black diesel fuel

[rancherman]

anyone here with any experience with black diesel fuel? Like, which filtration methods or equipment you use, and any results (good and bad)?I usually have close to 200 gallons of waste engine oil per year, and have several older tractors to burn it in..my 903 cummins powered 4X4 would be a perfect candidate... Back in it's heyday, when it was in semi tractors, Cummins actually had a feature that would draw out about a gallon of crankcase oil and inject in into the fuel tanks this was done after X number of miles There was an onboard reservoir that would automatically replace that oil with new... The operator only needed to replace filters, and keep the tank topped off with new oil.I've read that some are using it on on-the-road applications.... but with fuel inspectors and their 'scopes'... I'd sure hate to write the check on that fine!!getting it cleaned down to 1-2 microns is simple enough, getting all traces of water/antifreeze is paramount.I'd like to probably go with a 15-20% mix.. I'm looking for lube qualities first, cheaper operating costs second. ( when the disk is in the ground, 20 gallons per hour are up in smoke!) The upside to this is more power (more BTU"S) per gallon.. And my old '903 was designed for fuel that is more slippery than today's 'dry fuel'..

[Mopar1973Man]

One problem which filter will not correct is ash content. Black diesel is very high in ash content and will eventually plug up the injectors. As ash is burn it leaves a ash crusty deposits on the piston tops and injector tips. Same applies to running ATF too...

Engine oil are not like previous years. Even Cummins would only allow up to a MAX of 5%.

[diesel4life]

I know of a guh whose been running a very small amt ( i think 2 to 3 gal per tank) in his ve pumped 12 valve for many years with no issues. He has a tank set up where he stores his oil and runs it through a series of filters and seperators before pouring into fuel tank on truck. Hes also got a seperator and extra filtration on his truck as a precaution. I cant comment what he runs for filters though ive never paid enough attention. Hes been doing this for the last 10 years and truck has never missed a beat i dont think its an issue on the older rigs like you are talking about as long as you dont get overzealous and keep the mixture light. On another note, your going to have to fill us in on this 903 4x4 id like to see some info on that!

[rancherman]

funny you should ask... Im in the middle of freshening up that 903 right now.. and pics will be online soon.

I did a stupid thing... I didn't measure the liners after installing them on last years' inframe. I had one cylinder with a rolled o-ring.... and didnt catch it.

here is what a piston should look like with only 400 hours:

here is the culprit o-ring. there are 2 of these, for oil, then a wide rubber band for the antifreeze

Look closely, you can see the twist just before the actual break A rolled o ring (out of it's groove) will distort the sleeve more than .003 inch. More than enough to start the whole demolition process.

here is the ONE piston that took it in the shorts... believe me, it is no longer round! ha

Cool thing about these heavy engines..... SLEEVES! (yep, I know, there are pros and cons to each)

this engine is 5.5 inch bore. pretty easy to get a hand down there!

YES< I DID measure it this time! I actually measured all 8 holes, and the new one is .0005 oblong. in the oring area, even better at the top! close enough!

What were the symtoms?? engine started losing power, engine temp went up drastically... and the blowby was so bad I couldn't see past the hood of the tractor! This was from just one bad hole.

[Wild and Free]

Oil renewal systems are alive and well. Cat and Cummins both use the systems in industrial applications. We have a brand new cummins in a hitachi 2500 excavator "24.5 yard bucket" and most all new cat equipment uses this system as well. some you have to add a set amount of oil to the crankcase every day and some have a renewal tank that keeps the engine oil level correct as it meters the oil into the fuel system. You never have to change engine oil just spin filters every 300 hours and add oil as needed.

[98whitelightnin]

A few years ago I read about a guy with a 12v running 90% or even 100% waste oil. Said it started rough and idled rough but once you got it going it was good to go.