Yes, you can. Distillate Fuel Oil or Diesel has two types, high-sulfur* and low-sulfur. Low for highway use, while High is considered for off-highway use ( locomotives, ships, farm tractors, bulldozers, forklifts, etc. ) The important fact to remember is diesel's cetane rating. Cetane or CN is to diesel what octane is to gasoline. Its the measure of diesel's combustion quality, or how quickly the fuel starts to burn under diesel engine conditions. A fuel with a low cetane number resists auto-ignition and has a longer ignition delay period. Highway diesel tends to have a rating of 45-50; while off-highway has 40-46. In order to get the most out of using home heating oil in a diesel engine, it is mixed with road diesel to boost the CN. Also, road diesel is mixed in during cold weather conditions. In the United States, taxes on diesel fuel are higher than on heating oil, so heating oil is marked with dye and trace cemicals to prevent and detect tax fraud. *Sulfur is a natural impurity occuring in petroleum products. Too much sulfur in diesel fuel can cause deterioration in engine oil quality by combining with moisture and forming acids. These conditions can lead to corrosion and wear problems.

I would say no. Diesel is made to specifications (just like your engine) that dictate under how much pressure it explodes, etc. Heating oil is like gas in a way. It just burns. If you put gas into a diesel engine, it will not run. I also think (may be wrong) that heating oil is too viscous compared to diesel. It would clog up the injectors, etc. Use the proper fuel for your engine, or if you're looking to save money, try bio diesel. Good Luck, Hope this helps

Since asking this question, I've actually filled my diesel powered truck from the same tanks used to fill the oil tanks for our furnace. The only difference between home heating oil and diesel is that diesel is a little cleaner. Running heating oil in your truck only means you'll have to clean the injectors more often.

According to the man who delivered both to my parents, yes. He reckoned that the two were effectively identical. However, in the UK, you would be breaking the law. Fuel for road use is taxed much higher than fuel for domestic heating, and it is an offence to use heating oil in a vehicle. The heating oil has an additive in it so that they can check if you are doing so.

Heating oil is not as refined as diesel fuel. It is much dirtier and produces more pollutants in the air. Also it will clog up your injectors which require you to remove them from the vehicle to do at a hefty price. they cant be cleaned with an additive becuse the sediments do not dissolve. look in the bottom of an oil furnace one time and look at the crusty buildup. Not a good idea.

Yes you can. #1 diesel is plain kerosene with a bit of parafin added. #2 diesel is the same as #2 home heating oil. Will your injectors get clogged? If you have a good fuel filter than it is unlikely. Plus you can add power service or diesel clean to each tank to clean the injectors and cylinders. Go to the middle of nowhere like Ellsworth, Maine and you'll find gas stations selling kerosene and home heating oil right next to the diesel pumps with a prominent sign stating "this is for tax exempt purposes only". Which means oil for road use has higher taxes and they don't want you to skip out on that

After reading this other blogs about this, I started to do some research until I was comfortable enough to try it out. Everything went well for the first two weeks, until I noticed that my engine was dragging a little. I took apart the injector and saw that it had some debris clogging it. After cleaning it out; I installed two heavy duty fuel filters and a stronger pump for my engine and it’s been going start for a month now. Also, if trying this out, find a the right company that delivers clean heating home fuel; just ask, and say that you’ve had problem with your furnace before. Also, don’t pump your fuel from an old or dirty tank; I found that it is mostly cleaner coming right off the truck. Most important, heating home fuel had a color additive to it. It is easy to spot when you know what to look for. There are ways around this but it isn’t cheap. Keep in mind, if your diesel engine throws out a lot of smoke, it will come out slightly colored. If not, it will leave residue on the tale pile but can be wiped off with the right chemicals ever two days. It is expensive if you get caught in most states!! But cops are mostly after cargo truck, since they cover a lot of ground. If you have tired this out as well, please post; I would like to know how it went

Yes, you can MIX 90% heating oil, 10% clean new cooking oil/vegetable oil -this helps with lubrication since heating oil will strip the engine oil from your cylinder barrels. Use injector cleaner in your fuel tank every 2000 klms

no because number one read the california emmissions act it is against the law in almost all states and number two it wear out your piston rings and liner o rings and also due significant damage to youre injectors good luck if you due ntry this although i due not recommend it

While fuel oil and diesel fuel are chemically very similar... . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_oil . ...unless the fuel system of the diesel engine is set up to use the more viscous fuel oil, it will run poorly. It is also quite illegal to do this with on-highway vehicles.

When the truck came out to fill our fuel oil tank we asked the driver what the difference was between #2 heating fuel and Diesel fuel. He said "20 cents". That was for the road tax. In other words he was using the same bulk tank for both. That was before they started putting the red dye in. If you get plugged injectors from you fuel it is because your filters were not working anyway and it showed up when you put dirty fuel in. Just make sure you use #2 heating oil and not #1. You can use #1 in subzero weather if you have trouble with the fuel jelling. Or you can mix up to 20% gasoline with your fuel to keep it from jelling. I never did more then 10% myself. Note - That is only in cold weather. There maybe companies that have a different grades for heating oil but where we got ours from there was not any difference. Today there is some more things added to the diesel fuel then there was before, like something to keep the fuel from jelling and there maybe more. The reason it is illegal is because of the tax, that is all. I had 190000 miles on two of my VW's before I quit driving them. One was because the body rusted so bad the rear axle fell out. The other was because the transmission started making noise. But the engines in both were still running. I had a truck with a Cummins engine and I filled one of the two tanks with gas by mistake. The tank still had some Diesel fuel so I could not put the gas in a gas car. So I ran on the other tank and would pump some of the gas in to the diesel tank and never put more then 10% gas with the diesel. It was still running good when I sold it two years later. My father had run heating fuel for years on his Olds diesel. What ever you do make sure you pay you tax, after all we do have the best road systems in the world.