Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel Fuel problem

[jok]

I have a 1999 Ford SuperDuty with a 7.3 Powerstroke. Within the last two weeks it developed a fuel leak at the fuel filter. The filter housing drain has two "O" rings. Apparently the "O" rings in the Powerstrokes have been failing with the use of Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel Fuel. Is this something I will start to have problems with in my 8V92?

[Earl-8-Ky]

You should not have a problem with a 2 stroke engine. They are designed to run on # 1 fuel (kerosene). I believe this is a low sulfur fuel as it is made for home heating. I may be wrong maybe some one else has the answer

[buswarrior]

Hello.

I would be highly suspect of the source of the suggestion that ULSD is the cause of your "O" ring failure.

ULSD has barely reached the street, measured in weeks, and if it would cause such a rapid failure, the chemistry would have been worked out before being introduced. Or, industry would be warned, there are product liability laws, and industry would crucify the fuel refiners long before individuals thought to seek compensation.

You are being hogwashed.

ULSD has been formulated with all manner of additives to make up for any suggested loss of lubricity or ??. So, do the same as you do today, use nothing or add the snake oil of your choice to feel better.

Home heating fuel is less regulated and allows a higher sulphur content than the onroad diesel. Same for the dyed off road diesel. And don't ask how high the sulphur is in railway fuel.....

Trucking industry is quite distressed that they have to meet these new stringent emmisions rules, and the railway is allowed to continue spewing sulphur related emmisions, no $8K to $10 K extra hit to their new engine purchases and they buy cheaper to produce high sulphur fuel.

happy coaching!
buswarrior

[cgoodwin]

Actually ULSD is common in california and several fuel pump compaines (Aeromotive, SX Performance, etc.) have been having strings of failures of their pumps in areas where ULSD is sold, the reason is tht the sulfer is added as a lubricant and these types of pumps use the fuel passing through them to both lubricate and cool the pump, no sulfer, no lube.

Thje Canadian gov. just finished a research study and determined that small amounts of biodiesel or vegetable oil can be mixed with the ULSD to bring the lubricity back up with no ill effects on emissions, I believe the mix as as low as 100ppm so we are talking about very little additive. I will look through my research and see if I can fid a link to the report.

As to the issue with the PSD, it is a common failure on these engines and a simple fix, two of my customers keep a set of O rings in the glove box as a precaution. Other common failures: 1) the injectors are driven with engine oil, if the oil level drops the injector will not function properly and the engine will be difficult or impossible to start and lack power, check the oil level often! 2) the high pressure pump which drives the injectors is in the valley just under the fuel filter, it has 2 o-rings on it, when they fail they leak oil at high pressure into the valley, it runs to the rear and drains doen on the passenger side between the starter and the bolck and drips off the edge of the oil pan. This oil can cause starter failure, it cal aslo cause problem (1) and best of all, many shops will tell you that you need to replace the oil pan gasket. If you look at the factory service manual it reads "oil pan replacement, step 1: Remove the cab from the chassis" many people have paid thousands in repair bills to have the pan resealed and many shops have simply cleaned everything and replaced the o-rings on the HP pump. Forewarned is forearmed.

[cgoodwin]

Have a read...

http://www.biodiesel.org/pdf_files/fuelfactsheets/Lubricity.PDF

http://www.cppi.ca/ULSD_Q_A_s.html

[buswarrior]

Great links cgoodwin!

Thanks!

happy coaching!
buswarrior

[jok]

Thanks for the info. The fix on the Powerstroke is simple and cheap. I am relieved that it is not a fuel problem.

Jok

[lostagain]

Don't worry about ULSD lubricity. The refineries are putting additives in it to counter that. They don't want to be liable for fuel pump and other components failures.

JC

[cgoodwin]

This is an interesting point, from what I have read they can not simply put an additive in without that additive undergoing all the EPA testing, nearly as complicated as the Tier I & II testing fuels must pass when first introduced, this is because they do not want 5 years down the road to find out that they mandated ULSD to clean up acid rain but had to use an additive with was more carcinogenic that PCB's. I believe this was the point of the papers I attached links to, since they needed an answer NOW due to the unexpected failures, they searched among fuels which did have Tier I & II certification and came up with biodiesel as an additive, later research showed VO to be useful as well.

