Bio has a MUCH higher gel point than regular diesel. I believe B100 is somewhere around 40 F depending on feedstock, so this time of year it can be a problem. Summer months you can run the B99 with no issues at all (unless you have a dirty fuel tank, in which case it will clean the junk out and plug your filter).

Talk to your local supplier and see what type of dino diesel they are mixing with the bio, and what additives (if any) have been put in. Find out if they know the gel point for each grade of fuel and make your decision based on as much info as you can find. If nothing else, stick 12 oz in a coke bottle and leave it out overnight to see if it gels.

 

Summer months you can run the B99 with no issues at all (unless you have a dirty fuel tank, in which case it will clean the junk out and plug your filter).

Oh yeah. We had a Bobcat 863 with tons o crud in the tank. Finally had enough, filled w/ B50 twice, cleaned out the filters a number of times and life is now good.

I was more concerned about incompatibillity with rubber/plastic internal parts etc. I was also told not to run it in the newer than 7.3 diesels.


Chris
2002 F450

 

I have been running B100 or some percentage blend with dino fuel in the truck in my sig. for 13K miles other than a few clogged filters and once gelling @ 4*F. if its quality fuel you will be fine. in your truck.

 

I have been running 100% bio for over 2 years now, and just recently had to replace fuel lines and fuel pump (in my '96) I'm sure due to the bio, but at 185,000 miles... not so bad. Thankfully here in Phx., gelling is not a problem.

 

Hi,
My mechanic in Munich said DON'T use it in the Mercedes OM-352A diesels. Dey vil becom kaput!!!

We have a couple older Pisten Bully snowcats with that exact same motor, and while we haven't run any of them on biodiesel yet, I find it hard to believe it would kill them. Those are tough engines (we've got one with 10,000 hours on it) that get worked hard, so I can only imagine some high lubricity fuel would make them happy. We've got a spare engine, and my dad and I are playing with the idea of a WVO generator...

 

We have a couple older Pisten Bully snowcats with that exact same motor, and while we haven't run any of them on biodiesel yet, I find it hard to believe it would kill them. Those are tough engines (we've got one with 10,000 hours on it) that get worked hard, so I can only imagine some high lubricity fuel would make them happy. We've got a spare engine, and my dad and I are playing with the idea of a WVO generator...

I'm running the risk of going off topic but the OM-352 (& the A & LA) are the most highly produced diesels in the world or so I'm told. They're produced in a number of countries, Germany, Turkey and Argentina, and in variations from 32 hp for stationary applications to 350+/- for marine all using the same block.

I've seen these engines in Unimogs with 12,000 hours still running well. Mine has 24+/- hours so I should be good for a while. :no:

My dealer in Munich, Schussler told me they see problems w/ trucks running Bio. I assume it's home brew vs. store bought (is there a difference?) but I run B-20 in the summer and so far it runs great and the fuel tank is shinny clean inside. I need to talk to the guys at Boston Fuel Injection to see if the Bosch model W pump would have compatibillity issues.

I worked at King Pine Ski Area in NH and they had 2 Pisten Bullys but the Prinoth w/ a Cat was my favorite.....

Chris Elliott
F450
U-1300L

 

My dealer in Munich, Schussler told me they see problems w/ trucks running Bio. I assume it's home brew vs. store bought (is there a difference?) but I run B-20 in the summer and so far it runs great and the fuel tank is shinny clean inside. I need to talk to the guys at Boston Fuel Injection to see if the Bosch model W pump would have compatibillity issues.

Should be no difference as long as both were made and washed correctly.The only difference would be gel point due to feed stock difference.I have been running home brew in my 1999 E300TD for 30k plus and have not clogged a filter yet and only have changed it once.The only issues with the pump would be with the seals I would think.

 

the 7.3 Powerstroke is one of the best engines in recent years, shouldn't have any issues with biodiesel other than gelling in cold weather. The best way to prevent gelling is to familiarise yourself with cold testing- take a sample, put it into a small jar, and freeze it. The temp at which it starts to look cloudy is the temp at which it may clog filters (the clouds are small frozen crystals of biodiesel).

To deal with gelling issues, you can get a filter heater that increases the range of temperatures at which you can run the fuel, you can blend a lot more diesel in in the winter, you can use zero biodiesel in the winter, or you can try some other modifications. If your fuel is made by the producer out of animal fats, poultry fat (really common source these days), palm oil, or some other fats, then the cold filter plugging point will be worse than if it were made out of soy, corn, canola, or other 'liquid' oils (the fats biodiesel is fine in summer and it has some other advantages (higher cetane for instance) over liquid oils, but they're not big enough to worry about in warm weather).

I'm not sure which 7.3 you have:

The 7.3 Powersmoke does well on SVO with an SVO conversion also. It's one of the most stable old truck diesels for SVO conversion. Hold on to this truck, I wish I had one instead of a GMC right now.

