Heating oil vs offroad diesel in MEP802A

[kzguy2]

Hey guys, new to steel soldiers. I just bought an MEP802a gen set that has 500hrs. Runs and powers great! My question is what are some of the advantages/disadvantages of running heating oil through this unit? My house has a 275gal home heating oil tank that I was thinking ill use to run this. However I have a spare 150gal diesel tank laying around that I could use instead and fill with diesel. Any thoughts? Im worried about hard starts when cold and excessive smoking if I go with the heating oil option. If I fill the 150gal tank how long will the diesel last before it starts spoiling?

thanks!

 

[porkysplace]

From the similar threads at the bottom of the page.
[h=1]using home heating oil in military diesel gensets[/h]

 

[cuad4u]

I have two diesel fuel tanks on my farm. One is 300G and one is 600G. Even though I "turn the fuel over" at least once a year, I add a product called "Killem" which is a biocide. Diesel fuel is an organic compound. That means it was once a living organism. Anything that is organic (HC) has many things that either try to eat it or grown in it or both. That is what happens to diesel fuel. Organisms can (do) get into diesel fuel and survive and even thrive and set up a living community that gets bigger and bigger and bigger. The biocide kills the organisms already in the fuel and kills new ones that get into it. Over time the biocide breaks down and has to be replaced. If you do not put a similar product in your diesel fuel "things" (slime) will start growing in it and these "things" will clog filters and generally reek havoc in the fuel system of your generator. Other than that I do not think diesel fuel will lose its BTU content over a reasonable time.

 

[kzguy2]

Thanks! That certainly explains the diesel spoiling. I will def pickup some biocide if I go with diesel.

 

[Isaac-1]

Be aware that use of biocide does make the exhaust fumes very dangerous

 

[cuad4u]

Be aware that use of biocide does make the exhaust fumes very dangerous

Yep - Don't sniff the exhaust!

 

[kzguy2]

Hmm, second thought I think ill stay away from the biocides then. I dont want to have to worry about toxic fumes around... pljs I love to smell my diesel exhaust! Lol

 

[tstone]

As stated in the link using home heating oil in military diesel gensets , HHO and off road can be different in sulfur content depending on location. My local supplier in PA sells HHO that is still the high sulphur content; the off road is ultra low sulfur. I choose to use the HHO in my gen sets and other off road equipment as it helps to lubricate the old style mechanical injector pumps. The ultra low low sulphur has less lubricating ability and should be supplemented with a lube additive to help reduce wear in the old style I P's. The HHO also has a higher BTU rating and gives better performance under load, however, under extreme cold conditions it will gel faster if not treated with an additive.
Hope this helps.

 

[jatonka]

For information , in New York State, Home Heating oil is now Ultra low sulphur just like diesel fuel both on and off road. We need lubricity additives in all of it.
Thanks for the info on Biocide additive causing dangerous exhaust emmissions, I didn't know that before. JT

 

[Rapracing]

As stated in the link using home heating oil in military diesel gensets , HHO and off road can be different in sulfur content depending on location. My local supplier in PA sells HHO that is still the high sulphur content; the off road is ultra low sulfur. I choose to use the HHO in my gen sets and other off road equipment as it helps to lubricate the old style mechanical injector pumps. The ultra low low sulphur has less lubricating ability and should be supplemented with a lube additive to help reduce wear in the old style I P's. The HHO also has a higher BTU rating and gives better performance under load, however, under extreme cold conditions it will gel faster if not treated with an additive.
Hope this helps.

Me too

 

[kzguy2]

Interesting. Seems HHO is the way to go then. So its ok to run in the newer mep802a units then? Mine is a 2004. I actually just got done pumping out the tank and filling with hho to run some tests. Runs great, but some seem to smoke a little more, especially on start up. Its supposed to go down to 26 degrees here tonight, so im going to try a cold start in the morning and see how she does. Thanks for all of the info! Great forum!

 

[Ratch]

In regular usage, HHO should perform equal to #2 diesel.

Diesel exhaust is also toxic without additives...

 

[m16ty]

I'd use whatever had the higher sulfur content. The off-road diesel around here is now all ultra low. We don't use HHO around here so I have no idea about that.

 

[kzguy2]

Update: So fired her up this morning while 19 degrees out and she started up good.(didnt even use the preheat!) Is it bad to not preheat? I was just curious so I didnt use it. Smokey though!. While running on offroad diesel she seems to start easy and smokes wayyyyy less. I guess thats all the Sulphur and lubricant in hho?

 

[Ratch]

I ran my 002 in 10's and 20's temps on both hho and on-road diesel, with no difference in performance or smoke at all. There's no place for me to buy off road diesel, so I don't use it.

You sure it's not an illusion? Unless you purged the pumps, lines, and filters, you probably started off whatever it ran on last. The temperature without preheating is probably why it seemed Smokey.

 

[kzguy2]

Yea I purged the lines by completely draining tank, then filling with 5gal hho and ran it for 20min yesterday to burn off the rest of the offroad diesel in the system. Im going to swap back to offroad diesel again just to check. I believe it is ultra low sulphur offroad that im using...

 

[kzguy2]

Can you do any harm by not preheating? And do you know if the 802 has glow plugs or is it just an air intake heater?

 

[Ratch]

No, but it will supposedly be harder to start. I'm pretty sure the 802 has glow plugs, but I didn't pay much attention when I had mine apart. I'm not a fan of glow plugs.

Engine warming that runs the oil or coolant through a heater before starting is designed to ease startup and prevent running before the oil is thin enough to circulate in extremely cold climates. Preheating is primarily to warm the air entering the cylinders to reduce it's resistance to compression heating.

 

[CDR]

HHO is the same thing as diesel. Even if it wasn't I wouldn't worry about it since these generators can run on jp-4 which is 50 gas!

 

[m-35tom]

Engine warming that runs the oil or coolant through a heater before starting is designed to ease startup and prevent running before the oil is thin enough to circulate in extremely cold climates. Preheating is primarily to warm the air entering the cylinders to reduce it's resistance to compression heating.

one of the many 802's i recently got has a coolant heater. goes from 30° to 180° water temp in under 15 minutes.