Greg,

Today's fun and games confirms pretty much everything in your post. Pictured is the rig I made to trap the oil. Yes, the jar is far larger than needed for the oil that will come out of a 2 ounce tank but I did need volume as a sort of after muffler. This rig was not all that quiet yet I still lost a full 1000 RPM using 40/40/20 fuel which was run first to test the rig.

So after running 2 ounces worth of the oil fuel, I added 8 ounces of kero to make sure to flush most of the oil out of the jar and measured. Based on the ratios calculated, of the approximately 80% oil in the formula, some 50% to 60% is being ejected as exhaust. So, as you suggest, only SOME of the oil is being burned. And of course, my tools and technique are quite crude and should not be taken as gospel. This experiment would have to be repeated a number of times with different engines, I think.

Interesting was that the thicker fuel benefited from a half throttle setting. I'm assuming that fuel draw was better. This was confirmed by pinching the exhaust tube at full bore. The muffler provides pressure to the tank and increased back pressure delivered more fuel. In both cases, forcing the heavier/thicker fuel to the engine was a benefit.

I also tried a mix that replaced the sunflower oil with castor and could not get a run. Then I tried pure oil with 2% and then 10% Amsoil cetane boost. No runs as well.

But the other day, I ran a 50/50 mix of sunflower oil and naphtha. What if I went to 20% castor and 80% naphtha. Would I get a run?

But here, http://www.copper.org/innovations/1999/09/oil.html a link provided by you a while back, talks of the use of sunflower oil as a lubricant and its characteristics seem to make it less desireable as a fuel. The link implies that sunflower oil also has quite desirable properties as a lubricant that we might benefit from. As in using less oil and more kero/ether.

So maybe I'll try 10% sunflower oil, 80% kero and 10% ether, with or without CB. Or a 10/90 mix with NO ether. Yeah, I might trash the rod but too late. See below.

Graham,

Thanks for taking the trouble to look into MotoMaster's version of cetane booster. Yes, it APPEARED to work, I couldn't distinguish one from the other when I ran the .15 on a standard 40/40/20 mix. But I've also managed to run the mix with NO cetane booster. Needle and CP settings were different and throttling changed a bit etc. etc.

And there was that run I made on the PAW here,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8R9YL_KPRYE

with the 10% Amsoil CB on a no ether fuel. In that case, I had to back out the CP more than on a lower percentage mix. So CBs ARE doing something. And in that case, with the reduced compression, throttling suffered. Maybe MM's version of CB will behave differently? Making throttling not such an issue? Just need to try it.

But a few posts back, I found that in some cases, leaving out the CB provided some benefits. But we're calling it cetane booster when we SHOULD, maybe, be calling them ignition improvers. As in when you're trying to start your traditional diesel by hand. With electric starters, maybe we really don't really need the stuff. Somewhere it was suggested that what the automotive world called cetane booster performed the same function as amyl nitrate which is really an ignition improver, not a cetane booster. So you have a point about the red herring thing. This is getting complicated.

I haven't tried the nitro-propane as a diesel fuel additive yet. Have made notes on a half dozen or so things to try and the vexing thing is the weather. Rain, rain, rain. We had a good break today, sunny and warm. Didn't last into the evening, more rain and we even had an impressive thunderstorm. Outrageous, such weather at the end of September. It really IS teotwawki.

About the rod mentioned earlier. Pictured is the rod I made after I bent the stock rod. The aluminum grade is unknown as it's just a piece of rectangular material from god only knows where. It cuts easily but does not feel too soft. At any rate, mass makes up for grade,, or so I thought. When trying to get some of the dud mixes going, I eventually got hydraulic lock and banged up the rod. It bent in both directions as can be seen. Why? Well, my Sullivan MicroStarter stopped working due to a bad switch and I had to go to my stock starter for these runs.

One thing I did get from this is that Norvel cranks are TOUGH and can take the abuse. No worries ever, I think, about diesel conversions for Norvels. STILL have not been able to break a Norvel crank.

Hopefully I can tap the rod back into reasonable alignment. This should be possible as I now have a small bit of slop/clearance. Hope so as the spare rod was installed into my "good" .15.

I think I'll shelve the trimethylbenzene like I did the MEKP.