Fuel for M35A3

[o1dakota440]

ok so this might be a dumb question. but all this talk of red dye in your fuel, you know the non taxed fuel, well what would happen to me, i just topped off my 3/4 full tank of on road taxed fuel with about 12 gallons of used tranny fluid. now it looks like non taxed heating oil. what kind of trouble would i be in?

 

[m16ty]

ok so this might be a dumb question. but all this talk of red dye in your fuel, you know the non taxed fuel, well what would happen to me, i just topped off my 3/4 full tank of on road taxed fuel with about 12 gallons of used tranny fluid. now it looks like non taxed heating oil. what kind of trouble would i be in?

I know a guy that got a ticket for that. He tried to explain to the officer that it was ATF but he didn't care. Said if he sticks the tank and it comes up red you WILL get a ticket and it will be up to you to defend it in court. He did get it thrown out in court but he had to hire a lawyer and take the time to deal with it.

It is not worth the risk of running dyed fuel. The fines can run into several thousand dollars.

 

[Beerslayer]

I washed the red dye out of untaxed kerosene because it clogs the wick of the kerosene heater.

Activated carbon .

I use kerosene lanterns and heaters and the red dye really shortens the life of the wicks.

I hate buying the 'pearl' kerosene, so expensive just to burn in a heater.

What kind of setup did you use to filter it?

 

[BIG_RED]

My fuel is blue cause I just dumped a whole bunch of TC-W3 (low soot) two stroke oil in it. Wonder if that could get me into trouble where you guys are.. Here in Manitoba, Canada - I've never even heard of someone having their fuel checked by the police.

 

[m16ty]

My fuel is blue cause I just dumped a whole bunch of TC-W3 (low soot) two stroke oil in it. Wonder if that could get me into trouble where you guys are.. Here in Manitoba, Canada - I've never even heard of someone having their fuel checked by the police.

As long as it's not red you're ok here in the US.

In the US most states (if not all) have road taxes added to the fuel. You can buy non-taxed fuel to use for off-road use because if you're not running it on the road you're not required to pay road taxes. To try and keep people from running non-taxed fuel on the public roads they add red dye to distinguish the two.

There was a time when gas was dyed also but in recent years most off-road equipment is diesel so they did away with dyed gas. You can still get the taxes paid on gas back if you fill out a form at the end of the year and can prove it was used off-road.

 

[BIG_RED]

Thanks for the info . We can get home heating oil here too, but I've only seen some once and it looked like dark diesel. That's not to say that it may be died red here too, I just haven't seen it.

A common thing I've heard of up here to dodge taxes is to convert older carbed vehicles to run on propane, cause that's not road taxed here so long as you bring the tank to get filled and don't let them see you install it back into your car.

Illegal fuel use isn't a common thing where I live, so it's never checked. Guess I'm kinda lucky.

 

[Beerslayer]

Blue dye is used for diesel in government vehicles and is there for the purpose of deterring fuel theft. I don't know if the dye in the premix is the same blue but it could look like it enough to cause a problem.

I did a little digging and found that the dye in ATF is most likely the same as what is used in diesel, Solvent Red 164. Solvent Red 26 used to be used but is mostly replaced now with 26.

Want to know more? Wikipedia Article explains it pretty good.