New Low Sulfur Fuel in older diesel Engines???

New low sulfur fuel diesel in older engines, Is it causing any problems? Are diesel was running low and the women filled it up at a station we dont normally go too and Im pretty sure we got a summer mix. Anyway it ran like crap for a while and I ran it low added seafoam, and changed the filter... Then filled it up at a good station with good fuel... It seems to be running better but still seems a little off. My dad was talking with a mechanic and he said the new low sulfur fuel is hard on the older diesel motors. He said some guys are dumping some two stroke mix in the fuel, or some ATF.... Has anyone heard of this fuel being hard on the motors or what to add to them... This was in a 99 7.3 with 185k on the ticker. Like i said its running okay now but still seems a little off... Hard to explain how its running...

Any road fuel you buy will be low sulpur,she may have got a dose of Bio-Diesel if so you may have to change the filters several times as it will clean the crud out of the tank

Any road fuel you buy will be low sulpur,she may have got a dose of Bio-Diesel if so you may have to change the filters several times as it will clean the crud out of the tank

talked to fuel pump shop about this and they say to run a fuel additive year round as there is very little lubricity in the new fuel. i run stanadyne additive in everything i own and have had no problems.

Hope you got some biodieel, just 2% is all you need, it makes up for the low sulphur.

As mentioned, it does help clean out crud, so might be filling up your filter.

--->Paul

It wasn't Bio-Diesel but it was a station that doesn't sell much fuel and I think it was summer diesel and right now its been down to 0-10 degrees at night

I have had 'zero' problems with ULSD since it's inception here 6-7 years ago. I did notice economy decline somewhat but otherwise the fuel is fine. Only thing I use from time to time is methyl hydrate to thaw out the ice I sometimes get in the tank and get the water moved to the separator/filter.

All fuel sold today as 'diesel' fuel, at least in north america, is required to be of the ULSD variety to meet the emission requirements of the newer engines. The only remaining higher sulfur fuel is #2 furnace oil.
The additive package that some manufacturers put in their diesel may in some locations be questionable... but from what I've found, the Esso product that we're receiving here is fine.

Rod

My personal opinion is pump damage from low-sulfur fuel is as much hog wash as valve damage from unleaded gasoline. We've had Bill Clinton fuel since 1992, I think all my Diesels would have been wiped out by now if that were true. That being said, the fuels ARE different, the clear fuel can be run in a torpedo heater as easy as kerosene. But the fuel system damage just isn't there.

I have a 2000 7.3, I run power service additive in it, I add some 2 cycle engine oil, and lucky no problems yet, 180,000 miles. This low sulfur thing is just like the lead in gas years ago, or like the mtbe that was in gas, than oooooh they found out it was bad, it's all just a big joke!

Working on diesels in heavy equipment all the time I spend a good bit of time talking to the guys at my local fuel shop. As a result I advise all of my customers to run an additive in all of their diesels, both old and new. The new fuel is supposed to have additives to make up for the lubricity lost due to the reduction in the sulfur content, but as great and non-problematic as the industry mags make it seem, the guys at the fuel shop tell a completely different story. In other words they love the new fuel because it makes business really good for them. The same can be said about bio-diesel. They said they had seen more injection pumps come through their door screwed up by running the 'natural' stuff that, percentage wise, it even beat the ultra-low crap.

That said I have run both Stanadye, Z-Max, and Powerservice brands in my service truck since before the new ultra-low stuff hit the market. I also have customers that run their own choice and as far as I know none have had any issuse with any of the name brand additives.

Personally I have to do quarterly fuel tax reports and when I started using the additive I was gaining around 1 to 2 MPG from my fuel, especially when I did alot of interstate driving every quarter. Once the ultra low stuff hit I lost nearly everything I had gained.

Basically any additive is better than none at all. The main thing is to run something, regardless of the brand. Beyond that keep a good check on your filters, and if it's got one, the water seperator. I've seen quite a few machines in the past few years actually shut down while in use due to dirty fuel, and even though I buy all of my fuel from actual stations, (don't have a bulk tank), I've seen the crap, I find in my filters when I change them, along with the water that, thankfully, gets stopped in the seperator.

