Can Coleman/white gas be used in an automobile?
SlipperySlope
I heard somewhere that "white gas" is supposedly the same as unleaded
gasoline.
For starters, is Coleman fuel the same as white gas? If that is so,
then let's say I found myself running out of gas and happened to have a
gallon of coleman fuel in the car, could I dump that coleman fuel into
my car's gas tank?
MBOPP0153
fuel or naptha is better suited as a fuel system cleaner. In fact, that's how I
dispose of my leftover fuel at the end of camping season - a quart at a time
into a full tank of gas. I do know of one guy who did what you asked - ran his
car on Coleman fuel. It seemed not to suffer from the experience.
Mike
Dave C.
"SlipperySlope" <THEGook> wrote in message news:3DD01E9E...@zip.net...
Coleman fuel is most likely propane. Yes, you can run a car on propane.
Some "fleet" vehicles run on propane. But your car has to be modified to
run on propane. I believe some newer minivans are dual fuel. (Gasoline or
propane). But don't quote me on that.
In your scenario, if you ran out of gas and dumped in the coleman fuel . . .
the car would probably run like crap, if it ran at all. I don't recommend
it. -Dave
Matthew Hunt
Dave C. <spamm...@slowlyandpainfully.com> wrote:
> Coleman fuel is most likely propane.
While many camp stoves do run on propane and/or butane, "Coleman fuel"
or "white gas" is a liquid fuel. It is close enough to unleaded that
many white gas camp stoves can burn unleaded without modification, if
you don't mind your food smelling like gasoline. But whether you can
go the other way and run Coleman fuel in a car, I don't know. I would
worry, for example, that the octane rating might be too low and the
engine would knock.
Don Bruder
"Dave C." <spamm...@slowlyandpainfully.com> wrote:
> "SlipperySlope" <THEGook> wrote in message news:3DD01E9E...@zip.net...
> >
> > I heard somewhere that "white gas" is supposedly the same as unleaded
> > gasoline.
> >
> > For starters, is Coleman fuel the same as white gas? If that is so,
> > then let's say I found myself running out of gas and happened to have a
> > gallon of coleman fuel in the car, could I dump that coleman fuel into
> > my car's gas tank?
> >
>
> Coleman fuel is most likely propane.
Coleman fuel and propane aren't even *SLIGHTLY* similar. "White Gas" is
usually Naptha and a couple other ultra-light (in the sense that 10W30
oil is "lighter" than say, 5W20) and extra volatile oils, and is a
liquid at normal (as in "not compressed") pressure and temperature.
Propane is just that: Propane, and it's a gas unless under a fairly high
amount of pressure, or at low (-32F) temperature. The only similarity
between the two is that they both burn.
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Others have answered portions:
1) Coleman fuel is Naptha
2) It can be used in a car, as it has no lead. It has no anti-knock
or other additives, either, so should be used for emergency only.
3) White gas is used often when Naptha would be more correct; they
are the same.
See http://www.gearreview.com/gearfaq/wgcoleman.asp
Floyd
Toby Cowger
: I heard somewhere that "white gas" is supposedly the same as unleaded
: gasoline.
My brother ran into this very scenario with his mid-70s Jeep.
He ran out of gas, and dumped in Coleman stove fuel. As other replies
in this thread have surmised, his engine was knocking all the way to the
gas station. After a fill-up, all was fine.
Toby
Jim Yanik
Today's modern vehicles have EFI and knock sensors,so the motor will get
it's timing adjusted,and should suffer a power loss with Coleman fuel.
--
Jim Yanik,NRA member
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py...@tex10as.net
gudmundur
spamm...@slowlyandpainfully.com says...
Tim Turner
SlipperySlope wrote:
I saw my father do it in the early '70s and I did it around 1980 or so.
Neither vehicle had a catalytic converter or Oxygen sensor so I can't
say for sure that it wouldn't harm either but suspect it wouldn't. Both
cars pinged horribly on the Coleman but made it to the gas station
without ill result and went well over 100,000 Miles afterwards. Newer
vehicles might flag the "Check Engine" light if it runs out of
adaptation trying to eliminate the spark knock or possibly even set a
degraded cat code as I doubt the Coleman is an "oxygenated" fuel.
Still... reseting the light later beats walking now!
Tim T.
Jeff Buck
I used it in a 3.5 HP lawnmower once and it worked okay, but I've never
tried it in a car.
bobby
into the plant from wells. Methane (went to homes), propane, butane and
"gasoline" left the plant. We called the gasoline "white gas" as it was
clear. I know several people who used this in their cars and trucks and I
never heard of any damage, but they did knock and ping. They also used this in
their Coleman lanterns and stoves.
