What additive you put in with your diesel.

[Johnp33]

Absolutely nothing, I did class eight engines for 40 years and never not once did I have a customer with a fuel problem ever say he put in an aditive.
The only aditive that is needed is an antigell if you are driving north in the winter, Many of the additives have alcohol which alows the water to go threw the filter destroying the injectors.

 

[pjbci]

Nothing here either. Ive got an old '84 petebilt with almost 2.5 million miles on it. Injector pump is original and its been running ulsd since it was mandated at the pump. The truck still runs almost everyday. Also havnt had any fuel issues with my late 70's and 80's era offroad engines. I think a lot of the fuss about ulsd is generated by fuel additive salesmen.

 

[Mickey_Fx]

Wasn't this discussed at length a couple weeks back?

While newer diesels injection pumps can get by on the ultra low sulfur, some older engine/pumps can have some problems.

Here is a published study on a number of "additives" and how they compared to the older, higher level sulfur fuels as far as lubricity is concerned.

Lubricity Additive Study Results - Diesel Place : Chevrolet and GMC Diesel Truck Forums

 

[creekbend]

I'll have to look into this powerservice stuff. I researched a ton of old posts on this and couldn't come to a conclusion if it was beneficial or not. I currently run just a few ounces of marvel mystery oil in my kubota and seems fine. The original reason I brought this up was because back when I was in Iraq in '04 our humvees (which were overloaded with armor and in extreme heat) were getting a lot of engine knock from running JP8 in them. JP8 is about the equivalent of super refined diesel or kerosine. We started added a 1/2 quart GM Mil spec ATF to the fuel and the knocking subsided. I was kinda curious if all this refining is changing the properties of diesel more towards JP8 which while burns much much cleaner also has a lower pressure to flashpoint hence creating possible engine knock.

If you are interested? Power Service Products is America's largest manufacturer of technologically advanced diesel fuel additives.

 

[DT86]

Wasn't this discussed at length a couple weeks back?

Yes, the "What additives?" questions seems to come up frequently. And just like any thread on "Should I buy Brand X vs Brand Y" the answers are all across the board, with reasoning based on hard facts, idiotic assumptions and everything in between!

Oh and BTW, I use Howse diesel treatment, based on recommendations from here and idiotic assumptions.

 

[George2615]

Power Service (white bottle) here as well.
Mainly used in winter to prevent gelling.

 

[Teikas Dad]

I discussed this at length with my brother who owns a diesel repair company. He told me the fuel related problems he sees are caused by moisture in the fuel letting algae grow. For a truck that's burning through a tank of fuel every week or so (or every day or so for OTR trucks), the moisture is not a problem. But if you store 10, 20 or 50 gallons of fuel and don't use it all in a reasonable time period then you face the algae growth problem. The algae apparently plugs up everything. The info he got was that a lot of the ULS diesel is coming from the Canadian tar sands. They get the oil out of the sand through a hot water process and they apparently don't get all the moisture out.

He strongly suggested I use a biocide to prevent algae problems if I'm going to store diesel fuel for a month or longer, other than that he said to use an anti-gel in the winter.

 

[super55]

Thanks for everybody's input on this. Been looking at some possible older diesel pickups early to mid 2000's and realized that all these vehicles were pre-low sulfur diesel and been looking at getting another tractor possibly 60-80's diesel. With new blends of fuel out to meet today's epa requirements and older running engines I wasn't sure if engine life/performance would be reduced.

I know with my old 1955 oliver that adding a couple ounces of lead additive to the tank really helps quiet the engine down but since it's a gasser going off this is like comparing apples to oranges.

Thanks for making me aware of the algae problem. The diesel in my kubota is probably approaching a year old now but since it is winter blend I didn't think much of it. Guess I should maybe look at using a biocide a minimum.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I discussed this at length with my brother who owns a diesel repair company. He told me the fuel related problems he sees are caused by moisture in the fuel letting algae grow. For a truck that's burning through a tank of fuel every week or so (or every day or so for OTR trucks), the moisture is not a problem. But if you store 10, 20 or 50 gallons of fuel and don't use it all in a reasonable time period then you face the algae growth problem. The algae apparently plugs up everything. The info he got was that a lot of the ULS diesel is coming from the Canadian tar sands. They get the oil out of the sand through a hot water process and they apparently don't get all the moisture out.

He strongly suggested I use a biocide to prevent algae problems if I'm going to store diesel fuel for a month or longer, other than that he said to use an anti-gel in the winter.

This sounds like a Canadian bashing quote to me. I worked in the Canadian oil sands for 5 years upgrading a refinery to double the capacity and I can assure you there is no water in the diesel. Yes they use warm slightly alkali water to float the oil out of the sand but it is then processed thru a fluid bed coker at more than 1400F to remove the hydrocarbons then it goes to a hydrocracker at even higher temps. There is no water vapor left in it or any other refinery product. The Syncrude refinery in Fort McMurray strips the diesel out of the oil for use in their mining equipment,(no problems with it there in running their big earth moving equipment) boosts the hydrocarbon content back up by adding hydrogen and sells the oil to Edmonton refineries that refine it into all the dino oil products like gasoline, diesel and heavy oils using the same processes that USA refineries use.
I cant believe how internet rumors spread via those that know nothing about a subject but because it is on the internet as the stupid girl in the insurance ad says "They cant put it on the internet if it isn't true".
I think the lack of lubricity issue came about when they first started stripping out the sulfur and weren't aware of the biocide properties and lubrication properties that they took with it. I don't doubt that there may have been SOME problems with this 20 years ago, but todays fuels don't need any additives to run properly in your machine in warm weather. Anti-gelling agents for temps below 30F would be the only exception.
I don't use anything in my diesel year round as the temps here don't get cold enough for anti-gelling agents. I keep my fuel in a non vented steel tank inside my boat shed and usually a tank will last me a year. I don't have algae or any other problems with it.

 

[buickanddeere]

Some people just can't leave things alone and thing there are cheap easy gains by taking exotic vitamins or pouring snake oil into equipment.
Give your head a shake.
Only additive required is a water remove such as IPA isopropyl alcohol. A gel point depressant such as Opti-lube. Or a wee dash of soybean oil for lubricant if running an over heated Hummer 6.5. Over heated fuel is the death of those Chev 6.5 injection pumps.