Free Fuel

John in MD · Jun 9, 2022

A friend just offered me 250 gallons of fuel if I want it. The catch is it's in the basement of his home that he put a heat pump in back in 2000. Heck he said I can have the tank too, if I can get it out. Would the fuel be usable in tractors, (2510, 4440 that vintage), or should I leave it?

retired farmer · Jun 9, 2022

Gas or diesel. I emptied a lawn tractor that had gas in it a couple of days ago that was like syrup.Been in there five or six years.

Pete in MD · Jun 9, 2022

Yes, definitely.
Rig up some kind of transfer pump and get some 5 gal cans.

John in MD · Jun 9, 2022

Diesel

Pete in MD · Jun 9, 2022

I read the OP's post to mean heating oil, i.e. dyed diesel fuel.

jm. · Jun 9, 2022

would not be GAS in a basement will be perfectly good diesel just get a garden hose and some kind of pump. 250X $400 looks to me like an easy thousand dollars

J Hamilton · Jun 9, 2022

For sure! I would run it through a transfer pump with a filter before putting it in a tractor if it were me

Sean Feeney · Jun 9, 2022

Get some 55 gallon drums and go at it with transfer pump, don't suck from very bottom also try to recondition it before hand and let sit a few days before pumping.

ss55 · Jun 9, 2022

Two hundred and fifty gallons of twenty two year old fuel oil? I would not try to use it in any diesel engine I cared about. Can you possibly burn it in a used oil furnace?

I would pass and let the owner hire a professional disposal company. They will likely mix it with used motor oil and send it to be recycled and refined again.

Richard G. · Jun 9, 2022

Son was given about 150 gallons of heating oil and we pumped it out and he had no problems in his JD 4020.
Just look at it in a clear glass jug and if it looks clear, use it.

in-too-deep · Jun 9, 2022

Only a fool would say no.

Jim in NC · Jun 9, 2022

Go get it! Agree with Richard.

crsutton81 · Jun 9, 2022

I've done it before with no ill effects on the equipment. Keep your pump a few inches off of the bottom of the tank and have a good filter system installed to siphon out original holding barrel and also to dispense back into the equipment intended to burn it.

showcrop · Jun 9, 2022

What CR Sutton said. It is done all the time. If it is going to be a problem for anything it will not go through a filter. Simple physics no black magic.

Charlie M · Jun 9, 2022

My son was in the same position when he just filled his fuel oil tank and the furnace died. He has a small Kubota tractor and the dealer told him it would be no problem burning the fuel oil as diesel.

redforlife · Jun 9, 2022

Two local salvage yards, suck fuel out of anything that comes in that happens to have fuel left in it. Then apparently just uses it without problems. One place has two refueling barrels setting side by side. One being mark old fuel.

I personally would filter it good, like others have said, but would also burn it as a blend with fresh new. Like 1/2 and 1/2 or something like that. If you suspect any problems at all, then go to a leaner ratio of the old.

Water condensation might be an issue. Might want to do something else with the bottom or last 2 or 3 inches in the old tank. That's where the water will be if any (in the very bottom). Might want to remember that when getting the fuel out of it. Might be best to just jug those few gallons and use those for burning brush piles.

paul · Jun 9, 2022

Sediment and water on the bottom, possible bacteria/ alegie to look for, but for sure that would be a good deal for me! Just the common sense stuff to look for.

Some heating oil doesnt have the engine additives in it. Nearly all does as its cheaper to sell wholesale out of one tank than have 2 separate; but its possible its straight heating oil without the additives. So I guess I would blend it with diesel fuel, maybe 50-50, so that isnt an issue. I would not lose sleep over this but I would consider it with that volume of fuel.....

The newest tractors with the high dollar emissions junk, Id be more careful.

Paul

MCOHIO · Jun 9, 2022

I deliver fuel. The only difference between heating oil and off road diesel is what product code I enter into the computer before I make a delivery.

coonie minnie · Jun 9, 2022

A professional disposal company I know filters it and sells it as off road diesel. Filter it; if you can, don't burn the bottom few inches in your tractor. Plan B would be a waste oil furnace.

It may cost you an extra tractor filter or two, but that's about it.

sotxbill · Jun 9, 2022

My farm tank often can take a year or two to empty too. Not a problem in most cases. I might take a sample from the bottom on a clear glass to see if I need to add an biocide before I add it to my tanks. But its about water contamination, not about the age. Water can ruin 2 month old diesel just a much.

caterpillar guy · Jun 9, 2022

If you don't already have it home. I'll come get it if it's not to far. I would just pump the fuel out then pull the tank out and load. Be gone in short order. It's the same fuel as you get for your tractor.

