Offroad Diesel???

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PRINCETON_JAKE

New member
I have heard before that "off road" diesel fuel is a much better fuel, but im wondering if its true why is it? All my poor searching skills find is it has more alot more sulfer and it lubercates better.

I know its illegal to use in a daily driver, and thats not what im refering to, just curios.
 
if i remeber right, it used to have a higher sulfer content but now days is the same ulsd just dyed red. some say that the dye makes their truck run better some say it runs the same...
 
The dye used is a heavy petroleum with a boiling point around that of bunker oil, or lube oil. There is no reason the dye should have any kind of positive effect. Long term I believe it would lead to more deposits and sooting, but then the amount of dye material they use is very minute to get the needed color.

Solvent Red 164 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Azo compound - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Fuel dyes - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Solvent dye - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Common to the fuel dyes is that they are aromatic hydrocarbons. Aromatics have poorer self-ignition characteristics (poor cetane number) and take longer to burn, as opposed to paraffins which is what you'd ideally want diesel fuel to consist of from end to end.

The amount however is so minute I doubt it has any effect one way or the other, not anything noticeably anyway.
 
i used it in alaska for heating my house. thought about putting it in my tank. since i had a big tank of it behind my house. in 07 it was 9$ a Gal of diesel. sucked up there in Haines/Juneau. but loved being up there.

we use it in all of our work trucks in the woods. great lubracation, more smoke and cheaper. not sure on fuel mileage differences though
 
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It is all the same ulsd except for the dye used to mark it as no paid tax. I run it in my trucks and there is no differance. Ther refineries dont make ten different kinds of fuel. Its up to the individual companies on the addatives that they choose to add in it. So if you say your truck rums better on Mobile diesel than texaco, that could be true. But when all the truck are sitting at the storage facilty, they are getting the same stuff.
 
I've wondered this- could a dye be added with the red to make it green? Not sure, but it would be nice to tell the feds to phuck off.
 
The dyes come in all kinds of colors - from blue to purple, to green, orange and yellow.

I don't know what the practical effect of mixing them would be though. It might just turn sickly brown.

Either way mixing dyes into it wouldn't do anything, as the dye acts as a trace agent. A sample would still reveal the dyed diesel as 'red diesel'. To tell feds to 'phuck off' you'd have to remove the dye.

There's two ways - one is to add acid, which reacts with the dye and removes it from the diesel. This is what the militants do in Northern Ireland. It does, however, leave you with a corrosive fuel. :bang In theory, you should be able to thoroughly mix the fuel with water, and then use either a gravity tank or a centrifuge to get the water back out of it. But I'm not sure it's something I'd do or something that would be worth the effort..


The other is theoretical - redistilling the diesel. It would require a lot of power and so would probably not be worth the electricity costs. The dye is a much heavier fraction than diesel, so with the right temperature it should work. The right temperature is of course from 180 to 270 degrees celsius, which is a lot.. so I'm not sure I'd bother. :badidea:
 
I'm pretty sure that the DOT can sample your fuel and find the dye. If it is ATF you are clear, if not then you get fined for the estimated volume of farm fuel in the tank. To do that they could do a concentration test and bump that with the total volume of fuel in the tank.
 
Correct. The dye is detectable.

To think that they are stupid enough to be confused or fooled by running a little ATF/WMO/2 stroke it pretty naive/stupid.

Remember, the IRS brought down Al Capone when everyone else failed.
 
FYI,
I spilled some red diesel into a catch pan under our tank and didn't get around to cleaning it up for a week. When I did finally clean it up the AZ sun had "bleached" the red out.
 
Yep, I wasn't gonna comment until Steve brought up the "bleaching". Some maverick farmers here in La. store small amounts of "OFF ROAD" in those square ROUNDUP containers that lets light shine through. It does work, but it takes a while and even longer as the amount of diesel gets bigger!
 
it only takes a day or two for the red to bleach out of the fuel... so, big poly tanks that dont offer uv protection to store it in outside is the way to fly
 
This is the single most valuable piece of info I've ever got from a forum! :rockwoot: All the other ones cost me money... :doh: Thanks guys!
 
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