There was an article in the Ft. Worth paper about a friend of Willie Nelson, who has a bio-diesel station on Int. 35. It claims better milage,more pwr, less emissions and a better smell. The Dodge owners manual states they don't recomend the use of that type of fuel. They say more tests are needed. Does anyone know anything about those tests, and when an if bio-diesel will be approved?

 

What year of truck/Owners Manual are you looking at? I thought the newer years (post '03) said that its ok up to a B10 or something?

I've been running bio in my truck for a couple thousand miles so far. Getting ready to mail in my 50% rebate in a while too.

No prob's, no appreciable difference in mileage, and haven't noticed any appreciable difference in the exhaust smell either.

 

P.S. My truck is a '04 with an auto trans.

 

bulabula

What 50% rebate?

 

Biodiesel is nothing new and will run in your truck with no problem. You won't notice any difference in smell until you reach B20 or higher. You will notice a smoother idle due to the increased lubricity, and will be sending less money to the middle east though..

 

It's for Maryland only, 50% back for first time users for up to $1000, it's only for B100.
Think NJ also has a rebate.

 

Is it possible to use B100 in these engines at all?

 

I saw a story on CNN about "***** fuel", B20 biodiesel. CNN said that ANY current diesel engine can run B20 biodiesel, but I thought there were some issues on the CTD's with higher percentage blends. They also mentioned that there are only about 300 truck stops in this country selling Bio.

I heard that there are some tax incentives to the producers/retailers of biodiesel or the consumers. The idea being that if we can produce alternative fuels in the US, it would save us from buying so much imported oil.

Anyone have any info on DC's official view on biodiesel and the max % the would tolerate?

 

My understanding is B20 max on the common rails but earlier engines can take B100.
Don't think many folks would like B100, mpgs and power drops pretty fast after 20%, not really worth it.

 

AFAIK CTD's run just fine on B100 but I can't speak to the mileage performance. I think it depends on what kind of veg oil is used before transesterfication.

Look at these sites for more info:

http://www.biodiesel.org/

http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html

Edwin

 

I still did not get the answer to my question. Why doesn't Dodge approve the use of biodiesel? I know it works good, I just don't understand why they don't want you to use it.

 

Probably because like all major corporations they have lawyers who tell them that anything they say can be held against them. If they say yes you can run B100 and somebody spills some on his shoe and it takes the shine off they'll get sued. Also, they look for any reason at all to void your warranty.

There IS a problem with using SVO (straight vegetable oil) and especially WVO (waste VO) of coking up rings and injectors so don't do it unless you like overhauling diesel engines.

AFAIK, Cummins now approves the use of B100 but don't quote me.

Edwin

 

Have you actually run b100? I ran b100 in my TDI for 35,000 miles and the power and mpg only drop slightly. I used to typically average about 46-48, and on b100 I averaged 44-46. Not a huge deal. I'd say the point of diminishing returns is around b50, but b20 is a nice compromise.

I've run b40 max or so in my 04 with no issues or mpg loss, but have run plenty of b20-b30 tanks thru it. The truck loves it and it's nice to be using domestically produced, renewable fuel.

 

A guy at the university of MO. did a lot of testing mostly using CTD 5.9, I don't have the info here with me but if you find the link theres probubly more info than you might want to read , to boil down here the only things to watch for,and thats with a 100% ,are changing rubber hoses and seals to viton, and changing fuel filters a lot in the beging becouse the biodiesel cleans the system better then any injector cleaner I've seen also lubes the fuel system better than high sulfur diesel.

 

According to my owner's manual, Dodge "approves" use of up to 5% biodiesel.