During this week’s Breakfast Expedition, while wedged into the back seat of a bright orange (where it wasn’t rusty) Suburban between a bunch of bigger-than-me guys, we passed a “deuce and a half” (according to the ex-Army guy) and him and me got to discussing multi-fuel engines, which they apparently used in these vehicles in Germany.
So… who knows anything about these? What types of things can they use as fuel?
I presume there is some trade-off in an engine that can run on more than one thing - but what is it? Power? Efficiency? It smells like a burning kitchen when running? What?
Some cars use Liquid Petrolium Gas and your normal petrol as well. The petrol gives you more power, the LPG is cheaper. Normally there is a switch inside the car so you can switch between them, I don’t think you use both at the same time.
If it smelled like a burning kitchen I’d say it was a multi-fuel diesel. They can run on diesel fuel, kerosene, even heating oil. Actually its a property of diesel engines in general, but modern enignes have more efficient & sophisticated fuel systems and don’t run well (or at all) on other fuels.
I was on board a drill ship for about a year, and it was capable of running on diesel or HFO (heavy fuel oil), they used the HFO tanks to dispose of used motor oil and such from all of the smaller engines on board, it was my understanding that you could use HFO in the middle of the ocean but switch to diesel when approaching land (diesel is a LOT less smoky).
unclviny
From what Army Guy was saying, it must have been a diesel because he was talking kerosene and such. Keep in mind, this was probably a couple of decades ago, and in a truck meant for use in warfare. I doubt very much this was a super sophisticated system, but rather one designed so it doesn’t need a special or highly refined fuel (because in wartime you use what you’ve got)
I guess what I’m getting at is the question of does this sort of engine requires some very fancy or custom engineering, or is it a pretty standard diesel, because for all I know all diesels could run on used deep fryer grease if you were willing to accept trade-offs.
Do multi-fuels last as long?
Are they as efficient?
Does the use of different fuels adversely affect these engines… meaning they can run on all sorts of things but run better on standard vehicle fuels?
Are they found in applications outside the military?