Is there an easy way to tell if diesel fuel is still good?

softdown · January 2016

Bought some containers that have some old diesel fuel in them. Figured it was bad when a match failed to light the fuel...under somewhat cool conditions. But a friend maintains that a match will not usually light diesel.

Johann · January 2016

softdown said:

Bought some containers that have some old diesel fuel in them. Figured it was bad when a match failed to light the fuel...under somewhat cool conditions. But a friend maintains that a match will not usually light diesel.

Years back I bought a used diesel car that was sitting for 3 years. I hooked up jumper cables and the car started up right away.
If it looks clean, I would not worry to much about it. If in doubt , just strain it through a coffee-filter which is close enough in microns that a fuel filter has.
Pour some of that diesel on some charcoal for barbecue use or paper and see if it will light or burn.
Diesel and oil is the only fuel that I know off that will be good for years,.....besides natural gas and propane.

If you poured Diesel on a cold ground etc it may not burn, heat it up a little bit and it may.
Years ago I was trying to light paint thinner. I poured it on concrete and put a match to it, but I never could get it to light up.

Mountain Don · January 2016

Diesel by itself will not ignite with just a match; maybe with a propane torch. We use diesel with about 10 - 15% gasoline added when we need to start slash pile fires. The added gas makes it easy to get going, but is not enough to cause a fireball that scorches you.

softdown · January 2016

Until the 90's, it was accepted practice to add some gasoline to diesel fuel in order to get cold engines to start. Changes were made to many diesel engines that created the threat of pre-ignition before the combustion chamber.

I might have > 50 gallons of old diesel. Would be a pain to filter that through a coffee filter.

Some people say that diesel does not go bad. Others say it last 3-4 years.

Some people use diesel in their indoor kerosene heaters. I wonder about the air quality.

This diesel fluid is already at least 4 years old. Must be some good use for it.

Turns out that my solar array is so effective that I have only used the generator twice in the past few months. The valley is usually heavenly....for solar production.

Mountain Don said:

Diesel by itself will not ignite with just a match; maybe with a propane torch. We use diesel with about 10 - 15% gasoline added when we need to start slash pile fires. The added gas makes it easy to get going, but is not enough to cause a fireball that scorches you.

Dave Angelini · January 2016

Use it to help start a burn pile. Diesel fuel injection is amazing until someones does something stupid!

mike95490 · January 2016

A company makes a $25 Fuel Filter Funnel that will clean fuel up. Diesel lasts forever as long a it stays dry, But it's very susceptible to moisture condensing in the tank, and then bacteria live at the interface of fuel & water, and create sludge.
The funnel has a hydrophobic coating on the filter, which stops the water, and the filter stops the big stuff. After that, the engines own fuel/water separator does the work.

Is there an easy way to tell if diesel fuel is still good?

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