ULSD and Power Service - question

[penokee]

I recently picked up a new Tow Vehicle with the 06 Duramax Diesel engine. I plan to add Power Service when I fuel up. Does Power Service give you the lubricity lost in the ULSD? I don't have confidence that whatever is being added at the refinery or elsewhere, will be adequate. Am I being overly cautious? Any/all comments appreciated as usual.
penokee

 

[MikePA]

Am I being overly cautious?

Yes, click here for another thread about the same topic.

 

[cp1969]

I don't have confidence that whatever is being added at the refinery or elsewhere, will be adequate.
penokee

May I ask why? Do you have confidence that motor oil contains all the ingredients it needs to perform as required? If so, then there is a major disconnect in logic here because the same people make lube oil and fuel oil--it would seem strange to me that the same people who can produce very, very high quality motor oil would somehow drop the ball when it comes to making fuel oil.

ULSD is going to be superior in every way to the diesel fuel we've been using for the last 13 years. California and Texas have already been running it for a while. Is there a history of problems there? If so, I haven't heard about it.

 

[penokee]

cp1969 - I can't locate the article I recently read on this subject, but what it basically said was that the additives added to ULSD at the refinery settled out during storage, so the additives were being added at some point in the distribution chain. The author went on to say that his experience was that these same people were responsible for adding additives to gasoline and occasionaly when in a hurry simply failed to add anything so they could get the product shipped. Is this a fact? I have no idea, hence my reasoning for asking the question. I have limited knowledge of diesel, and past experiences on this site have been positive with excellent replies from many people. If you have knowlege/proof that it's being added or have ran a diesel truck engine on ULSD without a problem, then I'll probably skip the expense and problem with adding Power Service.
penokee

 

[Dusty]

If there was a lubricity problem with ULSD, the engine manufacturers would be the first to be pointing it out to the refineries and the Federal Government. I don't know how it will perform in 20 or 30 year old diesels, but anything produced in the last 10 years I have been told is no problem. This reminds me of all the horror stories that were going around when they removed the lead from gasoline and how the engines were going to self destruct. Having been in the old car hobby for more years than I care to mention, I know of not one single engine failure that was attributed to unleaded gasoline. I hear lots of second hand information about someones sister in laws brothers father in laws uncle removed 5 times on his wifes side had an engine blow up, but not one that I could see for my self first hand.

 

[DieselPower]

As a diesel mechanic that went through the disaster of the 3000ppm to 500ppm of sulfer I have no doubt the 500ppm to 15ppm will be just as bad if not worse. It's just a fact of life now day's that injector failures are common. I have been using DZL-LENE XL/10 fuel additive since the LSD came out and will continue to use it in the new ULSD.

Dusty - You must be lucky to have not seen any problems when lead was removed. I can't even count how many engine failures I have seen over the years on older engines that was directly caused by the removal of lead from gas. It was called valve recession.

Also don't forget that lead in gas and sulfer in diesel are two completly different thing's. The lead was not a lubricant it was a cushion for the exhaust valve and octane booster. Sulfer on the other hand is a injector and pump lubricant.

 

[LBrown59]

cp1969 - I can't locate the article I recently read on this subject, but what it basically said was that the additives added to ULSD at the refinery settled out during storage, so the additives were being added at some point in the distribution chain. The author went on to say that his experience was that these same people were responsible for adding additives to gasoline and occasionaly when in a hurry simply failed to add anything so they could get the product shipped. Is this a fact? I have no idea, hence my reasoning for asking the question. I have limited knowledge of diesel, and past experiences on this site have been positive with excellent replies from many people. If you have knowlege/proof that it's being added or have ran a diesel truck engine on ULSD without a problem, then I'll probably skip the expense and problem with adding Power Service.
penokee

Myself and many others here run PS
.
I wouldn't skip it.

 

[DieselPower]

Forgot to add. You will be fine with the Power Service. It does contain a lubricity additive.

 

[MadReferee]

First of all, the rumors going around about ULSD having less lubricity than the former LSD are just not true. The refining process does lower the lubricity but the refineries are adding the necessary additives to make the lubricity equal to or exceeding the former LSD fuel. From the Chevron Diesel FAQ:

Lubricity is a measure of the fuel's ability to lubricate and protect the various parts of the engine's fuel injection system from wear.The processing required to reduce sulfur to 15 ppm also removes naturally-occurring lubricity agents in diesel fuel. To manage this change the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) adopted the lubricity specification defined in ASTM D975 for all diesel fuels and this standard went into effect January 1, 2005.

The "Clean Diesel Fuel Alliance," an industry group consisting of oil and gas producers, engine manufacturers, the American Petroleum Institute (API) and others, states that "engine and vehicle manufacturers are not anticipating that existing [diesel engine] owners will have to make changes to their equipment to operate [on] the new fuel.

If you are still worried about your new engine then by all means add some after market additive like Power Service. As a previous poster noted, ULSD is all you can get in California and if there were major problems you would have already heard about them.

 

[UncleBuck01]

Penokee
Will it help the performance of your Vehicle, IMO - YES
Is it absolutely necessary, IMO -NO
Is it needed to give you peace of mind, IMO - YES
I think of the credit card commercial, cost of power service $6.49, cost of a gallon of diesel $2.59, the cost of "Peace of Mind" - PRICELESS
Good luck with your new vehicle

Buck