RE: etherless model diesel? Seems doable!
Kerosene has no cetane rating requirement. This means it can vary quite a bit and you never know what you have unless you check with your supplier. Diesel is required to meet certain specifications for cetane rating and will generally be higher than cetane rating of kero. Diesel has a minimum cetane rating of 40. Kerosene in most cities will be Jet-A as it is very abundant.
While kerosene and diesel are very similar you would not want to put kerosene into your new '06 diesel vehicle because you would probably wear out critical fuel system components due to lower lubricity and lose performance because of the reduced cetane rating.
I've looked up a lot of information online about fuels. Basically Jet-A and kerosene are identical. Diesel No.1 is very similar but a slightly heavier distillation. No.2 diesel is a little heavier than No.1. Kerosene is blended with No.1 to improve cold flow and cloud points during the winter. In the US all diesel fuels are required to have a minimum cetane rating of 40. In Europe the minumum is 49. I think most low sulphur diesel sold in te US today is closer to 45. Flash and auto ignition temperatures for kerosene and No.1 diesel are very similar.
You can run kerosene or Jet-A in a diesel vehicle but the reduced lubricity can cause problems and will void warranties. It's not recommended unles you have no choice and are adding lubricant to the fuel.
So my opinion is that No.1 diesel with higher cetane rating should work better in our engines, especialy if we are going to try to run them without ether. I'm getting things together to try some testing later this week.
Greg