B100 and oil dilution..any experience?

ChadA · **Posted:** Wed Aug 25, 2010 12:21 am

I've discovered B100, and have switched to it (planning on changing out the filter one more time).

How many of you have experienced degradation of fuel hoses, etc, and have had to change things out due to breakdown?

How many of you have experienced "sludge" buildup in the engine and "oil dilution" due to using high-content biodiesel (b20 or above)?

Just doing some reading and wondering if I need to kick it down a notch. I love the idea of burning nothing but biodiesel but don't want to shorten life expectency or have to wrench on her a ton more often (increased regular intervals are ok though).

What say you?

Peregrine · **Posted:** Mon Oct 18, 2010 6:51 pm

I'm just guessing here, I don't run biodiesel in my liberty, I run straight vegetable oil.... but, I don't think you will have hose or seal degradation as everything on the liberty fuel system should be synthetic, not rubber... viton I think.

I change my engine oil every 4,000 because there is definitely vegetable oil that gets past the seals and into the engine oil, and there is a risk of polymerization.

I have read elsewhere on the forums that people have run B100 with no problems, I wouldn't do it with my current setup, as I wold be concerned about residual ethanol and lye mixing with small amounts of vegetable oil and creating glycerin in the fuel system = bad.

I say start with B20 and gradually ramp it up to B50, B75, then B100 and see how everything runs.

dgeist · **Posted:** Fri Oct 22, 2010 4:12 pm

I use a mixture of B100, B20, and ULSD for the past 4 years depending on what's available and how much time I have to go get it and have had no issues. If you're worried about oil issues, get a baseline analysis from a testing lab, then keep doing it at every oil change, then there's no speculation.

Dan

SLS · **Posted:** Sun Mar 06, 2011 11:42 am

In 2007 new emissions regulations went into effect for on highway diesel vehicles. In complying with the lower emission thresholds, engine manufacturers have incorporated a diesel particulate filter (DPF) to trap soot generated during combustion. The DPFs periodically require regeneration to oxidize the trapped particulate matter and avoid filter plugging. Regeneration typically requires filter temperatures of 550°C .

Two primary methods of achieving regeneration temperatures have been employed by OEMs. The first is commonly called "post injection" or "late post injection". This method is being used by nearly all passenger and light duty diesel vehicles year 2007.5 and newer. During post injection, fuel is injected late in the engine cycle near the exhaust valve. Ideally this fuel is meant to vaporize producing unburned hydrocarbons which exit through the exhaust valve. These unburned hydrocarbons travel downstream to an oxidation catalyst where an exothermic reaction takes place elevating the temperature sufficiently for DPF regeneration. The second method of achieving regeneration temperatures is commonly called "exhaust stream" injection. This method involves injecting fuel in the exhaust stream between the cylinder and the DPF.

The post injection process of inducing regeneration has the problem of leading to engine oil dilution. Engine oil dilution occurs if any portion of the fuel is not vaporized and evacuated via the exhaust valves during the post-combustion injection. Liquid fuel will then adhere to the cylinder walls, and make its way past the pistons and rings into the crankcase oil.

Engine oil dilution takes place with both diesel and biodiesel in any blend.

Acording to the EPA study:
"After the completion of the durability tests for the NAC and the SCR system, the engine had undergone an accelerated aging schedule representative of twice its useful life, or approximately 240,000 miles. At the conclusion of the project, the engine was disassembled and each component was carefully analyzed. All moving parts such as bearings, pistons, and piston rings were inspected and measured. None of the components of the engine, including the injectors, showed signs of excessive wear or other signs of deterioration as a result of the extended biodiesel operation. The flow characteristics of the injectors remained comparable to levels noted before the start of the durability study."

"There were no obvious biodiesel specific effects on used lube oil properties, and most changes appeared to be consistent with normal lube oil aging."

This is probably more than you wanted to know. I have been watching this to see how our out of control EPA is going to deal with a simple issue. Europe just uses biodiesel but the EPA has to screw up a perfectly good diesel engine with costly ad ons

SargeIndustries · **Posted:** Sun Mar 06, 2011 12:30 pm

ChadA wrote:

I've discovered B100, and have switched to it (planning on changing out the filter one more time).

How many of you have experienced degradation of fuel hoses, etc, and have had to change things out due to breakdown?

How many of you have experienced "sludge" buildup in the engine and "oil dilution" due to using high-content biodiesel (b20 or above)?

Just doing some reading and wondering if I need to kick it down a notch. I love the idea of burning nothing but biodiesel but don't want to shorten life expectency or have to wrench on her a ton more often (increased regular intervals are ok though).

What say you?

I ran it in mine for 70K. The outside of the fuel lines must be natural rubber. They have softened up a bit from filter changes spilling fuel on them. I had a couple injectors fail from sticking open to return. My B100 was not the purest and I believe that a chunk of build up came free and became stuck in the return valve of the injectors. I am thinking that if I disassembled the injectors I could have cleaned them and not have replaced them. The injectors were $383 a piece so I wish I would have taken them apart before sending them in for cores. Had nothing to loose...

B100 and oil dilution..any experience?

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