will it run on paraffin?

This site contains affiliate links for which LandyZone may be compensated if you make a purchase.
L

lachleaves

New Member
Posts
9
i have a 2 litre petrol series 1...

i've heard of diesel engines running on paraffin and/or heating oil, but will my petrol landy??

i read an article on old series 1 petrol landys in africa running on paraffin. and i have a petrol/paraffin fergie tractor (TVO) - which i'm told will run on heating oil.

therefore, if i fit a second tank to my old series 1, start it on petrol and wait till it gets hot - will i be able to switch over to heating oil? ( i realise i'd have to switch back to petrol to clear the carb - which is an SU incidentally - before switching off.)

any ideas??

thanks
lachleaves
 
no sorry you could try tvo but not paraffin by its self but i think the tvo would have to be at least 80 percent petrol then you got to think about the strip down it it blows up but i could be wrong
 
lachleaves said:
how come it works on tractors?? (i.e. my petrol/paraffin fergie)
Click to expand...

Because the fergie was designed to run on TVO aka Petrol/paraffin. It's actually 28sec heating oil and petrol mixed approx 2 parts petrol 1 part heating oil (72 RON). But You need a licence to buy Kereosene AKA 28sec heating oil. aka paraffin. So it int really worth it.
 
you buy it and thay will ceep a record of who thay sell it to if you got oil heating and had it for a bit you will get picked up on it it you starting using to mutch ie 300 gall but if you get a tank and use 500 gal in your car or 4x4 then thats wot you got to use all the time but dont use it for your heating and no this wont work if you live in a flat
 
I have run plenty of petrol engines on parafin, it was not un common years ago when parafin was cheap, a parafin engine has a low compresion head and a hot spot in the inlet manafold to vaperise the fuel, hence TVO tractor vaperising oil, a series 1 will run but you will cause damige to the valves and pistons so its not a good idea, a diesel will run on parafin but if you have a rotary pump you must put oil with it,
If you have a series one the run it on petrol or sell it to someone that will
 
That combine harvester did not have a diesel engine, it was spark ignition. The Ferguson TVO tractors were also spark ignition. What makes you so sure a Series Land-Rover petrol engine would not run on parafin or heating oil? As far as I understand, TVO, paraffin and heating oil are all more or less the same thing and an engine designed to run on TVO will run on any of the above.
 
Last edited:
fenby1976 said:
That combine harvester did not have a diesel engine, it was spark ignition. The Ferguson TVO tractors were also spark ignition. What makes you so sure a Series Land-Rover petrol engine would not run on parafin or heating oil?
Click to expand...

Because Paraffin has an octane rating of Zero. and a petrol engine won't run on paraffin. TVO was (approx) 2parts petrol to 1 part Paraffin. put neat paraffin in the tank and it wouldn't last 5 minutes :eek: if you got it to start at all.

Wikipedia's thoughts on TVO & Fergy TVO Tractors.

Tractor vaporising oil (or TVO) is a fuel for internal combustion engines, produced from paraffin (kerosene). In the United Kingdom and Australia, after the Second World War, it was commonly used for tractors until diesel engines became commonplace. In Australian English it was known as power kerosene.

History

The post war Ferguson TE20 tractor, a carefully researched and near-ideal tractor for use on British farms, was designed around a petrol (gasoline) engine. Although there was a campaign for the reintroduction of agricultural Road Duty (tax)-free petrol, which had been curtailed during the war, this was not forthcoming. Perkins Engines supplied some conversions into diesel engines which could use un-taxed red diesel.
As a substitute for petrol, TVO was developed. Paraffin (kerosene) was commonly used as a domestic heating fuel and was un-taxed. Paraffin has an octane rating of zero and would damage an engine built for petrol. The manufacture of paraffin involves the removal of aromatic hydrocarbonsheating oil. These aromatics have an octane rating, so adding some of that otherwise waste product material back in a controlled manner into paraffin gave TVO. The resulting octane rating of TVO was somewhere between 55 and 70. from what is now sold as
In practice TVO had most of the properties of paraffin, including the need for heating to encourage vapourisation. As a result the exhaust and inlet manifolds were adapted so that more heat from the former warmed the latter. To get the tractor to start from cold, a small second fuel tank was added that contained petrol. The tractor was started on the expensive petrol, then – once the engine was warm – the fuel supply switched over to TVO. So long as the engine was working hard, like when ploughing or pulling a load, the TVO would burn well. Under light conditions, such as travelling unloaded on the highway, the engine was better on petrol.
Some tractor designs included a radiator "blind" that would restrict the flow of air over the radiator which led to the engine running hotter, which could help with starting. If the radiator blind was left shut, though, there was a risk of engine damage, especially in warm weather.
The phrase petrol-paraffin is often used to describe engines that use TVO. This can be interpreted either as

  • the use of the two fuels, starting on petrol then switching to the paraffin-based TVO
  • the use of a mixture of petrol and paraffin as a substitute for the proper TVO
TVO was withdrawn from sale by UK suppliers in 1974. An approximation to the correct specification can be made from petrol and heating oil (burning oil).
 
I've asked my old man about it now and his say in all this is that paraffin is no longer available, but heating oil is more or less the same thing. He reckons he used to put about a gallon of petrol into the main tank and fill the rest up with heating oil (probably a 15 gallon tank so 1:14 petrol to heating oil, nothing like 2 parts petrol to 1 part heating oil) but the engine would be started and stopped on pure petrol held in a small seperate tank. He thinks a low compression petrol engine where the exhaust manifold is in contact with the inlet manifold (like a SII / SIII 2 1/4 petrol engine) should be able to run on a similar mixture as long as it's started and warmed up properly on petrol first.
 
We had a fergie that ran on tvo, and it had spark plugs.
There were I think tractors that were a diesel engine that started on tvo and then could be switched to parafin, field marshall I think they were.
The octane rating is an issue, too low an octane will cause pre ignition and destroy the engine, you'd have to fit low comprssion pistons, then you've the issue of cold starting, the calorific content of paraffin is next to nowt.
However I reckon it could be done, just not practical.
Did you know that during WW2 tractors and busses with spark ignition were ran off wood, yes wood, well pyrolosys gas produced from a wood fire, it took an hour to get the vehicle going like, allthough I believe some geyser in Sweden has built a system that can start in a couple of minutes.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

O
Zenith 36 IV
Replies
9
Views
756
Orb
O
S
wiper park switch: why does it connect to earth
Replies
9
Views
712
ANK84
A
B
Restored 1972 Series 2 Diesel not starting
Replies
16
Views
778
Shedload
S
1
200DI problem.
2
Replies
21
Views
1K
lynall
L
D
oil filter housing APC 26222 BCD1
Replies
7
Views
2K
dwdw
D
Back
Top