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Diesel fuel usage question

W

Wile E

Well-known Member
As a very basic rule of thumb as far as fuel usage goes, Can one make a general assumption that for every 1 liter of engine displacement of engine size you would use 1 gallon of fuel per hour.
So, if you had a 2 liter compact diesel tractor you would use 2 gallons per hour of fuel and so on. Keeping the same RPM rate. ---Just wondering here. I know that you guys are the experts here that have vast volumes of knowledge.
 
(quoted from post at 14:40:49 02/13/13) As a very basic rule of thumb as far as fuel usage goes, Can one make a general assumption that for every 1 liter of engine displacement of engine size you would use 1 gallon of fuel per hour.
So, if you had a 2 liter compact diesel tractor you would use 2 gallons per hour of fuel and so on. Keeping the same RPM rate. ---Just wondering here. I know that you guys are the experts here that have vast volumes of knowledge.
Click to expand...

I'm no expert but that seems a bit high compared to any of my diesel farm equipment. Maybe I'm not working it hard enough? :wink:
Example: 2090 Case with 504 (about 8 litre) engine. I don't think I have ever seen this engine use more than 5 gallons per hour.
 
Cummins N14 Diesel uses fuel at $1/minute or about 15 gallon/hour. This is in a JD 550 track hoe working hard.

The N14 engine has an advertised horsepower between 330 and 525. Peak torque for the N14 measures between 1,250 ft. lb and 1,850 ft. lb at 1,200 revolutions per minute. Displacement for the engine sits at 14.9 liters, according to Diesel Service Parts.
 
I have a JD 2130 with a 239 cu in (3.9 liter) and when I am working it real hard it won't use more than 1 3/4 gallons per hour. I also have a 2550 with the same engine and it will use 2.25 gallons per hour working full speed and not all that hard. The differences are that the 2130 is 2wd and no cab, and the 2550 is 4wd with a cab and loader. The 2550 seems to be a bit more powerful that the 2130 as well, maybe it's turned up a bit.
 

It depends on many factors.
But it all comes down to how many Horse Power the engine is producing..including the Horse Power it takes to run the engine in the 1st place.

"X" number of BTU per Gallon X # of BTU being used per hour
 
You must have deep pockets. Figuring diesel fuel at $4.00 per gallon would run you $1060.00 for a ten hour day. Glad it isn't my tractor.
 
(quoted from post at 14:40:49 02/13/13) As a very basic rule of thumb as far as fuel usage goes, Can one make a general assumption that for every 1 liter of engine displacement of engine size you would use 1 gallon of fuel per hour.
So, if you had a 2 liter compact diesel tractor you would use 2 gallons per hour of fuel and so on. Keeping the same RPM rate. ---Just wondering here. I know that you guys are the experts here that have vast volumes of knowledge.
Click to expand...

A engine will burn fuel in proportion to the load (horse power) it is operating at. This is called Brake Specfic Fuel Consumption and is given by the Pounds per Hour Fuel Consumed divided by Observed Horse Power. As a rule of thumb, for gasoline engines I use a BSFC of 0.4 and for diesel engines a BSFC of 0.3. There are no doubt better numbers but I have used these for a long time and they are easy for me to remember.

For example; a gasoline engine operating at 15HP could be expected to use approximately 6 pounds of fuel for every hour it operated at that load. A diesel engine operating at 15 HP could be expected to use approximatey 4.5 pounds of fuel for every hour it operated at that load.

A gallon of gasoline is approximately 6 pounds.

A gallon of diesel is approximately 7 pounds.
 
(quoted from post at 19:02:10 02/13/13) 60 gal per hr where is the leak at that rate you would be filling up every 1/2 hr[/quot

I normally pull for only about 30 seconds at a time, LOL so a half tank lasts for quite a while.
Click to expand...
 
I haven't looked at any Nebraska tests lately, but diesels usually fall within the approx bracket of 14 to 17 horse power hours per gal of fuel.
 
If you are saying you are fully loading/working it to 37 HP, 3 QUARTS an hour would be 27.75 HP hr/gallon. AIN"T gonna happen.

It doesn"t look like the 4600 has been tested @ Nebraska, so just for fun let"s refer to Test 1854 of the 47 HP Deere 4520E... At 31.69 HP, it burns 2.31 GALLONS of fuel per hour, at 41.54 HP it burns 2.82 GALLONS per hour.

At 10.81 HP, the fuel economy was 8.03 HP hr/gallon. at 41.54 HP it was 14.75 HP hr/gallon. The number under load is right in the range of 14 to 17 that pete 23 posted below. (He"s got this figured out!)

If you are burning 3/4 of a gallon per hour it is producing about 11 HP!

(Using a reasonable fuel efficiency estimate of 15 HP hr/gallon X 3/4 gallon of fuel burned in an hour = 11.25 HP!)

(Don"t HATE me, I"m just telling it like the Nebraska Test Lab does!)
4520E at Nebraska
 
Facts an figgurs vurus real life. I spent the last 3 days on a Cockshutt 540 going full bore with a pipe loader thankfully much stronger than it looks. This snow is now like concrete laced with lead. F162 flathead, 1 gallon and about a pint, every hour. And I can't really get it to rev any higher if I needed to.
My fergies with Z120's to 145's get an average of a gallon an hour no matter what they are doing. When I was doing hay with gas- old beat up Allis Chalmers gassers... after a 12 or 13 hour day- I don't think I ever poured in more than 2 five gallon jugs. I would go neck and neck with a neighbor with a variety of IHC diesels, and he always had to put in as much fuel in them as I did gas. Some years gas was a buck less than diesel too...
I heard that Nebraska test people figured nearly every manufacturer put in a tank that would work a pto at 640 for 10 hours, and an hour or 2 extra fuel to get home etc. So if a tractor is not flogged to death, doesn't have burnt up valves etc, if it runs out of fuel before supper, something's wrong...
A few months ago I needed to change a sediment bowl... the tank was over half full... it took nearly half a day to drain out! So how could it burn faster than pour?
Your modern little oriental diesel should burn 2 gallons between breakfast and midnight snack....
 
I guess I don't work it very hard on the average, quite often its 4 miles on the road to another piece of land, that probably only uses 5-10 horsepower. My 2-14 Ferguson plow will make it smoke in the horrible clay we have though!
 
My ne Volvo 11 litre engine pulling 43,000 pounds and getting 7.4 mpg translates to about 8.1 gal/hour. With 19,000 lb load at 8.3 mpg is about 7.2 gal/hour.
 
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