Before catalytic cracking became widespread they heated and distilled crude to get the different fractions: gasoline, kerosene, diesel etc. The type of crude made a significant difference as to the percentages yielded. A barrel of oil would yield "X" amount of several fractions. My understanding is that distillate fuels were kind of a leftover and thus sold at a low price. Too heavy to vaporize for starting, they worked by being vaporized by specially designed "Hot" manifolds and run while the engine was thoroughly warmed up. Lower compression ratios had to be used to prevent spark knock. Distillate did have more BTU than gasoline.
During WW2 catalytic cracking became widespread so we could turn a whole barrel of crude into gasoline. Refineries had more precise control over what came out and that resulted in fewer orphaned products. During the 50's distillate became less popular and faded from use.
I've heard of diesel being tried in tractors that had all the distillate equipment intact: Hot manifold, distillate tuned carb and radiator shutters. Kerosene or jet fuel would probably be a better try due to being a bit lighter than diesel. Of course kerosene has gotten stupid expensive. Jet fuel is not any better unless you can find some they need to get rid of such as has been de-fueled for maintenance or other reasons.
I've wanted to try jet fuel in an H or an M farmall but haven't gotten to it. Still haven't found radiator shutters for an M that were remotely usable. I have all the components for an H but will have to find one with the low compression pistons or build one just for it. ($$$) I have several Farmalls that were distillate tractors when brand new but over time they were upgraded to higher compression pistons and/or gasoline head to be more efficient on gasoline. The manifolds lived a hard life with all that heat and were nearly all replaced with gasoline manifolds.
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Today's Featured Article - New Life for an Old Allis - by Tyler Woods. My friend Jon, has an old '39 Allis Chalmers B. He thought it a marginal tractor that had long since served its time. She smoked terribly and never had much power but he couldn't afford another so he was limping along with what he had. Jon's Allis has a small front loader and though it doesn't carry much, it serves his needs. It was the hard starting and low power that made him think it was time to replace the old girl. Jon called me to help him discover why his tractor wouldn't start
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