Coleman Fuel

[RayW]

Has anybody any experience of running model glowplug engines on Coleman fuel as an alternative to petrol or LPG?
I ask because I am thinking of changing from propane to a liquid fuel on my Otto and I hear that Coleman fuel is a less smelly alternative to petrol.
I see, however, that it is massively more expensive, in the region of £8 per litre as opposed to pump petrol at around £1.13 per litre, so wondering if it is really worth paying out so much more for it.
I have requested plans of Jan Ridders' vapour carb so need to decide what fuel to use.

[Jasonb]

I've not run a permanently powered glow plug engine on it but use it on all my hit & miss, spark ignition 2-stroke and 4-stroke engines. As I keep my engines in the house there is no lingering smell of petrol and I can't detect any difference on how they run compared with petrol.

Unless you run your engines a lot then price does not come into it much, Aspen is a bit cheaper and I have heard that works well too should be able to find that in a good garden centre or mower shop. Both have a longer shelf life than petrol.

Little jam jar will do for a vapour carb. Two holes in the lid, tube in one to let the air in and take that to the bottom of the jar, short pipe on the other stopped above fuel level and use that to feed to the engine. Or if you have a RC clunk tank just connect the opposite way round so air goes in via the weighted tube and out the vent/filler

[Brian Rupnow]

I use Coleman fuel (naptha gas) in all of my i.c. engines. I have never ran lpg nor Propane, but I have ran my engines on "pump gas". Pump gas stinks to high heaven. Coleman fuel doesn't.

[b.lindsey]

Same here with about 2% marvel mystery oil mixed in.

Bill

[DD805]

I used to run my engines on propane but a few years ago I switched to Coleman fuel and am quite happy with it. Expensive, yes, but worth it as a gallon can lasts for two to three years. Far safer than petrol and very little odor.

Karl

[stevehuckss396]

I run racing fuel (110 octane) instead of coleman. It smells way better and costs about half what coleman does in the states. If the smell is your only concern you can also try adding scents. I have used the grape and had a little kid convinced that my engine ran on grape juice. Haven't tried any other flavor.

http://www.jegs.com/p/Power-Plus/Power-Plus-Fuel-Additives/2784360/10002/-1

[b.lindsey]

Hmmmmm....bubble gum scented fuel  . No thanks, I prefer the smell of burnt hydro-carbons in the morning!! Gets the juices flowing 

Bill

[Flyboy Jim]

Hmmmmm....bubble gum scented fuel  . No thanks, I prefer the smell of burnt hydro-carbons in the morning!! Gets the juices flowing 

Bill

Yes........but how about G & T scented fuel Bill?

Jim

[10KPete]

Yes........but how about G & T scented fuel Bill?

Jim
[/quote]

 

Pete

[b.lindsey]

I might be persuaded by a G&T but only after 5pm 

Bill

[Bruno Mueller]

I have been using petroleum ether in my petrol cookers (comparable to the Coleman cookers) for years. It's cheaper to buy than the Coleman and Aspen stuff. You can get it as a paint thinner.
The stuff smells nice and doesn't leave a caked residue like normal petrol station fuel.
Normal fuel contains additives and aromatics that I don't want in the combustion gases.

[lohring]

We've been running our racing engines on Colman fuel for years.  They are 26 to 36 cc spark ignition, two stroke engines with relatively low compression ratios.  In racing trim they develop between 6 and 12 hp.

Lohring Miller

[sid pileski]

I use 110LL aviation fuel in my engines.
It does not have all the additives of today's auto fuel.
It lasts a lot longer without going bad. I do add Marvel also.

I took one of my engines to the local small airport and showed the fellows there what I wanted the gas for, and showed it running.

The on guy said to the other guy, Give 'em a gallon... no charge!
That gallon has lasted me a year.

Sid

[Vixen]

Here is a little more technical information about the fuels under discussion.

Petroleum or gasoline (depends where you live)  At the oil refinery, the fractional distillation of crude oil creates a vast number of different hydrocarbon products ranging from very light, highly volatile fractions i.e. naptha, petroleum ethers, light petroleum, petroleum, paraffin, diesel,  through to fuel oils and very heavy fractions bunker oils, lube oils and tars. The distillation of crude oil produces significantly more of the heavy fractions than the light ends.

