In article ,
"Joseph Meehan" wrote:
Are you sure that was a gasoline engine they were talking about. Diesel
and kerosene are very close. Gasoline is different.

At best, I would expect that it would do the engine no good, if it
worked. I am sure it would really screw up a modern automotive gasoline
engine.

It might have been a better idea to have bought a diesel engine
generator tot start with.

Joe -
This was done in the 30s - 40s - 50s to save money. Yeah - the gasoline
engine did not run the greatest on a mixture of kerosene/gasoline but it
ran well enough to do the work. Times were tough and money was tight.
You made do with whatever worked. We ran a Ford Cub Tractor on the
mixture for 10 years - by the way - it was a very used tractor to start
with :-)
We also had a gasoline clothes washer on the back porch that ran on the
same mixture. It was a two cylinder opposed engine - no carb - just a
reeded dial that mixed the air and fuel. You twisted it open for more
air - twisted it closed to stop it. The washe has a pedal similar to a
motorcycle to start it. That was a sight seeing my 200 pound Mom
"dancing" up and down on that starter pedal every Monday morning.
Harry