Compression ratio on old tractors
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armylifer
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BX1860, FEL, RCK54P MMM, BB1548 Box Scraper, Quick Hitch, Piranha Bar, BX6315
I believe that older tractors used to run on a low octane fuel called tractor fuel. They did not need a high compression engine to run this cheap fuel. Back when I first joined the Army we used to have some old gas Jeeps and trucks that the fuel specification was a minimum 68 octane rating. Those low compression engines did not need the high quality fuel that we use today.
Our old John Deere “B” could run on gasoline, kerosene, or “condensate” (which was given-away by the local oil field supervisors when they “blew-down” their compressor tanks.).
If it was a cold morning we’d start it on gasoline then switch over to the kerosene tank, which might have either kero or condensate or tractor-fuel. (The tractor had two tanks with a selector-valve.)
I believe the condensate was 66-octane (and may be where the “Phillips 66” name originated.)
If it was a cold morning we’d start it on gasoline then switch over to the kerosene tank, which might have either kero or condensate or tractor-fuel. (The tractor had two tanks with a selector-valve.)
I believe the condensate was 66-octane (and may be where the “Phillips 66” name originated.)
Could be.... I was only 7 or 8 when my half-uncle drove us out to the oil field and he drew it out of a long-oil-field contraption into WW2 surplus jerry-cans and quickly put them into the trunk of his ‘53 Ford Custom and it was dark and late at night and waay past my bedtime. I guess the Lion Oil Co. didn’t have any use for the stuff because he said it was free.... but things were always kinda strange in Smackover, Arkansas on Saturday night and we had to get back through the woods and back to the dirt road and get on home because he had to preach the next morning at the New Hope Baptist Church where he was pastor.
That sure was a nice oil company, that Lion Oil, to give that stuff away. I think I recall him saying he could “retard” his Ford and it would run on that stuff too.... I never saw him after I was 16.... don’t know what happened to him...
armylifer
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BX1860, FEL, RCK54P MMM, BB1548 Box Scraper, Quick Hitch, Piranha Bar, BX6315
Reason I mention that is, at one time I owned a '41 Farmall A dual fuel and it was gasoline or distillate. The gas went in a small tank to start the motor and warm it up (had a carb cover on it and rad shutters) and the distillate went in the big tank to run it. You got the motor hot and the coolant hot and switched. I did it on keroscene a couple times.
I’m sure you are correct... I was so young at the time and I’ve slept a few times since... and who knows if Uncle Edward used the correct term ....or intentionally used the wrong term (to mislead what he was taking.) He was actually my Mother’s half-uncle once-removed... (lot’s of Arkansas “hills” women outlived several husbands back in the late 1800s/early 20th century, ) and they may have moved frequently as-well as “revenue” opportunities changed.
I recall one of them saying “We moved so often ... that when Daddy started to pack-up the wagon ... the chickens would lay down and cross their legs!”
While condensate and distillate have been used interchangeably, condensate was the common term in the SW oilpatch and found in the gas pipeline traps. It formed as the rich natural gas being produced from deep underground cooled and condensed during its trip to the market taps. Some condensate was as clear as the dew that condensed on morning leaves-- but quite volatile.
A slang term for the condensate in the oilpatch is "drip". Part of the pipeline maintenance was a collection truck sent around to collect the condensate from low spots or traps in the line, called
"blowing the drips". Also an interesting history of the Lion Oil Co at
https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/lion-oil-company-5583/
A slang term for the condensate in the oilpatch is "drip". Part of the pipeline maintenance was a collection truck sent around to collect the condensate from low spots or traps in the line, called
"blowing the drips". Also an interesting history of the Lion Oil Co at
https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/lion-oil-company-5583/
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Too bad Johnny Cash is dead he could have probably come up with a song out of your story!
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In Oden, AR there’s a small church with an ironic name:
”Little Hope Baptist Church” https://g.co/kgs/Wf2jPH
”Little Hope Baptist Church” https://g.co/kgs/Wf2jPH