was a distillate like kerosene or diesel that was cheaper than gasolene. I don't think you can get that stuff anymore. During the depression years, every penny counted. Now you can just use gasolene in both of the tanks, maybe use the small one for a reserve.

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