The 7.3 IDI has a couple of issues:
-works fine on biodiesle other than the same gelling issues (same solutions apply, in fact, one of my old 6.9's had a built-in 12V fuel preheater right before the filter and I never gelled in a mild climate where our winter only hit 40's whereas some other users did experience cold filter plugging)
-for SVO conversion they're more finicky., They had the crappy Stanodyne injection pump that doens't like SVO's higher viscosity and occasionally seizes in that application. I'd be prepared to replace pumps and be very careful about SVO conversion and monitoring of system temperatures if I were trying to convert one of these to SVO.

 

A couple of issues with the 7.3 you need to be mindful of.

1. Keep the oil clean. Change that oil every 3-5k miles religiously. The injection system uses oil pressure to activate the injectors themselves. Dirty oil will either hamper or clog the injector system.

2. The CPS (crankcase position sensor), these can go out but are very easy to replace. Many chain auto parts stores will have them in stock.

3. If you have a '96 or earlier, be mindful that the revised and increased the size of the glow plug timer/controller that sits on top of the engine. The early models had this little wimpy looking thing but was later replaced by a much more substantial glowplug relay. If you can, upgrade to the newer relay.

4. Injector pressure: since these engines run a direct injection process, the injection pressure is going to be much higher than an indirect injection process. Be sure that the biodiesel or WVO you plan on using is very very clean, even a speck of trash can ruin an injector.

Hope these little tips help. Personally, I like the 7.3 but I've never been a fan of engines with computers on them, I like to keep things simple.

If my 6.9 gives up on me, I may consider getting a 97-99 Powerstroke.

 

I agree the PSD is fine w/B100. I have been having issues w/B100 in my SVO-converted truck though. The problem is while I'm burnin' VO, the B100 is just sitting in the filter bowl on top of HOT engine (ie, towing 5ver thru Rockies) for hours and hours at a time. I started plugging diesel filters (did this a couple times when first running bio - like everyone else) and finding polymerized biodiesel in the filter housing!!! No, there is no way for VO to get in my diesel system - it was from the bio-d.

'Commercial' bio-d should have some 'fuel stabilizers' in it to mitigate this natural breakdown of the VO part of it. But, allegedly none of the B-99 available 'at the pump' still meets the stability part of the ASTM standard, indicating they still don't have it down yet.

On the same subject, Bosch has issued reports recommending no more than B-5 in any of their IP's. They have found evidence of polymerized bio-d in many of the IP's that failed after running higher concentrations of bio-d. That said, obviously MANY folks have had great success running B100 in IP-equipped engines. But, if you're a vendor for auto manufacturers and ya have to warranty your parts - you just recommend what you KNOW is less likely to cause problems.

Like the others said, gelling is directly related to feedstock. We try to segregate our 'lightest' VO for bio-d. We look for VO that is still liquid well below freezing and save that for B100...:thumbsup: I use the coke bottle/water bottle trick for every batch of 'winter' B100. If the little bottle gells, I know I need to add some diesel.

BTW, its good to see a post from girlmark! Hows that cheby working for ya?

 

My mechanic in Munich said DON'T use it in the Mercedes OM-352A diesels. Dey vil becom kaput!!!

Chris

2002 F450

A few years ago, the two major German industrial diesel engine manufacturers (Deutz & Mercedes) recommended a maximum bio-blend of 5% AND that the bio-diesel had to be rapeseed-based (canola & camelina are types of rapeseed). Their testing (in Europe) showed that rapeseed-based bio-diesel was the "best" quality and that soy-based bio was inferior. Since the majority of North American bio-diesel is soy-based, you can see why the mechanic in Munich said what he did.

We've been running B70 since June '07, B50 for the year before that, and B20 in most of '05 in +300 pieces of equipment without any major issues (other than one tanker hose that was standard rubber). The Bosch-style high pressure fuel rail systems have had no problems. Our Deutz & Cummins engines run similar systems and are the majority of our engines.

 

Have a happy 4th July Y'all

My Canola oil experiment. I'm getting used Canola oil that spends about a month in a deep frier making french fries and onion rings. The cook does not uses hot water to flush out the deep frier so I don't have to seperate H2O.

Have added 4 1/2 gallons of filtered canola oil to the front tank's 12 gallons of diesel with no negative results yet. When running mix motor seems not as loud.

I start and shut off the the motor with the rear tank with 100% diesel. I do not switch over the the mix till the till the motor warms up and switches back to rear tank. I filter the canola into a large glass jar so I can see the oil. Do not plan to use canola oil in winter.
You tube has a bunch of videos of people runing older diesel motors on 100% vegi oil.
Check out myth busters on you tube.

Will keep forum posted on my results.