What station has the best diesel?

retmil46 · **Posted:** Mon Aug 10, 2009 6:25 pm

If you live in one of the TXLED counties in East Texas, shouldn't really matter where you buy it - it's all supposed to be 48 cetane.

No state income tax, and 48 cetane diesel - this place is starting to grow on me. :wink:

Now, if they could just do something about all the jacka$$es trying to drive on 1604. :roll:

mikey1273 · **Posted:** Tue Aug 11, 2009 9:50 pm

I am new to all this Diesel stuff. I just got my CRD Friday and put fuel in it tonight for the first time. It was very strange going to the Diesel pump instead of the gas pump like all my years of driving since age 17. There was one thing I liked at the Rutter's I went to there are a few pumps that have diesel as well as a gas pump spread out over the filling station and the diesel ones had no wait to fill. here in my town this week gas is 2.69 to 2.79 per galon for plain old regular, I paid 2.75 a gallon for diesel.

I do not know where is best or what all brands around me have diesel. I know a few truck stops on trips I go on once or twice a year so I will be stopping there if the need is there. One of then is the Flying J outside of Harrisburg, pa.

any ideas how i can find bio blends?

linewarbr · **Posted:** Wed Aug 12, 2009 7:49 am

Try this for bio:

http://www.biodiesel.org/buyingbiodiese ... lingsites/

Old Forester · **Posted:** Sun Aug 16, 2009 4:12 pm

I have had good results (luck) with hess in the past

mikey1273 · **Posted:** Mon Aug 17, 2009 8:37 am

I got a tank full on the way back from a Family picnic at the BP station on Route 15 in Seilinsgrove, PA last night. the price seened super good... $2.679/gal when regular gas was $2.699 after I drove for a while I noticed after comming down a long off ramp mostly coasting and then tromping on it to merge on the next freeway my jeep let out a puff of smoke and I have never seen it do that yet. I could not get it to do it again though so I am hoping its normal or just from the change in fuel brands.

Other than that my jeep was great on the trip, I had the cruise set to 73 MPH most of the way and the engine didn't even seem to have to work hard to maintain that to climb hills my old subaru would get a good work out on. the little diesel just pulled on like a locomotive.

stoutdog · **Posted:** Mon Aug 17, 2009 9:50 am

Stock, the CRDs will occassionally blow smoke. My father's used to do this all the time, mine a little less so. The GDE tune, SEGR, or ORM will help with the issue by turning off the EGR. Quality biodiesel may help as well.

FWIW, neither of us have smoke blowing out of our exhausts anymore with the GDE tune. Not a fanboy, just stating the facts

mikey1273 · **Posted:** Mon Aug 17, 2009 8:53 pm

well I am glad its normal. I will need to look into the GDE tune and how it work, cost and all.

stoutdog · **Posted:** Mon Aug 17, 2009 9:11 pm

mikey1273 wrote:

well I am glad its normal. I will need to look into the GDE tune and how it work, cost and all.

It's a fairly expensive initial investment, but one that will pay for itself in 1-2 years - depending on driving habits, of course. PM me if you have any questions.

mikey1273 · **Posted:** Wed Aug 19, 2009 12:40 pm

stoutdog wrote:

mikey1273 wrote:

well I am glad its normal. I will need to look into the GDE tune and how it work, cost and all.

It's a fairly expensive initial investment, but one that will pay for itself in 1-2 years - depending on driving habits, of course. PM me if you have any questions.

I looked it up $550 for the job and I have to send them my engine computer which will disable my jeep. I can't see how I can do it unless I send it off and rent a car untill THe ECU is returned or send it before going on a trip in where I am not driving.

linewarbr · **Posted:** Wed Aug 19, 2009 2:37 pm

They have a very quick turnaround. I overnighted my ECU (BTW, you have to go Post Office since GDE has a P.O. Box) on a Monday morning, and they had it back to me Wednesday morning.

