Hello and I'm seeking advise about biodiesel and the 12 valve. I have a 1996 12 valve 2500 automatic with 140,000 on it and want to run biodiesel through it. I was wondering if I have to change anything, are going to have problem, or even if I can run it? Thank you.

 

I ran canola based, home brewed biodiesel through mine. Didn't change a thing and it was great!. Buy a few fuel filters though, it does a great job of cleaning out your fuel system..

 

Thank you so much. Well looks like all I have to do is make some and just run it. What do you think the worst could happen? thank you

 

Fuel lines to/from the engine rotting... the methanol used in the brewing process may cause them to deteriorate more quickly, may not. My filters were clean and I didn't see any ill effects at all.

Oh and observing your post count.... WELCOME to the DTR!

 

I run between B20 and B100 all the time and have no problems.

 

Natural rubber hoses, o-rings and seals are what's vulnerable to attack from methanol.
Fortunately for us natural rubber hasn't been used on our engines since 1994.

 

Have been running B100 for 2.5 years....No problem..

 

Carry a spare fuel filter , the bio will clean out the fuel system & can plug filter , I used 10 % , the filter was close to due , after about 5-6 days it would not get fuel , changed the filter , reprimed the system , has not been a problem the last 3 yrs .
But to make sure we are talking about the same things , BIO-DIESEL is processed to remove glycerin and do a few other things .
WVO / SVO , waste vegi oil / straight vegi oil , these commonly use 2 tanks systems , filters and heat the oil / fuel , this is something that I would not do , but some have .
Bio requires no mods , but may require blends and additives for cooler / cold weather .

 

Thank you so much for your posts. I hope that I get more responses, so that i have the confidence to run bio-diesel. Another question, is blending the bio-diesel with regular diesel fine or will that cause a problem?

 

Blending is fine. I got the Bio from Diesel Dave2 actually. I ran about 200L worth IIRC through it in various mixes. I would get down to half a tank and top it with Bio..By the mid part of the warm weather I was probably close to 80%. As it cooled off I started pumping in the Petrol based stuff to thin it out. I had the Bio start clouding in the funnel screen as I was pouring it one morning,so I knew I had to start mixing..

Just make sure its the good stuff and don't worry.. Its all good!

 

As stated, blending is fine. You will hear people talking about B10 or B20. The number refers to the percentage of bio and the rest of it is regular diesel so B20 would be 20% bio and 80% diesel.

You can buy bio commercially or you can make it. There are debates going on over the certifying of the stuff but if you want to be sure, find a local distributor who gets good reviews and use their stuff.

 

As for blending , and the 12v , you can do most any % you want , keeping in mind the cooler weather , as far as performance goes , depending on how you tune you truck can vary some , but 20-30 % bio is the best performance blend , after that its save diesel costs .
Some of the additive work with bio & blends , I use Amsoil Cold Flow .
This is Minnesota , and there are been a number of studies [ plow trucks winter , down to -35*F , at 20% bio with Shaffer's anti gel with problems ] and others , but you are your last defense , you can get bad / dirty petro diesel also , so leaning all the issues then adding mods till you feel like you have it covered , is the way to go .

 

Thank you everyone!!!!!!!! would love to have more info about bio-diesel. thanks.

 

How much do you want to read , I haven't gotten around to putting all the studies I've found on one source to down load yet , but this is on of the oldest / biggest , maybe .

http://web.missouri.edu./~schumacherl/biofuel.html

I have some from the U of M here & a county did testing for a few yrs with plow trucks , coldest around -35*F , I have picked up 2 CDs from the U of M and 2 or 3 other university studies .
When I tried to put all on 1 DVD , then try to load to sites , it was too much info for the servers , maybe the administration guys here could put it up in tech , but I am not sure how to send .

 

first tank of B20 I ran in my red '98 started the lift pump to leaking... it was original w/ ~180k miles on it. replaced it and no problems after that