Alternative fuels forum

[sleekwater]

No it doesn't make any difference what kind of oil you use. The filter still need to be changed at the regular time. I messed around with some additives and ended up plugging my filters up but that was my fault. I have been running my fuel in my 04 Duramax for 25K miles and have not noticed any difference in MPG, power or smoke. Same goes for 2 Cat. powered vehicles I own.

 

[EDankievitch]

WOw a place for us tree huggers that are tryin to not buy big oil's fuel. I saw a question about B5 someplace above. Ok so here's the deal. Dodge and Bosch both stated that 5% BioDiesel ( Unless in Mil fleet use then B20 is alowed) is the max allowed. This was because at the timeour trucks were built there was NO STANDARD for the quality of the fuel. Things have changed over the past few years there is now a national standard that the fuel should meet and it should have a certifacation showing so. I've had a few very good suppliers that have very clean certified fuel and I've run B100 for better part of 5 years. That said I did crack an inector, did the fuel cause it to fail??? I don't think so as there have been many other cracked injector nozzles that have failed on Diesel. Now on to the next part. The newer 6. 7 Cummins engines with aftertreatment and this goes for Fords and the bowtie guys also. The DPF cat requires that the engine run rich an after charge shot of fuel to get the cat to light and burn off the soot. This is why these truck don't get as good a fuel milage as the older trucks did. When you run bioDiesel over 20% mix you risk getting unburnt fuel into the lube oil. Unburnt that should be going into the Cat to light it off. I'

m sure this gives more questions than answers. .

 

[aharman]

The news around the world makes me nervous about the future possibility of buying diesel fuel at a reasonable price, or specifically at a price I can afford. I don't want to give up driving my 2001 H. O. let alone towing my 36 Foot fifth wheel camper. That's why I'm visiting this forum for the first time. The alternative fuel which currently makes me curious is CNG (Compressed Natural Gas). I understand the less you know about a subject the more sense it can make. I hope others with more experience will chime in and make me feel positive about it or tell me why I need to forget it and find my own vegetable oil source and make my own brew or park my camper in a permanent site.

I am also concerned that unrest in the Mideast will eventually cause a shortage in fuel and skyrocketing prices. I have been looking into using CNG for my truck and car to head off disastrous increases in fuel costs. Natural gas has some advantages: it's available in the US and does not require refining, and it has very high octane, and good energy density.



I did some searching on the internet ad turned up references to dual-fuel conversions for diesels, where diesel fuel is used as a pilot to light off the main charge of natgas. Mitsubishi had a genset engine a few years ago that ran this way, and there is a company that makes systems to convert railroad diesels to dual-fuel. These systems vary the amount of natgas with engine load, using a higher percentage at low load, and tapering off at high load. Since the natgas is injected into the intake manifold, the engine is operating with some pre-mixed charge, and becomes susceptible to detonation. This is why the natgas is tapered off at high load. But if you spend most of your time running at ~50% load or less, the natural gas could save you some money if there is an interruption in the oil supply.