I have 150 gallons on home heating oil in 30 gallon barrels stored behind my shed. Can I run my tractor on straight #2 is my question or possibly a 50/50 mix with ULSD since that is all I can get locally?

The #2 has been in white barrels stored behind my shed for 2 years and in an underground tank for more then 1 year before that. Is there anything I should be doing or looking for to keep it useable? I don't want to gum up a new tractor or constantly having to change the filter.

So basically it's over 3+ years old. I would find some to legally haul if off. I would not use it. No telling what's growing inside of it.

If it looks clean I would be tempted to mix it about 50/50.
I've seen diesil stay clean for 4-5 years and still burn good. I've also seen it come out of a farm tank less than a year old that was black and funky smelling and obviosly had algea growing out of control.

Its at least 3 years old but still clean. I've been burning it in my Reddy heater all winter. It looks like it did the day I pulled it out of the underground tank 2 years ago. At 50/50 I would need to rack up 600 hrs on the tractor to burn what I have on hand.

I won't be tossing it, I can always sprinkle 30 gallons on the bonfire I will be having this year. I have knocked over enough trees to be dangerous.

I have a filter on my diesel tank, so whatever grows in it gets pretty well filtered out. Then the tractors have their fuel filters. Since I started using a biodiesel mix I figure I am cleaning the old gunk out of my tank slowly. May need to replace the filters more often. So I bought a case of filters for the tank.

In any case, # 2 heating oil is # 2 diesel. And, if you bought it since ULSD came out, it is ULSD too. So, filter it and use it up in your tractor. Mix in 2 % to 5 % biodiesel.

That is my opinion.

This is pre-ULSD heating oil since its a tractor no big deal. I don't have a station to buy biodiesel at that is convenient. Convenient being less then 25 miles.

If your going to run it....treat it with PowerService or equal. Since you pump the fuel out of the tanks, you might want to rig up a filter/water seperator on the pump filling your tank.

My Peterbilt sat 20+ years and ran on the fuel in the tank.

if its clean, no wate, no bugs, [censored] etc run it at worst I would think low cetane and smoke so then add a cetan booster should work fine.

RL has a diesel cetane booster as do other suppliers Id run it

How in the heck does a petroleum product grow fungus?

Some good ideas I have received is to use a algeacide and of course a good additive to be safe. I will be running it through this filter to eliminate contaminates and water.

Algae in diesel

I run red dyed diesel in my tractors, around 350 gallons a year. It is exactly the same as the stuff at the truck stop, except for the red dye. It is ULSD. I add about 5 % biodiesel to my storage tank. The storage tank has a filter with a water drain valve before it goes into the tractor. The biodiesel is for both cleaning and lubricity.

When you have moisture in your fuel, either from condensation due to damp air & temperature fluctuations, or if the diesel comes with water in it, a black fungus can grow at the boundary between the fuel on top, and the water on the bottom of the fuel tank. The solution is to only buy fuel from stations that sell a lot (truck stops or quality stations that turn over/refill their tanks regularly), and KEEP THE TANK FULL, especially in winter. That drastically reduces the problems you'll have, BUT one tank of c r a p fuel is all it takes!

And if you store spare diesel fuel in gas cans in the basement (like I do), keep it rotated, and unleaded gas (with 10% alcohol of course) is VERY good at getting rid of the black stuff in the bottom of the can if you leave it in for a week or so.