Wording on early diesel fuel caps.

My apologies if this topic has been covered before. I just happened to notice a difference in the wording on a couple brass fuel caps I have on the wall. One says “Buy clean fuel and keep it clean”. We’re all familiar with that slogan as just about all Caterpillar diesel fuel caps say that.

The other one I have says “Use clean fuel and keep it clean”. I assume this cap is earlier but I don’t know that for certain.

Anyone know?

BP.

I'm no expert by any means but I seem to remember reading back when multiple fuels were used they could come from various different types of containers of questionable sources hence the use clean fuel . When diesel became more readily available and was bought instead of "obtained" where it could be found the buy clean fuel became standard.

I stand to be corrected by someone more knowledgeable or at least with a better memory.

That sure makes sense to me Gary.

The 2B casting number is earlier than the 3B number. Use clean fuel is the older

Hi Team,

interesting discussion here, your grey OMI should tell you that these early Cat Diesel engines were designed to run on No3 grade, later re-designated to No2 grade, domestic furnace oils.

In the "Maintenance Instructions and under the heading of "Care Of The Fuel Supply" you can read about Cat's thoughts on this subject which are very detailed and vitally important.

The source of said fuels which could be dirty due to multiple handling and implements for doing so caused dirty fuel that wore out precision fuel injection equipment due to the early filter designs that basically filtered out rocks and not fine contaminants like dust etc. hence the captions on the fuel tank caps.

My 2 bobs worth, sorry, looks like I goofed again loading images as I am using my old 2006 steam powered laptop--newer one has failed the charge jack--awaiting parts from USA.

Eddie B.

Bruce, is there an "and" in the Use Clean Fuel Keep It Clean cap? Maybe the layer of paint is obscuring the word?

Thanks Eddie.

Neil, I believe it does say and. There is a pretty heavy layer of paint covering it up.