Getting the ECU in and out is a snap if you TAKE OFF THE MOUNTING PLATE. If you look on the headlight-side of the ECU, there are two bolts holding a plate that the ECU is mounted on. Disconnect the wiring harnesses, take out those two bolts, and the whole ECU and mounting plate slides out of a fold in the sheetmetal of the fender. Then detach the ECU from the mounting plate, wrap it in bubble wrap, and take it to the post office. Ask me how I know this is easier. . .

PhoenixCRD · **Posted:** Wed Aug 19, 2009 5:50 pm

mikey1273 wrote:

stoutdog wrote:

mikey1273 wrote:

well I am glad its normal. I will need to look into the GDE tune and how it work, cost and all.

It's a fairly expensive initial investment, but one that will pay for itself in 1-2 years - depending on driving habits, of course. PM me if you have any questions.

I looked it up $550 for the job and I have to send them my engine computer which will disable my jeep. I can't see how I can do it unless I send it off and rent a car untill THe ECU is returned or send it before going on a trip in where I am not driving.

I figured it would take about 40,000 miles to recoup costs ($600-tune+shipping) for me if mileage went from my current in-town driving of 21 mpg to 24 mpg @ $2.60/gal. It's taken me nearly 4 years to reach 40,000 miles. YMMV

If you're getting 25mpg and the tune increases your mileage to 28mpg then it's more like 52,000 miles to recoup cost.

and if all your driving is highway and you're getting 32 and that increases to 35 then it takes about 85,000 miles to recover the costs.....assuming fuel stays at $2.60 a gallon.

but then there's the WOW factor with the tune.
Gary

kdlewis1975 · **Posted:** Wed Aug 19, 2009 10:52 pm

Miles till payoff = (cost of mod) / [(price of fuel/current mpg) - (price of fuel/predict mpg)]

mikey1273 · **Posted:** Thu Aug 20, 2009 7:44 am

I think what they do is cool and could be well worth the price. I could find a way to pay for it that's not so much an issue with getting the GDE tune. The issue I have is that while I don't drive tons of miles there isn't really a time when I can give up driving for a week. There is no way I could get to work and back home with out a vehicle or begging for rides. If taking the bus were more convient I could do that while it was down but it would take fer to long to get anywhere and the routes to the burbs are not often enough.

IF they could advance me a unit so I could drive or if it were done someplace local I could take the jeep to for the tune to be preformed it would be more workable.

Back to the original topic, the only stations close to me that have diesel at reasonable prices are Rutter's and Sheetz There is a Shell but their prices are high for gas and diesel.

I found an independant station the has diesel and off road diesel. last I was by there it was 2.75/gal for diesel and 2.29/gal for off-road diesel. is there much differnce beteen the two fuels? Imy guess is they are the same but one has the road use tax included the other doesn't.

linewarbr · **Posted:** Thu Aug 20, 2009 8:21 am

Do NOT put off-road diesel in your tank. Not sure how it goes in PA, (more strict than down here, I imagine) but if a cop decides to check your tank for dye (the off-road is dyed, usually red) it is a HEFTY fine. The CRD can run on 500 ppm low-sulfur diesel - it is pre-2007 so it does not require 15 ppm ultra-low-sulfur diesel - but you never know what is in the off road tanks, since it is meant mainly for farm and construction equipment.

As for the feasibility of the GDE tune: I probably wouldn't have gotten it if I had not taken advantage of the special price they offered it at when they first put it out in June; only you can decide if the $550 + $33 to overnight it is worth it to you. It's not just mpg to recoup the cost, it is an upgrade to the driveability of the Jeep overall. I noticed a major difference in low-speed driving, the go-pedal is not as slushy as it used to be. Their tune also raises the idle rpm to 800 in 4wd-Low, meaning you need less pedal modulation in off-road conditions. If you plan on wheeling it, that could be a major advantage.

Time-wise, if you pull the ECU on a Friday night after work, get to the post office and overnight it early on Saturday (before the gov'mnt decides to close the Post Office on Saturdays) then you will have it back at your door Tuesday, since GDE overnights it back to you. So if you can go a Sat - Tuesday without your Jeep - rock and roll. They will overnight it back to you the same day they receive it.

