How to measure fuel tanks

You obviously have never atarted a fire using diesel and a match. If you DROP the match into a puddle of diesel it will most likely be exstiguished... But if you hold the flame close to the puddle for a few seconds, it will warm the diesel causing it to evaporate... Then the fumes will ignite. Once the flame is hot enough it will burn the fluid diesel aswell.

Diesel requires compression (or extreme heat) to Explode... Not combust. Gasoline can explode with a flame alone under the right situations.

Edit: Trust me when I say, "I have very personal experience with accelerants, amd the possible consequences they can pose."

 

Everything has an ignition point.

 

Steel will burn if it gets hot enough.

 

Formula for a round tank with no steps.

3.1416 X Radius in inches X Radius in inches X Height (or length) in inches / 1728 = Cubic Feet

Then take the cubic feet X 7.48 to get the number of gallons

(7.48 is the number of gallons there are in a cubic foot)

Otherwise, many tanks have the gallons engraved on the tank somewhere near the filler opening. It might be hidden under crud or scratched so bad you can't read it.

 

Yep, throw a match in diesel tank, it will go out. Spark a match within a few feet of gasoline. BBQ time.

 

That is just plain incorrect. Diesel has a higher flash point than gasoline, but once it reaches that flash point of between 126 and 205 degrees F it will flash just like gasoline. So if you spill a little diesel on a hot parking lot on a summer day and drop a match on it, yes it will flare up just like gasoline. Or if you're driving in the southwest on a very hot day, the temperature of the diesel in your tanks could very well already be near the flash temperature. That's also why fires that happen on commercial trucks almost always start in the engine compartment or a reefer engine. A fuel leak onto a hot engine block just needs a little spark and BOOM.

 

That’s a better explanation. We used to use diesel in Kerosene heaters in winter on the Farmers mkt. Light the top of diesel tank on fire. Burns all day. Great big stack on it. Smokey while lighting. Once it’s going, not bad at all.

 

I'm not sticking a match in anything after I didn't properly vent a brush pile under a snow bank. I don't know about dieseal but gas will find the easiest path of resistance. Even if my face was in the way. It was fast. That much I do know

 

Eh, the article itself is worth the read and better laid out, look at table 1