Bio-diesel / Is it a good or bad thing for the engine ?

oops ...someone got schooled :)

Edd505 wrote:

T18skyguy wrote:
I went to fill with diesel at my favorite Chevron station, and I noticed the diesel pump said something like S15. I had no choice at the time, so I only put in 10 gallons, cause I knew I could get better stuff later. A guy at the station remarked that it was ****, and bad for the engine and injectors. I get the environmental part, anybody know the facts about it's effects on the engine?

The guy at the stations full of C**p. The B20 is for bio diesel, I have run it in an old 7.3 power stroke. I avoid it because of the loss of mileage.

My 2018 Ram Cummins book says no more than 5%. B20 requires an additional optional feature(s) that my Cummins is not equipped with.

richclover wrote:


My 2018 Ram Cummins book says no more than 5%. B20 requires an additional optional feature(s) that my Cummins is not equipped with.

Is this a cab & chassis model or an ordinary pickup?

richclover wrote:

Edd505 wrote:

The guy at the stations full of C**p. The B20 is for bio diesel, I have run it in an old 7.3 power stroke. I avoid it because of the loss of mileage.

My 2018 Ram Cummins book says no more than 5%. B20 requires an additional optional feature(s) that my Cummins is not equipped with.

The Ram manual is not too clear...but check on the Cummins website...you are B20 approved...also, you will see if you read "between the lines" in the ram manual.

T18skyguy wrote:
Thank you all, you guys are teaching me a lot. I am in Oregon, and the button on the pump said S15. Had never seen that before. I have a 2016 Duramax, so I better read the manual. My rig has only 3600 miles on it, and I have changed oil once, but not fuel filter. I better look into it. I need to find out how often the fuel filter needs changed. We got a foot of snow now. I can wait a bit. I don't drive it much right now.

S-15 is 15 ppm sulfur or less, otherwise known as Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel or ULSD. Been around, and mandated for years now, ever since Diesel Particulate filters, common rail diesels, Catalytic converters and Ad Blue NOX treatment has been around. Sulfur pollutes all those filters and emissions scrubbers, and contaminates and ruins them.

S-15 is regular old diesel 2 or D2 nowadays.

Bosch does not recommend anything more that B-5 or 5% biodiesel in any of their fuel injections diesel systems. As a lubricant agent, 1 to 2% blended in adds plenty of lubricity to lower the wear of your fuel injection system.

I have very strong opinions on running biodiesel made from waste vegetable oil or renderings or recycled Fatty Acid Methyl Esters based biodiesel through any diesel engine. It's simple.. Garbage IN, Garbage OUT. No way I am going to knowingly run garbage waste oil through a very, very expensive fuel injection system that's standard with these common rail diesel engines.

Beyond adding a 1 to 2% addition of biodiesel, for lubricity, if you are doing high turnover rates of your diesel fuel, I don't see any value added. It has about 7 to 8% less energy per gallon that regular ULSD. If you can avoid biodiesel, I would, no engine or fuel injection system has ever been white paper designed to run on biodiesel. All of them have been designed, since inception, to run on petroleum based D2.

All diesel fuel can absorb (or adsorb) water. It can grow algae, bio or dino.
One thing is for certain. Biodiesel is likely to become more common going forward, especially when the price of diesel fuel get up around $4.50 a gal.

Lynnmor wrote:

richclover wrote:


My 2018 Ram Cummins book says no more than 5%. B20 requires an additional optional feature(s) that my Cummins is not equipped with.

Is this a cab & chassis model or an ordinary pickup?

2500HD short bed pickup.

“...The Ram manual is not too clear...but check on the Cummins website...you are B20 approved...also, you will see if you read "between the lines" in the ram manual. ..”

Thanks, I’ll take a look at the Cummins site.

The reason some modern diesel manufacturers recommend against biodiesel is due to the dpf Regen cycle. Before GM added the 9th injector on the LML and newer engines (2011+), the Regen cycle worked by blasting diesel into the cylinders with the exhaust valves open, which leads to oil dilution. Biodiesel tends to creep past the rings more and was over diluting the oil on the early dpf Duramax.

I run B20 in my 2012 GMC, it runs well on it. I don't notice any difference in fuel economy between B20 and B5. Plus, B20 is cheaper.

I have run into problems with my 2013 Chevy diesel failing regen do to the fuel not igniting through that ninth injector. Now not only is there a bio diesel out there but another form called BioMass diesel. Reading from the internet says it comes from algae or animal fats.

These fuels that lower the egts the truck runs can and have caused problems with the new emmision systems required on the diesel trucks. They need heat to burn off the soot it collects.