RJKeith · Jun 9, 2022

If it is No 2 fuel oil, that is the same as diesel without additives. You may want to have it 'polished' before you use it in your tractor though. If it has been sitting for a while it is liable to have lots of contaminates.

Fritz Maurer · Jun 9, 2022

Just so you know, its not the same stuff. Heating oil is the next rung down on the ladder from no. 2 diesel. Home heating oil has 1000 BTU more per gallon than no.2 diesel because of the heavier components. It works in furnaces because there are no close fitting parts in the pump/nozzle like in an injector pump. Im reasonably sure it will go through the pump without causing damage, but I would not be comfortable with the low grade waxes, which will go through a fuel filter, leaving sticky deposits on spring-operated parts such as a metering valve. You could probably get away with it, but there have been posts in the recent past, on this forum, about guys with injector pump problems, running the correct fuel.... how does it make sense to dump 20 year old inferior fuel into the tractor to save a couple bucks? Ok, you saved 1000$ on fuel , but it cost $1200 to open the pump.... you have to ask yourself a question.... do I feel lucky?

ss55 · Jun 10, 2022

Add in cleaning the rust and other crap out of multiple tractor tanks and maybe the bulk tank too. If the old fuel oil furnace was replaced 22 years ago, the fuel oil tank is probably forty to well over sixty years old. I would check if there is a manufacture date on the tank.

I can see burning it in a used oil shop heater, but not in any diesel engine worth keeping.

showcrop · Jun 10, 2022

Just so you know, it's the same stuff. Where people get confused sometimes is that home heating oil can sometimes be #2 oil. #2 oil, also known as kerosene, is used to fuel furnaces in mobile homes. Mobile homes of course have no basement so the tank is out in the cold air, and #1 oil would develop wax and plug the filter making it necessary to use #2. #2 is thinner and does have fewer BTUs/gal. But #1 heating oil and diesel both have 139,000 BTU/ gallon. There have been posts in the recent past, on this forum, about guys even running drain oil in truck and equipment blended in with the fuel. Once it is filtered it is the same. Since the oil is in a tank in the basement it is #1 not #2.

jimg.allentown · Jun 10, 2022

You have it reversed. #1 is kerosene and #2 is diesel/heating oil.

JerryLook · Jun 10, 2022

Ive run diesel, K1 kerosene, and even jet fuel in my Ford 3000 without any issues.

At the place I used to work we would get any jet fuel that remained on the planes that came in for maintenance. My boss had some kind of mix of motor oil and trans fluid he would add to the jet fuel to give it more lubricity. We ran it in all the diesel equipment around the hangar. And he gave quite a bit of it away to anyone who had a diesel truck or tractor.

If I had access to that 250 gallons of free fuel Id take it for sure. Add some Biobor, run it through a filter, and then use it in the tractor.
I dont think I would use it in any newer diesel that has emissions crap though. The older diesels can run just about anything.

Texasmark · Jun 10, 2022

Do they add red dye to home heating oil?

Weldon K · Jun 10, 2022

250 gallons in a tank in a basement should be no problem as to fuel quality. It is in a fairly stable temperature and humidity environment as compared to being stored in a tank outside in weather and temperature swings. As to difference in heating oil and Diesel fuel, my supplier delivers heating oil to my mother's home and then pulls up to my Diesel fuel storage tank and fills it from the same truck. It is the same stuff.

Take a sample of that fuel , look at it closely and then decide to use it or not. I would recommend filtering it before use.

MCOHIO · Jun 10, 2022

It is off road diesel. The differences are monetary only. When I load at the terminal it is all green and an injector pump puts the red dye in the load arm as it is pumped on to my truck. I do not have a selection for heating oil to choose.

BarnyardEngineering · Jun 10, 2022

(quoted from post at 09:34:42 06/09/22) Two hundred and fifty gallons of twenty two year old fuel oil? I would not try to use it in any diesel engine I cared about. Can you possibly burn it in a used oil furnace?

I would pass and let the owner hire a professional disposal company. They will likely mix it with used motor oil and send it to be recycled and refined again.

Why? Diesel doesn't go bad.

If it's clean and smells like diesel, there's absolutely nothing wrong with it.

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