Fuel Additive

[Luther Taylor]

Thanks to all for your comments. 
I’m gonna give the Diesel Kleen a try, picked up some at Orschelns Farm  d Home yesterday 80oz for $22 and change. 
Gonna order some Biobor, I’m still shopping  for prices. 

[cpat_39]

thanks for tip on the tip on funnel you have used. I just purchased on Amazon. Should have Monday.

[Scotty Hutto]

Just a little additional add...  and this is second hand stuff I recall from @throgmartin...

I use Biobor and Opti-Lube, much the same as @Tom Cherry  

I recall from the gathering two years ago that Chris Throgmartin was discussing the lubricity of diesel fuel when our engines were originally designed versus the lubricity of current formulations of ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD)...  in short, current ULSD does not have the same lubricity, and additives increase the lubricity, which makes the lubricity of the fuel closer to what our engines were designed for...

if I can find my notes from that session I’ll post them here. 

[cpat_39]

Scotty, Chris sent an comment to Monacoers when I mention Cummins endorsement of Diesel Kleen several years ago. My personal experience and discussions with several diesel mechanics led me to continue to use DK on our coach. Appreciate that others have a different view and respect their right to that view. Our engine runs better on DK than without and I have faith in what Cummins recommends. 

[throgmartin]

Scotty:

You are correct. I have been a strong proponent of additives since getting information from my son, a certified Cummins tech. He has a lot of connections at Cummin's skunk works  ( engineering lab ). Cummins started seeing issues with pre-2007 engines due to the introduction of ULSD. The sulfur in diesel fuel is also a lubricant for the fuel system and when they took out a lot of the sulfur with the ULSD they also removed a lot of the lubricity of the fuel. The problems they started seeing were seal issues and injector issues.

What was crazy was Cummins engineers knew there were issues but Corporate kept telling their customers you do not need additives.  They did this for several years. Then from a push from their engineering staff ( and due to warranty claims ) they came out and said yes, you need an additive. In other words they were very late to the party. My sons contacts told him about the engines needing additives and he had me start using it right after ( which was years ago ).   Cummins now recommends Diesel Kleen but here is the kicker. It is a poor performing additive. There was a large independent study done of all additives on the market and Diesel Kleen never made it into the top 10. They found that adding cheap Walmart 2 cycle oil was better then Diesel Kleen ( I do not suggest screwing with 2 cycle oils BTW ). Even the Cummins engineers agreed behind closed doors Opti Lube was the best additive.

So why does Cummin's recommend Diesel Kleen ? Because of financial arrangements made with Power Services. I use nothing but Opti Lube as it is the # 1 performing additive on the market. If I am going to go to the trouble and expense of buying a fuel additive I want one that is the best. I am not concerned about saving a few dollars I could save by buying cheap additive.

In regards to using Biobar JF, I religiously use it.  That is the cheapest insurance you will ever buy for avoiding algae blooms in your fuel. I have seen members here and have had customers suffer huge costs from algae in the fuel. Algae blooms can occur when a coach sits for a while and it can also be introduced into your tank at a recent fill up.  Everyone knows you are only one fuel stop away from getting bad fuel. If you get a serious algae bloom you are looking at thousands of dollars to clear it up.

I highly suggest using Biobar on every other fill up or if you are parking your coach for a few weeks. I also advocate using Opti Lube on every tank fill up. It will help during start up's, provide a little extra power by raising the cetane rating of the crap ULSD fuel and most importantly provide much needed lubricity to the fuel system. If you have a pre-2007 emissions engine it is very much needed. If you have a newer engine it wont hurt the emissions system.

I might add that if you care to do some digging you will find Diesel Kleen is way down on the list of additives. You will also find that diesel engines made before 2007 were never designed for ULSD fuel. They were manufactured for the higher sulfur fuel we used to have. As a disclaimer I have no financial interest in Opti Lube. 🙂

Hope this info helps.   

[Dennis H]

Since everyone seems to prefer OptiLube over other brands etc. which OptiLube do you use since there's about 1000 different ones...thanks...Dennis

On edit: It appears it's a toss up between the XL and the XPD. Is the Cetane Booster worth the extra cost? We don't do cold weather to the de-icer is a non issue. Thanks...D

 

 

Edited May 31, 2020 by Dennis H

[Tom Cherry]

57 minutes ago, Dennis H said:

Since everyone seems to prefer OptiLube over other brands etc. which OptiLube do you use since there's about 1000 different ones...thanks...Dennis

On edit: It appears it's a toss up between the XL and the XPD. Is the Cetane Booster worth the extra cost? We don't do cold weather to the de-icer is a non issue. Thanks...D

 

 

I used the XPD.  Ordered it from Amazon.  Remember, I don't use the 2.5 oz per 10 gal.  I use 2.0 and have a small amount of JF Biobor in the mix.  IF I did the math, i might be at 1.95 Theoretical oz per 10 gallon.  Since I overdose due to not measuring it in a graduated cylinder.....it works.  

