Watch your fuel guys...

[yellowstang]

I think one of those ^ is Mtn Dew by mistake

[Mysticcobrakilla]

If that's diesel it's probably ok. Well, it'll run at least...

Here's a fun picture for you. All 10 of these diesel samples came from random public pumps in California over a 2 month period recently. After better pics are taken I'm sending some of them to the lab - I'm betting at least one or two of these are off-spec (color, high bio content, etc)

Things I like about my ole 7.3....as Cooter once stated “it’ll run on butter milk”

[Strychnine]

Things I like about my ole 7.3....as Cooter once stated “it’ll run on butter milk”

LOL. Most of the time.
All of those were taken at the same time one of our guys was filling up his 7.3 truck. One of those was from when he was headed up into the NorCal mountains to hunt. The bio content was so high that it gelled up overnight and nearly stranded him. I won't bore you with details (unless you want them) but there are some problems with "B5" being higher than 5 out there.

[Mysticcobrakilla]

I’d like to hear the details. I’ve run some pretty nasty shit through my truck.

[red89notch]

LOL. Most of the time.
All of those were taken at the same time one of our guys was filling up his 7.3 truck. One of those was from when he was headed up into the NorCal mountains to hunt. The bio content was so high that it gelled up overnight and nearly stranded him. I won't bore you with details (unless you want them) but there are some problems with "B5" being higher than 5 out there.

It's because of all the goddammit hippies isn't it?

[Strychnine]

It's because of all the goddammit hippies isn't it?

Kinda. Hippies and capitalists exploiting hippy regulations.
Feel free to zone out and have your eyes glaze over at any time. This is all California stuff, so just cross your fingers it doesn't make it to TX...

In CA there's a Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) program. It's a mandate that says transportation fuels must reduce their carbon intensity (CI) by a certain percentage every year. "Carbon intensity" is basically a full life-cycle analysis of a fuel, so for petroleum based fuel that's a "well to wheels" calculation of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) through the whole process - everything from drilling the well, to refining the fuel, and delivering it to the fueling station.

Since petroleum based products are the baseline, to meet those annual reductions some lower CI stuff has to be blended in. The easiest way to do that is to blend in some bio-based fuels. As far as CI scoring goes, petroleum diesel in CA comes in around 102 gCO2e/MJ and bio-based fuels are in the 30-70 gC02e/MJ. That's quite a reduction, which means you don't need to blend in a ton of it to meet these -3% or -4% every year LCFS mandates. Hence B5 diesel (95% fossil, 5% bio).

Historically, up to B20 was available out there, but biodiesel has higher NOx output that fossil diesel. Because of that it was recently mandated that without running a special additive (not approved by engine manufacturers) you can only run B5 in the summer or B10 in the winter. That cut the biodiesel market in half right there, reducing the value of it.

Also, the value of LCFS credits for bio has gone up. This means that every producer of biodiesel wants to send their shit to CA. As soon as it crosses the state line the producer gets credit $... but this also floods the market with biodiesel, driving down the value. So the producers are getting credit dollars, the distributors out there are getting biodiesel cheap... but biodiesel has a 6 month shelf life (if stored properly, shorter if not).

Market opportunity cut 50-75% + more product flooding the market to capture credit dollars + limited shelf life = get rid of that shit cheaply and quickly - like one step above pouring it down the drain.

Distributors can use it to dilute their fossil diesel (remember none of this affects price at pump, so diluting with biodiesel nets more money into their pocket). It's kinda the wild west, not much testing this far down the line, so each time a fuel changes hands someone could blend in up to 4.99999% biodiesel ("they" are not crossing the B5 threshold, but there's also no real requirement that they test existing bio content before blending). So there's opportunity for 4.999% + 4.999% + ... to end up going to market. And even if it's just B5 you can only sell so much per day, week, whatever. With more supply and less demand what's there is going to sit longer before being sold. This gives the bio (FAME) molecules time to breakdown and/or bond with water, there's time for microbial growth to take off, etc.

It's a shitshow. Biodiesel sucks (in my opinion)

[sig239]

I know I have to change filters way before PM time anymore.
Seems like I get better power and better milage when I fuel out of Texas. Fuel from the north east seems to make better power. At least my right roots tells me so.
And know for a fact a lot more guys had gelling at much higher temps last winter. Guys where having filters getting thick ar 20 deg. Don't think the stations are treating it like they should. Enough to keep the pumps from gelling.

[sig239]

Fought that slimy black shit once was a bitch getting rid of it. I pour some shit in every once and a while for it. Dont know if it helps stop it or not but I feel better.

[AnthonyS]

My wife got a bad batch of premium at a Shell station in Dallas. Her car was way down on power and ran terribly and the CEL came on. I put in cheap HEB premium stuff here in San Antonio and the car runs perfect again and after 50 miles with it the CEL is off again. Avoid the shell at spring valley and coit.

[sig239]

It's because of all the goddammit hippies isn't it?

[sig239]

My wife got a bad batch of premium at a Shell station in Dallas. Her car was way down on power and ran terribly and the CEL came on. I put in cheap HEB premium stuff here in San Antonio and the car runs perfect again and after 50 miles with it the CEL is off again. Avoid the shell at spring valley and coit.

I hauled fuel a few years ago, sometimes you had a stop before where you had diesel in compartments and went back to the racks and put gas back in. Wasnt uncommon ro have some fuel left in the tank . No one ever seemed to worry about it. Some times a place will over order and be unable to to drop it all. They just told us drop gas.on top and dont Scully out
(Hit the safety shut off so you dont over fill and spill fuel.
When do this you get locked out three days first time at.most racks.

I

[stephen4785]

I just swapped 2 injection pumps, lift pump, drive gears on a mulcher due to gas in the diesel tanks at a station they went to. About $18k in damage. You would think they'd have some sort of sensor in the tanks or something.

[Captain Crawfish]

Anybody happen to actually talk to the store and have tank tested before defaming them on the inter webs?

[Captain Crawfish]

I hauled fuel a few years ago, sometimes you had a stop before where you had diesel in compartments and went back to the racks and put gas back in. Wasnt uncommon ro have some fuel left in the tank . No one ever seemed to worry about it. Some times a place will over order and be unable to to drop it all. They just told us drop gas.on top and dont Scully out
(Hit the safety shut off so you dont over fill and spill fuel.
When do this you get locked out three days first time at.most racks.

I

Not sure who you worked for but nobody does this shit. It’s dumb and will get you run off

[dcs13]

Anybody happen to actually talk to the store and have tank tested before defaming them on the inter webs?

Nah, we just like bitching about shit here. But if you're that concerned, post #13 would be of interest to you..