I was noticing a pattern to the problem... If I changed the wick I was getting 24-36 hours of reliable operation before it started to annoy me. Seems like it's gotta be bad fuel then?
Going off on a tangent for a second, my friend who designs jet engines told me that if I add Methanol alcohol, while it will put the water in solution with the kerosene, it may actually cause even more water to be absorbed than what was in there to begin with, as alcohol loves to suck water out of the air. While it might not clog the wick, it might reduce the burnability of the kerosesne.
Anyway, this morning I dumped the contents of the street lamp tank back into my 1/2 gallon railroad kerosene can, washed the font out twice with methanol alcohol (I was assuming I was trying to get water residue out), and then filled the tank with $9 a gallon K-1 Kero in a can bought at the local hardware store rather than my usual $4 a gallon out of a pump.
The stuff I poured out of the tank and back into my can looked "a little funny" when I poured it into the can. The hardware store stuff looked clear as could be.
When I added the clear hardware store kero, I noticed that even though I had washed the tank out twice that some sort of "scum" floated to the top of the kerosene.
I soaked up the scum on the surface with a napkin, getting pretty much all of it out.
I relit the lamp and it burned for about 2 hours before going out again. I replaced the wick with a new one and the flame got nicer looking and didn't go out all day. I am guessing that there was some "scum" still in the wick.
Later this afternoon I was wondering about the stuff that I poured out of the tank this morning. I opened up my railroad can, which had sat still all day. Floating on the top was some sort of red-ish-purple-ish icky stuff. There was quite a bit of it.
I poured off what I could off the top, and ran the rest of it thru my "Mr Funnel" fuel filter a dozen or so times. Whatever it is goes right thru the fuel filter. Besides the scum on the top, the kerosene had a redish tint to it. The kerosene in my 20 or so gallon supply is clear. I checked it to be sure. I always get (over the road) kero with no red dye, so that is not where the redish stuff came from.
I have no idea what it is. I am assuming that it has been building up for a while. Two rinsings with Methanol left a bit, so it is not all that soluable in Methanol. While the redish color is in the kerosene, the heavy buildup floated to the top, meaning it is lighter than kerosene and not all that kerosene soluable as well.
I thought maybe it has something to do with the red stripe dye in the wicks I use, but I checked my pile of messed up wicks and the red stripe looks as bright as new wick.
Assuming that the problem has been reduced to the point where the wick will survive, I will run this tank of kerosene down to near empty and give the tank another really good rinsing, possibly with soap and hot water first. I say that because I took my pile of scumed up wicks and soaked them in hot soapy water and they cleaned up. I haven't tested them yet as they are still wet, but the red-ish-purplish coloring seems to be gone.
I am not sure yet, as I have been given false hope before, but this red-ish-purple-ish stuff sure doesn't look like it is supposed to be in there. Where the heck did it come from, and what the heck is it?
Amazingly enough, the Kirkman #2 is still running just fine. Other than that one time a few days ago that it went out, I have not had any issues with it at all. Why does it not have this problem? It burns alot less kero, so if it is a cumulative thing, I guess it would take alot longer for the red-ish stuff to build up to the same level. I need to dump the font in it sometime as well and see what I can see.
Changing subjects a bit, my backup Kirkman #2 arrived yesterday. Apparently I did something wrong and didn't actully order the hooded reflector. That issue has been remedied. In the mean time, I painted the Galvanized Kirkman #2 with clear POR-15, followed by a couple of coats of Rustoleum "Hammered Green". The Post Adapter got a similar paint job. By the time that the copper hood reflector arrrives the paint will be rock hard and ready to go if I need it. If it turns out that I don't need it as a street lamp backup after all, I plan to put a 3 foot high lamp post in the middle of my picnic table and mount it on there for summer party illumination.
Has anyone else seen this red-ish-purple-ish stuff and have any idea what it could be?
Rick
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