On the #2 home heating oil (known in the trade as stove oil) my ancient refinery operation experience was that this was a down graded mix of #2 diesel plus tank and pipeline flushings from the process of changing storage and pipeline delivery systems and would contain traces of most any petroleum products. Based on that experience I wouldn't use it in my own engines.

That is the best definition of stove fuel that I have ever run across. Many thanks.

Depending where you are located in the country determines what #2 heating or stove oil actually is. In many cases it is regular #2 diesel dyed red. You have to play 20 questions with the fuel supplier to find out what they are selling. Also #1 fuel oil is the same as #2 diesel in most places. When the dust settles you will not save enough money to be worth th effort unless you are buying the oil in multiples of 1000 gallons. If you buy agricultural or off road fuel this will be as about as good as it gets.

50 plus year old engines cost more to rebuild that you will ever save.

The distributers that I have talked to say The Diesel fuel in New England is #2 with a Dealer or distributer package added - This package being the only difference betwen brands- surprising to me until I thought about how few ports we have

I have done alot of research on the issue of #2 Home Heating Oil used as Off-Road Diesel Fuel.
What I have come up with both from research and actual testing is that Off-Road Diesel Fuel and Home Heating oil typically come out of the same batch. The difference is the additive package in the Diesel Fuel. The industry accepted practice is the "flushings" from the pipeline go into an Industrial or Commercial Boiler Fuel.

The liabilities of selling this stuff mixed into home heating oil is too high. If there would be a high Gasoline content any number of things could happen to a home owners heating system. Namely homes with tanks in the cellars or basement don't allows vent outside and vapor buildup can occur, second is a failure in the flame to light or go out would cause an excessive buildup of fuel in the firepot which could potentially explode on relight.

I agree that there are all kinds of lubricants that can be added for longevity.

I myself have used Marvel Mystery Oil, 2 Stroke Oil, ATF and Biodiesel and even Motor Oil.
My thoughts on some of these experiments is "What happens to the silicone based additives in the ATF? Also in Motor Oils there are additives for Acid balance plus various Shear and Cleansing additives, what happens to these when burnt? Used crankcase oil like the guys that drain and dump has a higher acid content and alot of suspended carbon and ring blowby exhaust molecules trapped in suspension, what happens to these when burnt?"
The only problem with Bio is the solvent action tends to clean your fuel sytem of built up gunk causing a more often filter change, but this is only temporary.

If you were running a couple of tank fulls of fuel in your CAT for six days a week then I would worry about the fuel but most of us don't run them like that any more.
But for the most of us, it shouldn't be a concern.

My 2 cents on the subject!

It's been a long time ago but my recollection of "flushings" that wound up in stove oil were not light end stocks like gasoline, diesel and jet fuels. These had dedicated systems. It's the lesser pumped products like lube oils, olifins, and chemical and some feed stocks that shared systems that were frequently interchanged.
Yes, the heavy stocks, crude and residuals flushings were routed to the commercial and bunker fuels. Not uncommon to have a flare up at the burner tip due to some "unknown" element in the fuel stream......usually the refinery itself burned the "questionable" stuff in their distillation furnaces.

I am a little puzzled about lubricity additives to low sulfur diesel fuel. When they made the conversion to low sulfur diesel fuel in California part of the transition was installing equipment to meter in a lubricity additive at the point of distribution / the loading racks where tanker trucks picked up fuel for distribution. I thought that was being done for all low sulfur diesel fuel.
Jerome Pasto

I think alot of the problem stemmed from the fact that there were some border line diesels out there that when the switch was made failed not long after and the fuel change was blamed. If you drive it and never change the filters, brag to your buddies how great of a truck and diesel engine you have then the fuel gets changed. You are not going to admit it was your fault the engine failed are you?
No before all you guys with the DODGE Cummins that was notorious for a poor fuel delivery design get in a huff. That was a design issue not all related to fuel only partially.
When you had high sulfer fuel everyone was happy, when they lowered it to 500ppm, only a few complained, then it hit 50ppm and everyone was on the band wagon.

Now that I got you all wound up.

My only question is "How many DOCUMENTED failures have there been in ALL BRANDS of Diesel Engines?"

Besides there must be something written by ALL the engine manufactures as to whether this will become a problem.