Pump petrol (gasoline), is a wide cut of fractions from the middle of the stack and contains a wide mixture of hydrocarbons, sulfurs, aromatics, etc. Many additives are blended with the 'raw' petroleum to boost the octane rating sufficient for sale on the forecourt. Tetra Ethyl Lead (TEL) was used for many years as the octane booster of choice but is now banned worldwide.

Colemans Fuel AKA Petroleum Naptha, Is a distillate cut from the lightest, naptha end of the stack. It is highly volatile i.e. it evaporates readily. It burns cleanly, without smell. It is composed of a mixture of cyclohexane, octane, heptane and pentane which give this fuel an octane rating of 50 to 55.

Aspen Fuel is a synthetic alkylate fuel component used as an octane booster for wide cut petroleum fuels. It is clean burning, without smell and consist of only a small range of hydrocarbons and is free from aromatics, olefins, benzene (with an E) and sulfur. Alkylate fuel has an octane rating of 94. It is sold in Europe by Aspen Fuels as a clean, green fuel which does not deteriorate with storage.

Petroleum Ether AKA Benzine (with an I), light petroleum or Ligrion; is another narrow petroleum fraction from the lightest end of the stack, so is very volatile and evaporates readily. It consists of aliphatic hydrocarbons with a very high octane rating, 95 to 105 octane. It has been used as an octane booster but more commonly as a specialised laboratory solvent.

Petroleum Ether, despite it's name, has completely different chemical properties to the more familiar ether as used as ignition promoter in Quickstart and model diesel engine fuel.

Racing or Aviation Fuel is a highly refined, very pure, high performance fuel. Octane rating is typically 110.


It can be seem the the mass produced forecourt pump petrol is a relatively low cost product containing a wide range of different hydrocarbons, some desirable and some not so. All the alternative fuels are highly refined and carefully selected to make superior fuels with little or no unpleasant smells. The significantly higher price, compared to pump petrol, reflects the additional work of refining and lower yields involved. Fortunately, the small range of hydrocarbons involved in each of the candidate fuels usually means they do not degrade significantly with time or storage.

Mike

[Charles Lamont]

I can't find precise figures, but Coleman fuel has a RON octane rating of about 55 while Aspen 4 is somewhere about 90. (But see Mike's post above, posted while I was writing this)

Both have a much better storage life than pump petrol.

In the UK, in one litre containers, Coleman fuel seems to be mostly nearly twice the price of Aspen.

You can by Aspen fuel in larger containers, here Coleman fuel seems to be only available in 1L.

Coleman fuel contains a rust inhibitor, which I don't need.

Aspen is intended to be a cleaner and safer engine fuel than pump petrol. Coleman may burn cleanly in your camping stove, but what about the unburned stuff that comes out of your engine exhaust?

I keep an eye out Coleman fuel whenever I go in an outdoors shop, but I have not seen it in years, while Aspen is now readily available at many garden machinery dealers.

I have never tried Coleman fuel.

I have tried Aspen, and like it.

I think I might now use Aspen in my under-used strimmer and chainsaw next time I need 2-stroke fuel. I have gone cordless with my hedge trimmer. (Nice Stihl 2-stroke for sale)

[Bruno Mueller]

I have been running several Hit & Miss model engines for a good year now. Initially I used lighter fluid, but lately I've been using cleaning fluid from the paint store. It's cheaper than lighter fluid and also cheaper than Aspen fuel. The engines run perfectly.

[petertha]

We've been running our racing engines on Colman fuel for years.  They are 26 to 36 cc spark ignition, two stroke engines with relatively low compression ratios.  In racing trim they develop between 6 and 12 hp.
Lohring Miller

I never knew that. What kind of CR range is typical for this application? What is the major advantage of Coleman over say methanol since you are pre-mixing oil anyway? No real smell, cool running, higher octane....

[Bruno Mueller]

Here, a Fairbanks-Morse model engine type “Z” runs on benzine from the paint shop.

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