can i use a 5% biodiesel blend in the 05 6.0L diesel engine without changing anything?

15

Asked by Apryl Mar 16, 2010 at 10:33 AM about the Ford F-350 Super Duty

Question type: General

where i normally fuel up my beast is switching to a 5% biodiesel. so the biggest question i have is, is there anything i have to do before i start using the blend, i just dont want to end up with a big headache. there are no mods on it right now, its still stock.

6 Answers

1,255

Hi I have a few answers to your question. But first a little education, (if you don't want to bother reading it just skip to the end) diesel engines work on the principle that air is drawn into the engine, compressed, and through this compression, heated. The air is then hotter than the auto-ignition point of the fuel. The fuel is sprayed directly into the chamber and combusts. As long as the auto ignition point of the fuel used is below the temperature that the engine generates in the cylinders it will run. Diesel engines can run on pure vegetable oil, used filtered motor oil, kerosene, pure bio-diesel and of course regular diesel. Plus a couple of other fuels can be added in, in small concentrations, below 10% such as alcohol (ethanol), propane, methanol, Natural gas, and hydrogen (but with hydrogen it can be as much as 50%). I'm a chemical production engineering student and a gear head, so that's how I know my stuff. (auto-ignition point = point at which a substance will burst into flames due to heat) So no you don't have to do anything to the truck to run the bio-diesel mix it will run the same as before abet a little cleaner.

10 people found this helpful.
15

thanks!! i was pretty sure there would be no prblm, but hey im a woman and i wanna double check these things. plus i do most of my own maintance, i wanted to get a straight answer without going to a dealership where they will try and sell me stuff i dont want

235

What i would do is change the fuel filter after a while of running the 5% as bio usually cleans out crud in the fuel system and it ends up clogging up filters. if the hydroulic electronic unit injectors get gummed up there is usually no way to clean them aside from removing them from the engine and the last thing you want is for those babies to starve of fuel causing bad things to happen. but most likely that wont happen. but still change the fuel filter.

260

I have a '90 Dodge 5.9 Diesel. I have run it for about 100,000 kilometers with various percentages of diesel-used motor oil blends and some vegetable oils. I bought the truck new and now have about 266,000 kilometers on it. Never had to do anything to repair on the engine. I once went as high as 50/50 used motor oil/diesel. Power went way down pulling our travel trailer. I discovered that if you go more than 10% of used oil in the diesel, the mpg starts to go down proportionately. also we had a lot of soot to clean off of the trailer. One time something unknown was in a mix and we continually lost power till we were sitting on the side of the road barely idling, We had to be towed 20 some kilometers to a Flying J Truck stop. We filled 70 liters and all was well until the tank level dropped to a certain point and trouble again. Revving on the side of the road for 2 hours to clear it, lots of white smoke! I think some type of antifreeze, solvent, or synthetic motor oil was in it. But runs better than new again! Now I will only add 5-10% of my own re-filtered oil changes. I added my own water injection orifice at the turbo rubber hose connection as these alternative fuels in larger %s cause soot build up so needed regular internal "steam cleaning". The factory biodiesel at 5% should be no problem. Other stuff can be unknowns. Just saying from lots of my own experience.

2 people found this helpful.

I have a f350 super duty duly..123,000. Miles ! Was running prefect,,got my schedule oil change,,motor starting making a screeching sound and no power! Less than 40 miles after oil change! I have free oil changes and have been very faithful getting them ,,,they are free! My truck is 2007 and very well taken care! I believe the dealership forgot to add oil after the change!

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