Back in the 70's, I remember seeing my dad use Coleman fuel in the lawnmower to
finish cutting the grass when we ran out of gasoline. Ran fine.
bb
Aron
than a modern automobile. I think that the distinction with white gas is
the same as with kerosene. The clearer the fuel, the cleaner it burns. You
don't want to choke when you use a kerosene heater or a camp stove, lantern,
etc.
The automotive gas at the pump has many additives. It has detergent, it
has additives to suspend water I believe, it has carcinogenic MTBE (Methyl
Tertiary Butyl Ether) to oxygenate it in an attempt to reduce emissions, and
it has measured amounts of octane, which prevents knocking by elongating the
burn time. Obviously you wouldn't want to use it for a stove or lantern.
Obviously a car can burn white gas but it probably isn't a good idea to use
it as its regular fuel or to use it straight.
I'm not a fuel tech but this is what I know from info I've gotten along
the way. I don't know if I added anything new here but maybe some clarity
to some things that were already said.
"SlipperySlope" <THE...@zip.net> wrote in message
news:3DD01E9E...@zip.net...
>
Matthew Russotto
>
>I heard somewhere that "white gas" is supposedly the same as unleaded
>gasoline.
Last I heard, white gas (as in Coleman fuel) is kerosene with some of
the stinkier portions removed. Might work in a diesel, but not in a
gasoline engine.
--
Matthew T. Russotto mrus...@speakeasy.net
=====
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Matthew Russotto
Matthew Russotto <russ...@grace.speakeasy.net> wrote:
>In article <3DD01E9E...@zip.net>, SlipperySlope <THE...@zip.net> wrote:
>>
>>I heard somewhere that "white gas" is supposedly the same as unleaded
>>gasoline.
>
>Last I heard, white gas (as in Coleman fuel) is kerosene with some of
>the stinkier portions removed. Might work in a diesel, but not in a
>gasoline engine.
Judging from the other responses, I heard wrong... nevermind.
Matthew Hunt
> Last I heard, white gas (as in Coleman fuel) is kerosene with some of
> the stinkier portions removed. Might work in a diesel, but not in a
> gasoline engine.
On the WhisperLite Internationale (a common liquid fuel stove), there
is one jet for gasoline and white gas, and another jet for kerosene. So
that would argue for white gas being more like gasoline than kerosene.
C.R. Krieger
news:ut0na8o...@corp.supernews.com...
>
> How could you 'pour in' propane, which is a vapor at atmospheric pressure?
Well, first, it's gotta be really *really* cold ...
--
C.R. Krieger
"Don't argue with 'em, dear; they're beneath our dignity." - W.C. Fields
Christopher Hauck
I wonder if people can still read anymore as this entire question is based on two versions of LIQUID fuels that remain liquid until heated or evaporated INTENTIONALLY
so obviously the OP got many nonsense replies about a third type of fuel that does not match his/her question in any sense
I am glad the smarter people or at least experienced have given helpful and fully valid answers to the OP
summery: while white gas by itself is not ideal for running a modern highly integrated and optimized large ICE as it has no additives to aid in long-term durability it can be used in emergencies or with smarter cars that offer things like "flex fuel" as those cars will adapt to natural deviations in whatever combustible crap you pour into them
it also tends to not matter much in "dumber" small engines with four-stroke designs as those tend to be balanced to match a class of fuels that white gas is part of and I guess are also much less prone to buildup damage as they are low-mass engines with a defined self correcting loop in operation by physical variations in burn temp and rotor speed
as for the propane in cars thing yes ANY LPG variant (including methane/butane/propane) can be used in gasoline type engines as long as it is properly mixed using a gas-gas carburetor rather than the liquid-gas carburetor of standard gasoline though some mild complexity of replacing the liquid-only fuel injector system with a dual-state injector means older "dumb" engines do best with a simple carb. swap as they will tend to vary the idle and speed/temp parameters to maintain optimal burn rate and power level if only peaking at 50-80% of the original power if you ran on the designed liquid fuel
I would be planning for a lot of "dual fuel" type small engines soon as gasoline is always gonna be harder to synthesize than LPG types and the supply is still only going down
I might even get a "car" meant to take an internal "grill tank" in the cabin to run as my "range extender" in a primarily solar EV with only the range extender popping out the car to vent the CO from use
since the sun is gonna outlast all of us and when it dies we will die as a species and otherwise there are simple processes that can go from grass waste all the way to propane using only mildly expensive equipment like a cryo-pump for separation of feed gases and a few other common things for dealing with gas-gas reactions like sealed compressors and drying catalysts and the main show of a corona discharge gas cracking reactor which is just an O2 free ozone generator that cracks some of the feed into the product and rejected hydrogen and that being all under 170psi(the peak for propane storage at room temp) is well within the layman to build and make some tiny cash selling to the grillmasters and campers around the usa
Eddy Merceno
terrible octane rating. If you mixed it with ethanol, might work.