Bad Bio ???

MightyCRD · **Posted:** Thu Aug 03, 2006 8:37 pm

OK - maybe I'm jumping the gun, but curious about this -

First tank (factory fill) - 18.6 mpg

Second tank (straight Dino) - 21.1 mpg

Third Tank (B20) - 19.7 mpg

Fourth Tank (straight Dino) - 19.5 mpg

I have a 22-mile commute that is highway, but lots of stop-n-go ... and I run around town a lot during the weekends as well. I'm sitting at only 1500 miles right now, but I figured the gas mileage would be going UP with each successive tank, not down ... no CEL, hasn't been to the dealer either. Seems to be driving fine, no loss of power, air filter is clean (no rain here either, would love some)

Any ideas? I was wondering if I got some bad bio or what .... or is this typical during break-in ... ?

vtdog · **Joined:** Fri Sep 30, 2005 11:27 am **Posts:** 640

I don't have any insight as to the bio fuel. I have only used b-20 on rare occasion and not noticied any real difference in mpg, but the car did seem "quieter" with bio use.

As to break in, most (including me) reported similar mpg during early use. At about 5k the mpg seems to increase and then again at about 20k the mpg really comes up. In my case, I started out in the low 20s and now regularly get around 25-26 which includes about 85% hi way driving with about 30k on the car. I have gotten up to 28mpg, but never the 30 that many report.

MightyCRD · **Posted:** Thu Aug 03, 2006 8:51 pm

That's the other thing I forgot - it was actually NOISIER with the bio .....

Special Agent · **Posted:** Thu Aug 03, 2006 9:31 pm

Couple of thoughts...

First, I run MOSTLY B99 from a local source (Seattle Biodiesel via their distributer Seaport Biofuels) that is virgin seed oil conversion, not yellow grease or reclaimed oils... My gas mileage is stable at 18.5 city/22 highway with this B99 bio. It's about 19.5 city/23 mpg Dino.

So you'll have a noticeable loss of MPGs with pure Bio, in my experience it's about 1-2 mpg.

That's just simple chemisty, BioD is not as "energetic" as DinoD.

!!!!!!!!!!You should test the qaulity of your BIO by using the following method: !!!!!!!!!!!

Take a clear plastic soda bottle, wash and rinse it VERY thoroughly. Put about 1/3 water and another 1/3 Biodiesel in the bottle straight from the pump where you get your bio. Shake VIGOROUSLY for a couple minutes, until the Bio and Water are totally mixed up.

Now set in on a countertop or in you cup holder and let it sit for about 30 minutes. When you come back and check, you should see CLEAR WATER on the bottom and CLEAR BIO (usually golden or yellow, but occasionally green or more brownish) on top. If either is cloudy, there is a milky seperation anywhere in the bottle and/or otherwise you don't see two clear, seperated fluids???

Your Bio sucks. The degree of cloudiness, particulation, refusal to seperate and so on is pretty much how bad your bio sucks.

This gets technical, but suffice to say that is only one test you could do, abeit an easy one... And it doesn't gaurantee good dino, it just proves whether or not they are seperating the glucose out and how good they are washing out their methanol...

Lemme know how it turns out.

Also, I have hard starts with B99, it is thicker than dino fuel and the vehicle is not optimized to run bio, so there will always be performance and other drawbacks to using this alt-fuel. I just happen to think it is worth it. Good luck!

DarbyWalters · **Posted:** Thu Aug 03, 2006 10:28 pm

Those figures are in the right ball park for stop n go...20-21. On the highway you will get much better. You also really have to let this diesel breakin...after 3000 miles and the first oil change my mileage increase a bit. I seem to have the same kinda drive like yours and if I drive with a bit of sense I can get 22. I have achieved over 30 on the highway ( cruise at 70...GPS said 68...1925 rpm )

Also a mistake so many make is trying to get the exact mileage every tankful...your error decreases markedly if you average 5-6 fill ups (100 gallons or so)

Marlon_JBT · **Posted:** Fri Aug 04, 2006 12:04 am

You're doing much better than me at 16.5 @ 2200 miles.

MightyCRD · **Posted:** Fri Aug 04, 2006 8:56 am

DarbyWalters wrote:

Those figures are in the right ball park for stop n go...20-21. On the highway you will get much better. You also really have to let this diesel breakin...after 3000 miles and the first oil change my mileage increase a bit. I seem to have the same kinda drive like yours and if I drive with a bit of sense I can get 22. I have achieved over 30 on the highway ( cruise at 70...GPS said 68...1925 rpm )

Also a mistake so many make is trying to get the exact mileage every tankful...your error decreases markedly if you average 5-6 fill ups (100 gallons or so)

HMMM - at 70, I'm running 2000 rpm even ... I've been thinking that the speedo was fast since day one ... guess it really is. But the odometer is a little slow ... darn engineers! :lol:

allscan · **Posted:** Fri Aug 04, 2006 10:35 am

It will get better with time. I run 30 miles each way 5 days a week highway to get to and from work. I also religously track my fuel. Check out the attached image for an idea of my MPG compared to my total mileage. I calculate my MPG by using (trip mileage)/(gallons added to tank). This doesn't work well if I don't fill the whole tank up, which is were the super high and low readings come from on my graph (these are outliers if I remember stat class).

Edit: I run all dino from major truck stops mostly.

vtdog · **Joined:** Fri Sep 30, 2005 11:27 am **Posts:** 640

Allscan:

Excellent chart ! I saw the upward mpg trend as your miles increased. Same thing happend with mine. In fact, I believe that if I did a similar chart it would be an overlay of yours as my mpg seems almost exactly the same

MightyCRD · **Posted:** Fri Aug 04, 2006 12:13 pm

I'm hoping that one day mine gets there ......

Cowpie1 · **Posted:** Sat Aug 05, 2006 2:27 pm

Might get some disagreement, but I find that trying to fill up early in the morning when it is cooler does wonders for keeping the fuel mileage up. Diesel expands tremendously and temp of fuel makes a big difference in what a person will get in fuel mileage. Even the EPA likes us to fuel in the cooler part of the day to reduce fume emissions. I prefer to think it makes a difference in my mpg.

Bad Bio ???

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