Ford's answers to the NHTSA 6.7 Investigation

Capt Skup wrote:
Back to aviation for a second. Had me wondering about jet fuel in conventional diesel engines. Each morning or before each flight I would take fuel samples from all the low point drains of the aircraft I was about to go for a ride in. Half fill a mason jar, do the swirl test and if the sample was clear and no contaminents present, the norm would be to dump the fuel into the tow tractor's fuel tank. Usually I would guess I poured probably 2-3 gallons. Which by the way aboard the aircraft carrier would be powered by JP-5 anyway. I believe those tow tractors were powered by 2-cycle Detroit Diesel engines, and they seemed quite happy to be running on the jet fuel. Just find it interesting in regard to lubiticity of the fuel.

The CP4 pump happens to be one of the more interesting problems to come along in a long time, nearly as elusive as the Cruise Control Deact Switch Fires, or the 737 rudder actuation issue, or the runaway vehicle issue.

Then the fortune that it is right up the alley that I am doing daily homework assignments on --- sort of like getting someone to read over your homework for free.

The tractor you worked with is an old diesel, not smogged, not EPA 2010, and generally greatly tolerant of many things.

If you are military, then it is also because DoD use "single fuel" at least while deployed to simplify logistics.

http://www.almc.army.mil/alog/issues/MarApr05/reality.html

That got your gear mostly working fine with just about anything tossed at it.

And also strange beasts like Kawasaki KLR 650s converted to run on diesel.

Lubricity is just a lot less of an issue with pre 2003 and non-smogged engines.