37A fuel question

Bob in Oakboro · Dec 30, 2012

I was reading that you should use higher octane fuels only in higher compression engines. They stated that the higher the octane the harder it is to start an engine. I am assuming that a 37a would be fairly low compression when compared to today's engines. So it would be easier to start using 87 octane fuel. What do you think?

old · Dec 30, 2012

Back when that tractor was built if was built to run on the cheapest fuel that could be had and the octane of gas for that tractor was low and believe me it does not care if you use the cheap stuff or the high $$ stuff it will pretty much run the same. The all fuel JD tractors where made to be started on gas and run till warmed up then switched to fuel that was even cheaper. I found that my 1935 JD-B runs better on a mix of gas/diesel fuel then on gas. a 50/50 mix gives the most power and burns less to boot

da.bees · Dec 30, 2012

High octane will do as well but no better than low octane in a low compression engine. On the flip side running low octane in high compression engine can cause predetnation(commly called ping,clatter ect). You might help starting with a tune up.

Mike Aylward · Dec 30, 2012

Octane is not an indicator of how well a fuel will "light". It is a measurement of a fuel's resistance to preignition. Nothing more. It also is not an indicator of burn rate as is the common misconception. Some high octane fuels have a fast burn rate and some are slow as they are designed for certain applications. Do some research on higher octane fuels and you will see for yourself. Mike

RandyB(MI) · Dec 30, 2012

Hey "OLD"! Just asking , then , would you agree that an ounce of diesel has more BTU than an ounce of gas? If so then it seems the more diesel you could blend in the gas and still ignite and burn efficiently , the more power you would have. I'm sure there is a point of diminishing returns here but would explain your B running better/more power. Also would you agree that it is flash point that makes a certain fuel pre-ignite in a high comp engine as apposed to just octane rating? Does flash point automatically go up equally with octane rating? Would you also agree that back in the day , price outweighed performance and they might very well have turned enough more acres per day with gas to make up the difference in costs (assuming they raised the compression back up to take advantage of better gas? Just asking questions. That's how we learn on here. RB

old · Dec 30, 2012

Can not really answer your question since I have not played with things enough to know. I can say the old 1935 JD-B I have will run on gas, diesel kero and distillate and a few other things. As to which did better I do not know. I do know that for some reason the diesel gas mix always seems to do more work for the GPH then any thing else ever did. Just diesel did ok just gas did also but the mix seemed to do the best

37A fuel question

Bob in Oakboro

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old

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da.bees

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Mike Aylward

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RandyB(MI)

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old

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