Our fuel quality so poor in this country that it has caused a string of issues. Remember the late 70's Porsche 911 2.7 with the Alusil cylinders which all failed and almost bankrupt Porsche - all due to the lower quality of fuel here when the engine had been developed in Germany on German fuel. A few years ago it all happened again with the BMW 740i, tens of thousands of engine failures all due to contaminants in the US fuel. A friend who is a training foreman for BMW told me last year that BMW would be introducing all their diesels in the US in 2007, last week over lunch he informed me that BMW had moved plans forward at least another year as had Mercedes, it is because the US had agreed to have diesel up to the European spec by 2007, but dropped the ball and has no plans to do so until at least 2008. So we have diesel which is of such poor quality that we have to add sulfur for lubricity, now they have taken away the sulfur but are refusing to clean up the properties which led to its necessity...

[TomC]

To clarify-2007 is the deadline for ULSD since ALL big rig trucks with engines made after Jan 1, 2007 have to run on ULSD because of the catalyst/particulate traps that sulfur would contaminate.  Most of the truck stops and alot of the smaller filling stations have been running ULSD for over 3 months (I have already been running it in my '84 Mercedes turbo Diesel also for 3 months with no problems).
The main reason that the Diesel cars are not coming in right away is that the smog laws are tougher here than in Europe.  The Blue Technology that is being used by VW/Audi/Mercedes-Benz uses Urea (refined animal urine) to react to make only nitrogen and water coming out of the tailpipe.  The engine manufacturers are getting the bugs out of the system and using cars to experiment first before the big rig trucks go to this technology in 2010.  Believe me when I say that our fuel with 15 ppm sulfur is no different than in Europe.  It's just the car manufacturers are having to play catch up to our smog laws.  Good Luck, TomC

[cgoodwin]

"A 1998 review paper on fuel lubricity worldwide2 showed that diesel fuel in the US and Canada is some of the poorest lubricity fuel found in the entire world (see Figure 1 attached). Of the 27 countries surveyed, only Canada, Switzerland, Poland and Taiwan had poorer lubricity fuel than the US. With a mean fuel lubricity of just under the recommended specification of an HFRR wear scar diameter of 460 microns, fully 50% of the US fuel was found to be above that recommended by equipment manufacturers.
These US data are with diesel fuel refined to meet the current EPA restriction of 500 ppm maximum sulfur specification. The severe hyrdrotreating required to reduce fuel sulfur to the new EPA 2006 specification of 15 ppm sulfur maximum will cause a further reduction in fuel lubricity compared to today's diesel fuel, and is of concern to engine and fuel injection equipment manufacturers."

Cite:"Fuel Lubricity Reviewed", Paul Lacey, Southwest Research Institute, Steve Howell, MARC-IV Consulting, Inc., SAE paper number 982567, International Fall Fuels and Lubricants Meeting and Exposition, October 19-22, 1998, San Francisco, California.

Have a look at this article relating to European emissions standards: http://www.greencarcongress.com/2006/12/european_parlia.html

[TomC]

Since the US and Canada have some of the poorest lubricity found in the entire world, according to that 1998 review, that in my mind would make the switch to ULSD that much more seamless.  If our fuel is so low in lubricity, don't you think the big trucking firms would have been squaking and the fuel been changed?  I'll be surprised if much of any problems arise from the new 15ppm sulfur Diesel fuel. 

We had a step van with the new Cummins ISB 2007 with particulate trap.  It had almost 6000 miles on it and you could rub your finger inside the exhaust pipe without ANY black soot coming off onto your finger.  I'd say the particulate traps are working!

2010 will be so severe on our trucks for emissions, that presently with urea injection, all that will come out of the tail pipe will be nitrogen (of which our air is 78%) and water vapor.  The big joke is that the air going into the engine will be dirtier than what comes out of the tail pipe.  So the trucks will be 80,000lb air cleaners.  Good Luck, TomC