USMC64-70

Read an article today that says diesel fuel in the US has a much lower cetane rating than the Eurpoean equivalent. US 40 Europe 50. If cetane aids in starting and power, should a fuel additive be used all year?

induchman

Not necessarily. Some brands have lower and some higher. Chevron is one of the lower. Some stations will have a sign as to what # they offer. Diesel Kleene from Power Service claims to boost # by four/five.

Shovelhead

Some "juice" every tankfull (me), some add once a month, others don't use additives at all.
It depends on what helps ya sleep at night.

I use Howes Diesel Treat & Lucas fuel treatment more for lubricity than cetane.

barracuda

I use Lucas on EVERY fill-up, i think it helps a bit on the MPG but mostly I feel better about the added lubrication to the VP-44...i dump a 50 gal. treatment bottle into my 30 gallon fill-up
Maybe it's a false belief but when I crank up the fuel box I feel more confident...just my .02

RamDan03

The Citgo station near my house guarantees a minimum cetane rating of 45. It is printed on the pump.

MikeyB

I believe Shell Autodiesel is 45 cetane also.

MikeyB

Graeme

I use howes diesel treat every fillup in every diesel we have. (vehicles and tractors) I do it mostly for the lubricity.

AlpineRAM

Cetane rating over here is minimum 51, otherwise it must not be sold as diesel fuel. Usually you get between 54 and 60 on the pump. Overdoing on cetane rating won't do any good since the actual burn speed is depending on the cetane rating. As a rule of thumb you can say that lower cetane needs earlier injection. We used this relation the other way round to find out whether timing was optimal for our application or not by simply dynoing on different cetane ratings. Well, yes you can overdo on cetane. My RAM with the edge pulse is on the edge with 53 cetane. any higher and I do lose performance and fuel mileage. Optimum performance (not quite scientifically measured) on my engine is around 50. Since surface tension and injector geometry do also play their roles in this it's ratehr difficult to decide whether it's beneficial or not to add an additive.

AlpineRAM

RamDan03

[quote author=AlpineRAM link=board=8;threadid=22035;start=0#msg207086 date=1068238962]
Cetane rating over here is minimum 51, otherwise it must not be sold as diesel fuel. Usually you get between 54 and 60 on the pump. Overdoing on cetane rating won't do any good since the actual burn speed is depending on the cetane rating. As a rule of thumb you can say that lower cetane needs earlier injection. We used this relation the other way round to find out whether timing was optimal for our application or not by simply dynoing on different cetane ratings. Well, yes you can overdo on cetane. My RAM with the edge pulse is on the edge with 53 cetane. any higher and I do lose performance and fuel mileage. Optimum performance (not quite scientifically measured) on my engine is around 50. Since surface tension and injector geometry do also play their roles in this it's ratehr difficult to decide whether it's beneficial or not to add an additive.

AlpineRAM
[/quote]

I noticed in your avatar it says you live in Europe. You folks have some excellent quality Diesel over there. At first when I saw you saying the minimum was 51, I did a double take.

AlpineRAM

In Austria the rules for wha may be sold as diesel are very strict. Cetane rating, sulphur content and lubricity are regulated. A little more than 50% of the vehicles running are diesels. New car sales (depending on brand) are up to 75% diesel. Hence pollution control on diesels was a massive issue long before it came up in the US. Research showed that the only way to tune a diesel to have low emissions is to set it up correctly and then feed it with the right stuff.


AlpineRAM