ORIGINAL: colingw
This thread has me intrigued.
I'd really like to know if traditional diesels like PAWs and the Russian MARZ 2.5 can be made to run on no-ether fuel.
I have successfully run my PAW 19DS on as little as 10% ether and 25% castor, with very good performance and no overheating. Starting with 10% ether was just as easy as with the recommended fuel mix.
Ether is so expensive here in Australia that any alternative, or doing without entirely, would be most welcome. Anyone got any ideas for alternative low flashpoint volatiles (like [link=http://www.diggersaust.com.au/files/Shellite.pdf]Shellite[/link], suggested to me by a work-mate who is into hill-climb and messes with funny fuels) which could be used as an additive, or priming for starting.
cheers,
Colin
Re-learning control-line in Brisbane, Australia
Colin,
I'm hoping that this thread will prompt a whole bunch of us stinky power guys to experiment with their various engine brands and report back on this thread. Power gain or loss, compression and carb settings, throttling, etc. A data base like this would be most useful to the community, I think. In the meantime, I got my PAW mounted last night (2 AM) and will run it today. The Frog is next.
AS your experience shows, only a little or even no ether can be run. It's getting them started that's at issue. We fly in the winter in Canada and that means temps at or below freezing. Typically, I bring a small butane field torch thingy to warm up my glows for a summer like start. This COULD work for diesels on no ether fuel but you bloody well have to be careful, of course. I'm going to test the no ether fuel in the winter, naturally and I suspect that I'll need the torch.
Ether is not only expensive here but impossible to get. Surely you have Diesel truck Quickstart? With all those convoys crossing the outback all year long? But you make a good point. I tried acetone in the fuel with poor results but maybe that or another volatile (Shellite) would work in your prime bottle.