In the end, the new fuel is crap and anything you can do to help it out will be better than nothign at all.

The injector pump on my JD4320 got sticky in that it would stall when slowing down at the end of a field. It would just slow until it died. Cool off and it would start again. Or open the pump twiddle the internal linkage and it would start. After adding a few glugs out of a Walmart gal jug 2cyl oil and it quit that. Runs fine again.

the only comment i can add is; if you put more additive in the fuel then recommended for making the gel point go down; it actually starts to raise the gel point. so read labels. I run soydiesel in my farming tractors after having injection pump problems from lack of lube.
my winter loader tractor gets number 1 fuel mostly and some motor oil added!

I have one diesel tractor, a junk, so I don't use it. But I have big problems with home heating oil. Hopefully now cured... of it's algae.
I posted a thread a year ago on here. Some guys had a hunch it was algae. Fuel dealer and another dealer I buy parts from said 'oh no that is a problem well south of here, never this far north'. BS. I had it analized... thick algae, looked like black latex paint. Dried like it too. Used it up, oh furnace works great in warm weather! Oil flows nice! Now got a mix of 15%kero and rest #2. Theory of new dealer is- home heating is now sulfur free too. So guess last year I got a batch delivered, to my underground and outside tank, incubated the stuff all the hot summer, suffered all winter. Apparently this stuff is 100 million years old? still alive? but sulfer in the oil kept it under control, without the sulfer,what was left of it will grow again, like when it was eating a dead dinosuar? Of course, I am probably way off once again, but algaecide and diesel additives controled it last year, and the job now it to prevent this from happening again- first step, new oil dealer, second, thin it, third, more $100 a gallon algaecide???? Time to switch to gas?

I add powerservice to all my diesel engines.

The fuel system damage isn't hogwash. A test was done on a variety of fuel additives to see how well they lubricated, and the base fuel they got from a fuel station did not meet the fuel industries test, let alone meet the standard the engine manufacturers were looking for.

I'm looking for the link to it now, I've posted it on this site before.

Every time the sulfur content in the fuel was changed I got external leaks on my injector pumps. By the way is anybody having trouble with the fuel shut off on 53 or 71 series Detroits gumming up? Armand

i run bio diesel 5 % in number 2 fuel year around when it get real cold i add Howes to it 1/2 oz per gal use this blend in duro max truck and 4430 Deere there is a lot of diffrence in brands of fuel and add. package

(quoted from post at 18:43:50 01/06/13) New low sulfur fuel diesel in older engines, Is it causing any problems? Are diesel was running low and the women filled it up at a station we dont normally go too and Im pretty sure we got a summer mix. Anyway it ran like crap for a while and I ran it low added seafoam, and changed the filter... Then filled it up at a good station with good fuel... It seems to be running better but still seems a little off. My dad was talking with a mechanic and he said the new low sulfur fuel is hard on the older diesel motors. He said some guys are dumping some two stroke mix in the fuel, or some ATF.... Has anyone heard of this fuel being hard on the motors or what to add to them... This was in a 99 7.3 with 185k on the ticker. Like i said its running okay now but still seems a little off... Hard to explain how its running...

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Come on guys--This he said, she said stuff is crap. Bacterial growth has been around for years. Sulphur doesn't stop it and sulphur is no secret elixsor that seals gaskets or injectors.They add an additive to the fuel at the refinery to replace sulphur and prevent corrosion, which was the primary function of sulphur. The Biofuel is splash blended in most states , so you get slugs of it. 2% one time and maybe 6% the next time, just hope you don't pump a lot of bio into your tank, because you will have problems, asap. Everything isn't nicely blended and then dropped off at the station for you. Also there are 2 type of bacterial growth, an aerobic and an anaerobic. One lives in the water phase and the other lives in the fuel. Rain water , condensation water and refinery water are all sources for bacterial growth. Keep your tanks clean and don't get a slug of biofuel and you will be good to go all year long.

(fuelsandlubestechnologies.org)