Petrol/paraffin

[its me]

Hi all,

Im new to this forum so please bear with me. I have a quick question. If a tractor is petrol/paraffin, can you run it on either or is one just for starting the engine then you switch over to the other?

Sorry about the (what im guessing) simple question.

Buster

[Dandy Dave]

You need to start the tractor on Petrol. (Gasoline over here.) and switch to paraffin, ( Kerosene) when it warms up. It is best to shut off the fuel when you are done and let the paraffin run out in the carburetor if a gravity feed system, or switch the fuel back to Petrol and let it run until the carburetor is full of petrol for the next start up. Dandy Dave!

[tom lad]

hi

the machine should have two fuel tanks , 1 usually smaller for petrol , the other larger for parafin - T V O (tractor vapourising oil ) close to kerosiene ( but every one seems to have there own special mixture )

start the cold engine on petrol , then after a few minute switch to tvo .
the warm up time depends on the temperature of the engine , warmer the better , other wise she will run rough and start to missfire ect. as plugs will get damp with unburnt tvo ,
if you're only pottering then leave it on petrol .

then idealy run back on petrol and drain carb wen u put the tractor away to help starting next time .

hope this helps

[its me]

Hey lads,

many thanks for getting back to me much appreciated.

Tom: How long would you say i could potter about on petrol for, when you say potter would drive around a show ground be ok on petrol?

Lastly you mentioned peoples own TVO mix, is this because we cant get paraffin in large quantitys any more. What mix do you use?

buster

[Brian]

Would be nice to know what tractor you are using. I have a E1ADKN Major, Henrietta, she runs on a mixture of roughly 30% Petrol and 70% diesel or 28 sec Kerosene. She will start from cold on that mixture so I do not use the Petrol start up routine.

These tractors must be hot and kept hot, not really a "pottering about" tractor. On light work you will suffer from fouling plugs and dilution of the oil in the sump with un-burnt Kerosene. If you are going to potter, I would use straight petrol but that can get expensive.

I have just recently finished ploughing with Henrietta, what a difference that has made to her running! I have been doing light work with her on a sprayer and not getting her really hot, but now I have a "White" deposit on the plugs and exhaust rather than the sooty black one.

To stay within the law you should get a TVO mixing licence from the Secretary of the National Tractor and Vintage Engine Club (NVTEC), Its free and will ensure you remain legal.

[its me]

Hey,

Yeah sorry guess it would have helped had i mentioned waht tractor. It's a 1942 fordson n.Havnt picked her up yet but will hopefully this week so just wanted to know more about her, as not used to vintage tractors. More used to modern ones.

Buster

[Dandy Dave]

If you are going to just drive it around at a show, I agree that just running it on petrol would be fine. Dandy Dave!

[super6954]

Hi Guys
Is it actually legal to run a tractor round the show ground on tvo in the Uk anyway . I'm Thinking it has no duty on it and was originally only used for agriculture like red diesel, and a vintage show ground doesn't come under agricultural use for red from my understanding.

[Brian]

That is why you need the mixing licence. If you use petrol and diesel mix you pay the duty anyway.

The regulation on red diesel on an Agricultural Show or demonstration has been relaxed but still applys to "Hobby" tractors and non- agricultural events. There is still a query over ploughing matches as far as I can see. You would be well advised to be using "White" diesel at these events.

To bring a few people to book for running red diesel in lorries, they have created nightmare that has hit hard a number of small users.

[super6954]

Thanks for the reply Brian
I know this had been a legal night mare from what I had read in a few of the tractor books i have seen from the u.k.
over hear in Canada we have purple petrol and diesel that has a lower cost. if a pickup truck or articulated/ tandem style truck is farm licensed we can use the purple, If it comes in the class 5 license zone we don't need a higher class licence to drive them either. the only class 5 vehicle that cant legally run purple here is a regular car . But we have suspisions these laws are gonna change soon as our government is on a cash grab due to poor management and this will be the next thing to go .
Regards Robert

[tom lad]

Tom: How long would you say i could potter about on petrol for, when you say potter would drive around a show ground be ok on petrol?

Lastly you mentioned peoples own TVO mix, is this because we cant get paraffin in large quantitys any more. What mix do you use?

buster

sorry for delay
i think the petrol question has been answered
my tvo experience is grey fergies , we run them with a card in front of the radiator ( experiment with size , so u dont cook her )

as the temp needle starts to move u can switch if ur off ploughing ect. otherwise stop on petrol.

whats the crack with unleaded these days ????
we always ad some redex in the petrol ( not sure what people think about that ) , also easyer to see the red in the glass bowl.

but it is so much easyer with a diesel tbh but no tvo smell

[its me]

Thanks everyone for all the help. Was chatting to a friends of mine father who has some tractors. Asked him what he ran and he said he uses normal parafin with some 2-stroke oil in it, as it wont seperate up. what do you guys think to that?

Buster

[Brian]

Does he mean 28 sec Heating oil or Paraffin used by horticulturists in green house heaters? Don't think there is a lot of difference but
"Back in the day"! Well the 1950's when I was a mere lad, we ran out of TVO, the tractors were mainly diesel but this particular one was a model"N", we bought a few gallons of "Esso Blue" from the local shop to keep going until the TVO arrived. That tractor would not run at all on the Esso. No power at all. When the TVO arrived it was back to normal.

I have run Henrietta on straight Kerosene (28 sec Heating Oil) with diesel added, 1 to 4 mixture. No problems but on light work she fouled plugs very quickly. I now use the petrol/kerosene mixture and she starts without separate petrol and runs very clean on both light work and heavy.

I have also run her, when hot, on pure diesel. As long as she was kept hot on the plough it worked. We also tried adding filtered waste chip oil into the mix but although she ran and smelt like a chip shop, the oil gelled and blocked the fuel filter. A true "multifuel" engine.

As said above, it depends what you are doing with her, on the show ground, straight petrol is your best bet, working, then any of the mixtures above will be OK. The two stroke oil, diesel or ATF is added to increase valve lubrication as the kerosene has little lubrication qualities.