Anyone Running Bio Diesel

[chargerboy69]

Anyone out there running bio-diesel.  With the price of fuel going nuts, I can buy this stuff for $3.10 a gallon.  I know there are issues with it gelling up in the winter, but since warmer weather is around the corner I thought I may try it.  Has anyone had problems running it or have heard of any?

[TruckDriver]

It will remove any sediment build ups in your fuel system too. So, after 2 weeks, you best change your fuel filters out. They had to do that to a bunch of the trucks at the shop when they first introduced that fuel.

[IA76]

I ran it in my grain trucks a couple years ago. The only trouble I had was it kinda disolved one of the rubber fuel lines in my 76 Western Star. It just turned it to goo.

[bull]

You might actually lose the fuel cost savings due to the potential for additional expense of fuel filters and mpg drops. We had to install a secondary filter on our buses to deal with the stuff and even then we still occasionally have problems with bacteria growth. Other problems that I've heard of include contamination of sludge and glycerin separation.

Anyway, just be sure to carry an extra fuel filter or two if you use it. You'll just have to give it a try and see what you think.

[73rallye440magnum]

This answer yer question? 4k miles on this $20 filter.

[xpbprox]

Yeah it's not a smooth trasnition...
MPG got better when I put some B20 in my superduty

[404NOTFOUND]

I used to run B80 all the time and even B100 in a new 2006 Mercedes. Ran smoother and quieter and no problems at all. I don't run it in my newer Mercedes Bluetech because I'm worried that the car is a bit too advanced for that fuel.

[Charger RT]

I just looked into biodiesel for the counties fleet I work for.

The BTU of biodiesel is less then diesel and so is the fuel economy just like E10 for gas. We ran 500 gallons in one of our trucks. We replaced the fuel filters at the start of our test. It did clean the fuel system and clogged those new filters in 100 gallons. But that was the only set of filters clogged. We ran 400 more gallons in that truck and cut those filters open after the test and they were still clean. The clogging of filters is supposed to be the system cleaning the gunk that diesel fuel leaves. Fuel mileage was down on that truck to the point that the lower cost saved us nothing. The truck ran fine on it. I forget what year but think it is around 1993 the industry changed fuel system rubber but older rubber will turn to mush lines and o rings in injection pumps too. One big plus is it lubricates better then sulfur so running just 1 or 2% biodiesel in regular diesel take your low sulfur diesel and makes it lubricate as well as old high sulfur fuel. It also can't be used on trucks that has an exhaust regeneration system. The vendor said the biodiesel does not burn hot enough for the process. We tested it at B100 but was planning to blend it to B50 to B80 if it worked out. But with the lower mileage it didn't give us a savings at the current prices when we tested it.
Tim

[73rallye440magnum]

To the OP- is the fuel you can get for $3.10 ASTM certified?

http://www.biodiesel.org/

I ran B99 in my truck for about 10k miles last year. It's readily available, and I don't run it anymore.

My mule is a 1998 Dodge with a 12 valve Cummins. I'm pretty sure it would run on anything the pump can move through the fuel system.

The biodiesel runs quiet, and smooth. My mileage went down 10%. My fuel lines were not affected.

I did lose two filters. The truck didn't lay down on me, but it was close. I got to my destination and back, but I was sweating bullets. The first one was the scenario I'm describing now, see my photo above.

I lost another filter when I changed my lift pump. I tried reusing my filter, but the biodiesel ate an o-ring and seal on top of my filter, causing me to suck air. Anyone familiar with a diesel knows how much they like air in their fuel system.