And back on topic as well: I'm running a tank of Pilot diesel from a truck stop about 5 miles from my house to see how that does. Unless that is as good or better than what I've gotten with Shell, I'll have to stick with Shell.

nursecosmo · **Posted:** Thu Aug 20, 2009 11:47 am

linewarbr wrote:

Do NOT put off-road diesel in your tank. Not sure how it goes in PA, (more strict than down here, I imagine) but if a cop decides to check your tank for dye (the off-road is dyed, usually red) it is a HEFTY fine. The CRD can run on 500 ppm low-sulfur diesel - it is pre-2007 so it does not require 15 ppm ultra-low-sulfur diesel - but you never know what is in the off road tanks, since it is meant mainly for farm and construction equipment.

In most parts of the country Off-road diesel comes out of the same takeoff as ULSD at the refinery. It goes through the same pipeline to get to the distribution terminal where red dye is added. In a few areas there are reports that it is still S500ppm but I think that most folks would have a hard time finding that these days. It is too costly for the refineries to produce two separate diesel fuels instead of one ULSD line.

The statement that "you never know what is in the off road tanks" applies to road fuel tanks just as well. Farm equipment requires the same high quality diesel that highway vehicles do and in some cases, may even need cleaner fuel. Think about that $250,000 piece of harvesting equipment or that $1,000,000 construction crane, do you think that their owners can afford to have them in the shop for a week for an IP replacement during the work season?

I don't personally know of a single CRD owner who has been pulled over for a fuel check by the Highway Patrol, but I'd bet that not a single one of all the 11000 on the road has ever had their fuel checked. I'm not encouraging anyone to break the tax laws, far from it. I'm simply stating that it shouldn't be a concern if it somehow wound up in the tank. What I do for my cold weather fuel blend is, I use Off-road diesel to which I add a small amount of vegetable oil and filtered used motor oil. The vegetable oil makes it an "experimental" biofuel which requires no taxes and thus becomes road legal fuel, and it greatly improves the lubricity. The 1 liter of motor oil in 200 liters of the fuel blend obscures any trace of red dye in the fuel and also adds a small amount of lubricity, not because I'm not concerned about getting the Jeep's fuel checked but I use the same blend in my Ram, which the authorities are known to check once in a blue moon.

mikey1273 · **Posted:** Wed Aug 26, 2009 11:24 am

I don't plan on trying to put off road into it.

I my area I only have one Major brand name filling station that sells diesel, its a Shell and their pump prices are usually higher than others close by. This leaves me with buying from one of the to regional convience store chains that are here, Rutter's or Sheetz. Both do not have diesel at ever location but the Rutter's near my house does, so I will be getting fuel there often I think.

linewarbr · **Posted:** Wed Aug 26, 2009 10:04 pm

You may want to start a profile on fuelly.com. I've been doing it for a month now (I have the same username there) and as I look back on my fuel mileage history, it looks like I get the best mpg on Shell. Of course, we have 2 Shell refineries within a 100 mile radius here. But I really think it has more to do with how much diesel a place sells. If you never see anyone at the pump, or if their pump is way out back under a flickering arc sodium lamp, I'd spend the extra $$ to go down the road to the truck stop that goes through its storage tanks of diesel every 10 days.

mikey1273 · **Posted:** Sat Aug 29, 2009 1:41 am

It may be a good idea for me to do that.

I seem to have put a lot of miles on so far. I got the jeep right before I had some summer trips already planned so it got a good road test ofver the past 3 weeks. I was in west virgina last week and on the way home I got 27 MPG!!!! I was driving up and down mountains doing 70+mph and sometimes up to 80mph with the A/C on. On the trip down I got 26 and had power service diesel clean in that tank.

I am impressed with those numbers. my subie used to get 25 MPG on the highway with the same driving habbits on simular terrain.

What station has the best diesel?

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