Hi,
What fuel does a diesel engine take? I thought that it was
diesel and oil, but a friend said it was somthing else.
Thanks

Just to answer your question before the police (moderator) moves this thread to who knows where . The fuel is a type of lamp oil. This is what I was told I don't anything more.

Charlie

Model diesel motors use a mix of ether, castor oil and parafin (kerosene). The percentages for each vary slightly for bushing motors versus ball bearing motors.

http://www.cafes.net/doctordiesel/DDfuel.htm

Moved to who knows where - well to somewhere where the subject is on-topic.

Diesels smell very nice indeed, a mixture of ether, paraffin (para-feen as they say in Wales) and castor as SRM says.

Brian

1/3 clear kerosene, 1/3 ether, 1/3 Castor oil and throw in a touch of amyl nitrate to imrove starting. Ran all my PAW and Webra diesels.
Gave real meaning to the term "slimer" 'specially in the winter!

Always loved the Diesels when they run well they are a lot of fun. Friend of mine had one when he flew it three of use used to take turns flying it, it would fly for ever on a 4 oz tank it seemed. BUT some times they can be a pain to get running right guess it just takes practice.

Do a search here for "Diesel R/C Engines" for messages which will aim you at sources of information on engines and fuel.

Dave Segal

Originally posted by Ron Cichowski
1/3 clear kerosene, 1/3 ether, 1/3 Castor oil and throw in a touch of amyl nitrate to imrove starting. Ran all my PAW and Webra diesels.
Gave real meaning to the term "slimer" 'specially in the winter!

That must have been a while ago It's been impossible to get amyl nitrate for ages now (something to do with "alternative" uses I believe ). Even the more modern ignition improver IPN is hard to get hold of.

wyflyer, as you've probably noticed by now the critical point is that model "diesel" engines are nothing like car/truck diesel engines and don't run on the same fuel at all.

Steve

I Googled "Amyl Nitrate" looking for sources, as I'd heard it is now tightly controlled due to drug and other users. But several sources came up in the form of tape head cleaners, drug user sniffer ads, etc. All pretty strange. But if those ads are really usable to purchase some real amyl nitrate for me to use as ignition-enhancer, I'll try them I guess. Any thoughts, guys?

And, I've heard that an older product called "Amsoil Ignition Improver" is also effective, so I found some and bought a can. Does it do the same thing for sure?

Thanks and please give me your ideas on this! Regards, Bill Hanshaw

I use Amsoil Cetane Boost at 1-3% as needed. Start with 1% and go up from there as needed in 0.5% increments. The Amsoil stuff works very well. A bottle last a LONG time.

Just a tip! but last Airborne magazine had an article from Brian Winch about concoctions for running non ether fuels in deisel model engines we mixed small amounts of his recipes that he claimed run perfect and NOT ONE WOULD RUN AN ENGINE!! we had the engine's running on an ether blend only minutes before swapping to his super mix and all refused to run on ANY of his concoctions!! Only my opinion but i think the leads run out in his pencil! Or instead of mixing his ether he's smelling it!! I think the point is if your a manufacturer of illegal substances then you can get anything! But if your a humble deisel free flight or oldtimer flyer your a dead set CRIMINAL!!

Further to Toadfish's comments about Brian Winch's weird diesel formulas, I recall an article in the English mag RCM&E in which he described his 'jungle juice' everyday diesel fuel containing 5% nitro methane!. The man certainly has some weird fuel ideas.

Getting back to diesel fuel formulations, before the arrival of high performance diesels, most fuel mixes used or recommended regular high viscosity mineral oil. One that I recall using was Castrol GP sae 50 oil which is similar to Harley Davidson sae 50.
Never had any problems using them as they mix very well with the kerosene, unlike some Castors and you don't end up with a gummed up engine.
Because of the problems with obtaining amyl nitrate many people are using regular diesel improver or anti knock liquid. This is available in any auto supply store. I use 2% and it works well.

I cancelled my subscription to Airborne many years ago because of BW. His engine "tests" are a joke, read one and you've read all of them! The final straw was when he talked about the problem of adding nose weight to balance a model. In his mind, if you had 2 ounces of nose weight then by trying to pull out of a dive at (for instance) 10G then the nose weight would appear to be 20 ounces and the model would then be so nose heavy it'd never pull out (Airborne #165, page 10).

Oh yeah, and many years ago he wrote an article slamming the use of castor but it turned out that was because he was getting free fuel from a manufacturer of an all synthetic fuel.

I forgot to mention this but anyone coming across this thread and wanting to know more about model diesels should go to this extremely well hidden area in RCG .

there us a lot of good Diesel info at:

http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/everything-diesel-87/

D.H.

Mate, I see that you're having trouble getting Ether for your diesels. Where are you located? We do have a good legal supply of solvent grade Di Ethyl Ether in NSW, and it's reasonably priced. Also Amsoil Cetane Booster is an effective ignition improver and it's also available locally.

Regards Ray