fuel additives
Discussion in 'Trucks [ Eighteen Wheelers ]' started by seabring, Apr 24, 2011.
Page 9 of 11
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The refiners are adding some lubricity back after they remove the sulfur. Wether it is enough is debatable. Adding more on your own is not a bad idea and it won't hurt. How you go about it, and the cost you are willing to spend is really the only issue.
Since bio diesel is becoming more readily available, and it costs no more at the pump than regular diesel, the lubricity issue really drops off. Some feel that bio is a bad product without having really researched the issue. My truck has had bio blends run in it since I got it. It now has over 800,000 miles and still has original injectors, fuel pump, fuel lines, etc and there is no indication that bio has had any negative effect. And I primarily run the upper midwest, year round, and have never had a filter issue with bio in the winter.
And there is some issues with off the shelf stuff being added to fuel when it comes to the new common rail injector systems. The higher pressures in those systems are not as tolerant of off the shelf stuff in the fuel. I would be a little hesitant about dumping just anything in the tank if I had one of those engines. -
I worked on engines all my life, I have rebuilt more Cat motors than most of you will ever see. that is not bragging just fact. I have repaired many injection pumps for leaks never seen one that was seized or worn. I have had them where I had to lap the top cap and valve from crud that reduced the injection flow. You are being sold a bill of goods and chasing a problem that does not exist.
When they lowered the sulphur in fuel to 500 PPM we did had a few Cummins with PT pumps that leaked fuel down the throttle shaft.
There are no real parts in a fuel system that actually touch their is a layer of fuel between the parts.
When they drought out the 15 ppm BIO fuel we did get a rash of trucks coming in with plugged fuel filters, bio is a natural detergent. We had some bleed lines in the older Cats and Cummins plug up. They never said it was from the bio, it just happened.
Adding forign substances to the fuel system because someone tells you it is good is silly. The modern engines inject at 30,000 PSI and if you want to do a good thing for you fuel system put on a filtration system that cleans it to 2 micron. A system that you can see the filter and if you get a load of dirty fuel you know it. If you get water in the fuel you can drain it easily. You drain it into an old cup and look to see the water. That works, if you have a Cat B or C you want fuel mileage get the nozzles changed. That will get you better mileage. Their is no such thing as a repair in a bottle. -
I use the full spectrum of Schaeffer products; including their Diesel Treat and Arctic Flow fuel conditioners. I don't use much in the summer; but the Arctic Flow is the best I have encountered for an anti-gel conditioner.
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Unless you are going north a long way the fuel does not need an anti-gel. If it was going to gel-up it would not pump, at the fuel station. Have you ever had a fuel stop have that problem? If you fill in Texas and go north or if the unit is not used very often, and has summer fuel, add the aditive and drive the unit to mix it up.
Other than that you are spending money on a phantom problem. -
The shop that works on my trucks is trying to sell me REX X Distance +. Does anyone have any thing to say about this product?
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Yes!! I have seen stations like Pilot, Loves, Flying Hook, etc several times have pumps frozen or gelled up in cold weather in the northern tier of the country, which is the area I primarily run year round. You can't trust that the station knows what it is doing. What was the last fuel they had delivered? Was it treated? When was the last time they had excess water pumped out of the storage tanks? Or when did they even ever have it tested for water contamination? As for spending money on a phantom problem, you obviously have not seen I-80 in Iowa when the temps get to -25F or below. Trucks shut down at just about every exit and along the roads because they didn't just add a few bucks of anti-gel / deicer to the fuel as insurance. Would they absolutely need it all the time? probably not. But sitting along the road with a truck that will not run is not the time to say "I wish I had added something". I will agree, that many go into overkill regarding fuel additives and listen to too much hype. But that doesn't mean you need to park your brain either. -
return again to the dead thread....
I had noticed that I was having a lope at idle this morning. The last couple of weeks, I had been suspecting the way the truck was pulling in the hills, it wasn't quite right. Under heavy load it had that "chug chug chug" sound to it like a locomotive.
Well today I had enough.
I stopped up in WI and picked up a quart of Lucas Top cylinder lube w/ injector cleaner.
The more I drove it, the better it ran today. By the time I got south of Madison WI on 90/39, I was able to pull hills at 60-63 this week that last week had me under 60 and even going from 10th to 9th.
I stopped in Rochelle ILL and topped off and put in 2 more quarts on top of the fuel I added.
By the time I got to Aurora ILL, I had noticed that my turbo was under 10 PSI and that my pyro was under 400. I was running 66 against the governor and on cruise.
It just purred along. No chugging at all.
It will be interesting to see how the weekly mileage tracks out.
I generally don't figure tank to tank, but weekly overall. I start and end with a full tank. -
I spent 13.5 years working in Edmonton and it was regularly -40F and you can get fuel stations that do not have winter fuel when a cold snap hits. It is posible! adding 2 stroke oil does what. If you Google the fuel conditioner test 1/2 the additives gave a poorer result than stock fuel, so you could be adding something that makes a phantom problem worse. 2% bio was the very best and every oil company adds Bio to there diesel as a cetain booster.
In 45 years of doing engines never not once has a customer ever came in and said he had added an aditive when he came in for a fuel system problem, not once. The only aditive I have ever seen do anything is Wynn's.
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