EricE

Looks like I may have found my first truck and first diesel - a '97 4x4 with manual transmission, 134,000 miles. It will only be driven occasionally - to pull a horse trailer on the weekends, and to run the type of errands that trucks were designed for. Decided that if I needed to buy a truck, I wanted to run on biodiesel. An experienced diesel mechanic will be inspecting it tomorrow morning prior to me making a decision whether to purchase it. So I've got a few questions for those with a lot more experience:

1) Is there ANYTHING in this truck that would be incompatible with biodiesel? (Hoses, seals, gaskets, etc.) I understand that most of the older materials that are damaged by biodiesel were phased out prior to this, but haven't heard specifically about this vehicle.

2) I know I'm going to go through one or two fuel filters (more?). Does it matter if I start adding B5, B20 or B99?

3) What symptoms should I expect to let me know when I need to change the filter.

4) I live in an area that only occasionally gets much below freezing in the winter. Often a bit of frost overnight, and snow a few times a year. If I could get by with B99 all the time, I'd prefer that. Should I be mixing 50/50 with dino diesel or reduce the concentration further? I'm not opposed to adding some sort of after-market heating mechanism if that would work safely.

5) Is that it, or are there other issues I need to consider or be aware of before or during my use of biodiesel?

infidel

You can run B100 year round if it doesn't get much below 20F.
Best way to monitor your fuel filter is with a fuel pressure gauge.

XLR8R

Why biodiesel if you're using it occasionally?

EricE

In no particular order:
1) Global warming. No net increase in greenhouse gases - biodiesel is burning plants that recently absorbed free carbon from the atmosphere, compared to burning a compilation of millions of years of trapped carbon in petrol.
2) Local benefits. Biodiesel is increasingly made (here, at least) from local crops, and refined here, which supports local farmers and the local economy. and decreases the need to use more fuel to transport oil from afar.
3) Reduced pollution.
4) Supports our troops. The primary source of financing for the schools that promote radical/militant Islamic extremism is from sale of oil and oil-producing nations. Who knows, for every one pound of soy or rapeseed burned, one less AK-47 may be pointed at our boys.
5) Supports democracy. Many of the world's worst, most repressive goverments can afford to disregard the needs of their people in direct proportion to the profits they make on oil sales. When the price of oil declines, they have less money, and less to pay for their countries needs. With dissatisfaction comes pressure from their citizens for reforms that improve those citizens' lives. When the price of oil increases, those governments can avoid addressing those problems.
6) More efficient. It takes less fuel to produce and transport biodiesel locally than to ship oil from far away.
7) Engine runs cleaner over time with less deposits.
8) Horses. Biodiesel doesn't smell as bad, smoke as much or produce as much carcinogens as petrol, which is important since my horses are right behind my tailpipe.
9) Economy of scale. Every dollar I spend on biodiesel supports the growth of the biodiesel industry. The more biodiesel sold, the more that will be produced, which will provide more R & D, and help to bring the price down and increase availability for others.
10) My next car will probably be a VW Passat TDI.

XLR8R

Oh, I see...

Baja

Right on, Eric. I run WVO for a lot of the same reasons, and it is free. Our other car is a Jetta TDI. I cut the dino in it with 15% WVO, so our fuel costs are next to nothing.

EricE

Once I install a fuel pressure gauge, what should it read normally, and what will it read when I need to change the fuel filter?

Baja

Fuel pressure, 17-22 at idle. With no load around 2500 RPM, 25-35. As your filter clogs, the pressure will drop. If you ignore it long enough, your engine will start to stumble on any high load situation, take off, hills and the freeway. For fuel pressure gauge installation, there are a ton of threads here in DTR, research them.

infidel

Make sure you only look at the FP gauge info as it relates to 12 valves. It's entirely different than 24 valve and not posted on as much.

EricE

Thanks! That helps.

Jerret

Eric, did you ever find out if you need to replace any hoses? I also purchased a 97' 4x4 last week in Oregon (mine's an auto though) and I'm interested in running bio-diesel.

I've heard that bd runs a little quieter, which would be fine by me.

EricE

I just did a search of Biodiesel forums, which led me to some research articles on various engines. The researchers said that Dodge replaced all nitrile (susceptible to degradation from BD) from the fuel system after '91, so '92s and newer are ready to go. Several people claim to have put up to 100,000 miles pf BD on 2nd generation Dodge trucks, with nothing more than one or two fuel filters

BTW, there have been occasional reports of BD not working in 3rd generation engines, allegedly due to BD becoming stringy or sticky due to high pressure (in the common rail?). Further research seemed to indicate that the scholarly types think this is more likely to be a symptom of poorly-made BD, not BD per se.

dodgechick98

This might be helpful : www.filtercouncil.org go to the technical data button on the left hand side and then in the search area type in "The effects of biodiesel on fuel filters". Its a bit of information.