Oil in my house. Propane in the garage.

Oil in my engine, propane in my BBQ!

Natural Gas in both house and shop... Out west we don't have houses running oil anymore. That's an Irving monopoly!

 

actually my BBQ is LNG too... 

Edited February 12, 20196 yr by wheee!

32 minutes ago, 240260280 said:

Oil in my house. Propane in the garage.

How do you get the oil for house heating? Does the price fluctuate like fuel oil? Curious to know how that works. We have natural gas down here. A lot of heat pumps that switch over to gas at 32F. That's what I'll get next.

Truck and a hose.  I watch the spot price sometimes to try to save a few dollars.

10 minutes ago, siteunseen said:

We have natural gas down here. A lot of heat pumps that switch over to gas at 32F. That's what I'll get next.

The one thing about heat pumps is that they're slow and they run almost all of the time because of it.  Kind of noisy.  My neighbor installed one a couple of years ago and now the silence of night is replaced by the hum of a motor.  

Yes oil prices fluctuate....I wish milk and beer would burn... they are stable in price.

 

Heating oil is similar to diesel fuel but lower in price due to less tax.  It is dyed so that smart people do not put it in their diesel vehicles to save $$

 

The oil burner is simply a single injector and high pressure fuel pump with a blower. Sort of like a small flame thrower.  There are many tools for measuring the efficiency, soot byproduct, and correct ratios of fuel to air.  I overhauled the burner and set the air fuel mixture by flame colour.  When I called the "burner guy" for a check and tune, I was less than 2% off the mark.  Another colour tune example lol.

 

https://youtu.be/H8-7kyD7b28?t=488

 

44 minutes ago, 240260280 said:

Heating oil is similar to diesel fuel but lower in price due to less tax.  It is dyed so that smart people do not put it in their diesel vehicles to save $$

It's orange here and called off road diesel for farming and construction equipment. If you get caught with that in a OTR vehicle heavy fine. That dye stains the fuel system for a long time, maybe forever? Truckers get caught with it all the time. Never understood the reasoning behind that, farmers can use but independent truckers can't. 

So you have a "quick and dirty" way to get the most efficiency out your heater. Smart guy!

I look for blue flames with natural gas. Orange has too much oxygen.

1 hour ago, Zed Head said:

The one thing about heat pumps is that they're slow and they run almost all of the time because of it.  Kind of noisy.  My neighbor installed one a couple of years ago and now the silence of night is replaced by the hum of a motor.  

Our heat pumps pull humidity and blow hot air. It's very humid here.

I can't sleep without my noisemaker. Neighbors slamming car doors, dogs barking and loud car stereos. Drinking helps!

1 hour ago, 240260280 said:

Heating oil is similar to diesel fuel but lower in price due to less tax.  It is dyed so that smart people do not put it in their diesel vehicles to save $$

The oil burner is simply a single injector and high pressure fuel pump with a blower. Sort of like a small flame thrower.  There are many tools for measuring the efficiency, soot byproduct, and correct ratios of fuel to air.  I overhauled the burner and set the air fuel mixture by flame colour.  When I called the "burner guy" for a check and tune, I was less than 2% off the mark.  Another colour tune example lol.

Funny, I did the exact same thing, but haven't had it checked.  I was lucky enough to find an old-timer, retired, who was selling off his old stock.  He described how to get close on setting the air.  Wish there were more videos out there about it but the burner guys probably don't want everybody eyeball-tuning their burners.  I think I've watched all of Lavimoniere's videos.  They're entertaining.

I've used diesel in my tank when I got low.  Heating oil is dyed red to show that it hasn't had the road tax applied.  I think it might be illegal to use it in a vehicle.  I'm sure that guys in the know do though.

4 minutes ago, siteunseen said:

Our heat pumps pull humidity and blow hot air. It's very humid here.

Out here, you can crack the window open for about half the year. 

I spent some time in Mississippi.  I'm familiar.  

1 hour ago, siteunseen said:

Never understood the reasoning behind that, farmers can use but independent truckers can't.

The ostensible reason is probably to collect tax dollars for roads, which in this application, the truckers are using but farmers aren't. The real reason is probably that agriculture has better lobbyists.

Back to the topic....

I got the block cleaned up and painted tonight. The oil pan needs to be done still and a few other things, but I thought it was as a good a time as any to slap it together for some motivation!






As soon as the coil on plug units arrive, I can start mocking up the aluminum support for the spark plugs and coils.

I think the cast iron paint will be a nice subtle touch in the engine bay along with the shiny black, chrome and red bits.