RUNNING MY CAR ON KEROSENE DURING WW2

A little preamble to set the perspective - I worked for Pan
American Airways which operated like a US Navy transport squadron.
Pan Am had pioneered Pacific aviation before the war with bases it
had established for its operation. We employees were in the US
Navy on inactive duty (from which I got an Honorable Discharge
after the war). Pan Am entered the war with four 4 engine flying
boats, to which the Navy added 15, 4 engine and 7, 2 engine aircraft.
Our official name was NATS, Naval Air Transport Service.

Returning to San Francisco after a year in Hawaii, the only
transportation I could buy was a motorcycle. Almost constant cold
wet weather demanded something better. I saw this 1924 Studebaker
outside a junkie with grass grown around it. It looked good,
inquiry found it held up in an estate probably to be junked.
Couple weeks later I got a post card, he could sell it. For
$35 I got my obsolete car in great condition, with 8 ply tires
and two spares. The downside was it was a real gas hog - tragic
because of wartime gas rationing.

My two gallons a week gas ration was barely enough for my motorcycle.
I had heard about running Fordson tractors on kerosene. Being an
experienced airplane mechanic I figured I could make this car go
with kerosene. Studebaker couldn't be much different from the
Fordson tractor which had run on kero in the 1920s. I had no information how to do it so it was start at square one.

Apparently in 1924 gasoline required a lot of coaxing to make it
burn properly in cold weather. The primitive design of the old
car was such that it had heaters that could pass the carburetor's
intake air over the hot exhaust pipe plus a means of warming the
fuel-air mixture between the carburetor and the engine. It had to
be able to run on kerosene and I would figure out how to do it.
The owner of the car wrecking yard where I bought the car got
interested in my project and happy to help. Back to his place and
bought a Ford Model T carburetor and intake manifold. I bored
a hole in the Studebaker intake manifold, cut the mount flange off
the Ford manifold and had it welded on the Stude manifold. This
permitted having two carburetors, gas and kero. Made a one gallon
tank from a hydraulic oil can and rigged controls so the small tank
and Model T carburetor ran on gasoline. Kerosene went into the
original Studebaker gas tank and fuel system. The result was better
than I had dared hope for.

The only restriction was that it required that the engine be
warmed up good to run well on kerosene. It was about three
blocks from where I lived to get on the highway to work. I started
and ran on gasoline the first few minutes, then start cutting in
the kerosene and reducing the gasoline. This was done with the
accelerator and throttle controls. By the time I had gone about
half mile I was on kerosene only. At highway speeds it ran as
well on kerosene as it did on gasoline. When I went into San
Francisco, I had to cut in more of the gasoline because the
engine lost heat at slow city traffic speeds.

Kerosene cost ten cents a gallon and was ration free. I had all
the gas I needed for both the car and my motorcycle. I drove the
old Studebaker for almost a year until I transferred to New York
in 1945. I then sold it for what I paid for it, $35.