Quote:
Originally Posted by curt
Thank for your input. This is pretty much what I figured. Look after regular mantanance and use the proper oil & fuel and most vehicles will have a long service life.
Are drivers using a fuel additive on a regular basis? Or only in winter?
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Many drivers are using Power Service. It's not my favorite because of a study I read by Arlen Spicer. Spicer studied the impact of additives on lubricity. A 3% blend of biodiesel soy based - not waste vegetable oil, not straight vegetable oil, I'm talking about a refined fuel that requires no fuel heater or other engine modifications - - is better than any additive for lubricity.
As for cetane improvers, people use Power Service, Howes Diesel Fuel treatment (or whatever they call it) Amsoil cetane booster and I personally use Amalgamated, Inc's TDR-S (from a 5 gallon bucket I keep in an outdoor, covered area). RedLine Oil makes RL2 and other products which are very popular.
NAFTA Sprinters are engineered to consume fuel with a rating of 40 for cetane number. People in the petroleum industry tell me that by the time the fuel hits your gas station, it may be as low as 32. This makes it harder to burn under compression; it promotes soot and fouling of the emissions equipment.
2007+ Sprinters are designed for fuel that has no more than 15 parts per million of sulfur in it. It costs close to a grand to get a sample of fuel tested, but because of the way fuel is transported around the country in pipelines, and no one tests it at the pump. Everyone relies on the refinery to test their fuel and ship it.
The impact is that we get fuel that's contaminated with extra sulphur, with gasoline, water and particles.... it's contaminated in the pipeline, in the trucks, in the storage tanks at your local candy store that sells gasoline on the side.
The transportation contamination is probably a fraction of the contamination that happens at the gas station. Diesel is fond of water and it will collect moisture in the air or in its container from condensation. Your best option is to use a cetane improver and fuel from a commerical supplier like one of the CFN member stations (you can get a CFN card from any CFN member station). Very often CFN member stations provide fuel mostly to cement trucks, construction rigs, buses and big rigs. Such stations are refreshing their storage tanks more often than that potato chip and hot dog stand down the street where your neighbors by gas.
Every CFN site I've been to has mounted water separators / particulate filters on the sides of their pumps. It's not a CFN requirement, but CFN sites are run by people that care about their product's dispensing and their customer's equipmnet (vans, busses, trucks) which can cost in the lower 6 to mid 6 figures.
CFN's not a brand. It's an association of petroleum fuel suppliers, but in 5 years, I've never had water in my fuel from a CFN site. I've had water in fuel from places that sell soda pop probably 1 in 200 times, which is way too much for my taste.
Those are my practices and I've never had any 2007 Sprinter issues: 5% soy based biodiesel (1.25 gallons per tank full) - splash mixed and the balance is number 2 diesel from a commercial fuel supplier - and 8 ounces of TDR-S from Amalgamated, Inc.
-Jon
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