[Hotrod - R.I.P.]

4 hours ago, cpat_39 said:

Scotty, Chris sent an comment to Monacoers when I mention Cummins endorsement of Diesel Kleen several years ago. My personal experience and discussions with several diesel mechanics led me to continue to use DK on our coach. Appreciate that others have a different view and respect their right to that view. Our engine runs better on DK than without and I have faith in what Cummins recommends. 

Not to throw gas on a fire , but ... Yes it makes proper sense to take Cummins advise rather than third hand anecdotal advise. It would be like suggesting that you shouldn’t use oem parts because an unnamed source says sob parts are better .

I started using DK grey bottle booster back in 2005 when ulsd started showing up at the pumps. It gave me about a half mpg better mileage. My isc 330 diplomat was noticeably sluggish on ulsd. I’ve been using it ever since. 

The bio diesel available now does not have a good shelf life and after a few months it starts degrading and you will get little tar like bugs. When you see them in the top of your fuel filter, you May have a serious problem Houston. 
 

So, giving the b20 that you get some places (like florida), the last couple years , I’ve started using the tank cleaning dk with the green writing on the label. It’s about 11$ a quart so I’ll dump one in every couple tanks. 
 

The biobohr jr is to be safe that I don’t get any algae growth and I use it a couple times a year. 
 

I need to go pull my primary filter and make sure the fuel still looks good as the coach has not moved much since the got back from Florida in February. I did fill it up right before parking. 
 

Here is what a bad case of decomposing bio looks like .

[throgmartin]

I can remember coming back from a trip and stopping at a Pilot in Memphis for fuel. The trucker islands were jam packed and Ingrid was driving. Always thinking of others, she let a trucker in ahead of us so we had an even longer wait. I was not happy but she said " he ism working, we are not in a hurry so chill out ". Every fuel island was filled with trucks 2 deep waiting. After 10 minutes we were next in line and when I looked up I seen hoods going up on all the semis. I got out and walked up to the truck ahead of us that Ingrid let in to ask why all the hoods were up. Soon the pumps all went dead and a manager came running out in a panic.

Turns out Memphis had a big rain storm and the Pilot's fuel filter system got overwhelmed and started pumping water laden fuel. It was so laden with water it shut the engines down on all the semis. Everyone of them were dead in the water. Of course Ingrid reminded me of how lucky we were because of her nice gesture. We had a helluva time getting out as there were so many trucks in there waiting in line. Can you imagine the chaos that followed ? Over a dozen semis had to have their tanks pumped out and fuel filters changed. There were semis who had just filled sitting out in the lots stalled. No idea what Pilot did with their storage tanks but the drivers were all screaming at the manager " Pilot will pay for all this including new filters and fuel ".

Since that experience I use biobar on alternate fill ups. I agree with Bill Groves. This soy based diesel is absolute junk fuel. I once had my coach fully serviced by my son and on the very first fill up my damn fuel filters got trashed by crud. Ever since then my coach never leaves the drive without a set of spare fuel filters in the basement. So I not only advise people to use additives and biobar but also always carry a set of fuel filters in the basement of your coach. You are one fill up away from trashed fuel filters.

 

[dl_racing427]

I've been filtering and blending my used oil from all my vehicles into my diesel fuel for many years. It gets rid of the used oil, and I also recover the energy value from it in the process.

I usually blend around 10-15%, and have seen no adverse effects on any of the 6 diesels that I own.

I once accidentally got around 25% in my tractor, and I did notice a little blue smoke, and some odor, until I burned that tank down and added more fuel.

On my Ford Powerstroke, I even notice the injectors are a bit quieter with the oil blended in.

Since lube oil is intended to lubricate, I feel it is good protection for the injection pump and injectors, and the engines have no trouble burning it cleanly.

I got the idea from a Cummins system for OTR trucks that monitors mileage and load, and pumps the oil directly from the sump to the fuel tank, while adding makeup oil from a reservoir.  IIRC they claimed 100,000 mile oil drain intervals with this system.

I built a small pump/filter unit, and run my drain oil through that into clean jugs before blending with the fuel.

I have ordered some Biobor JF to control algae, as my fuel is stored for extended periods, especially that for the standby generator.

One other thing I use in the generator tank is a diesel snake.  It's a long tubular thing that you drop into the tank through the filler neck, and it absorbs any water from the bottom of the tank.