I live in richmond va and I am a "virgin" when it comes to the world of diesel.....is there a brand of diesel I should stay away from....is there any particular brand of diesel better than the others. I know you can buy "bad gas", so I am assuming you can also buy bad diesel.

 

dodge/cummins is the best diesel...stay away from ford and chevy J/K

I use royal farms and sheetz only...be careful if you use the big truck stop pumps too...not sure what year truck you have...but the high pressure of the big truck pumps can damage the fuel sending/gauge sending unit on the 2nd generation trucks

 

Diesel isn't graded like gasoline octane. I believe it has to have a minimum cetane rating, but can vary widely. I buy from 2 places in my town, and seem to get similar mileage and performance results. One sells Citgo, and the other is a no name that's consistantly $.10 less per gallon. I've tried the "premium" diesel fuels and found they perform no better than the no name place. I'd look for a dealer that sells a reasonable quantity of diesel fuel and avoid the out-of-the-way-places where the fuel may sit in the tank for long periods of time. Contrary to where many people say they fuel up, I avoid truck stops. I've found long wait times, and I've gotten the feeling that truckers didn't appreciate me filling up there. Never any words. Looks said it all, despite my following pump island etiquette.

 

Welcome to the site and why haven't you joined Chapter 7 yet?
Just kidding (no I'm not). See my sig for app form.

Use a place with a lot of turnover and if you see them filling the tank, give it a day or so to settle down. I try to find a station with a filter on the pump also. I've burnt everything from 40 to 50 cetane since I first started driving one of these in 1989. Can't really tell any difference. Not sure the posted cetane ratings are right anyway.

 

The worst diesels ever produced were the GM 5.7's in the early 80's. GM gave diesels a new name and it wasn't pretty. The best diesel in pick ups is the cummins. The others are always trying to catch up.

 

I might be mistaken, but I think he's refering to brands of FUEL, not engines.

I use East Coast, and Hess mostly because they're close to where I live.
I've never had a problem with water or dirt in my fuel since I've been using those two stations.

 

hemi,after seeing some of the 6.0 fords problems i think they top the list,i still have an 83 olds 5.7pushing 300,000,on it's 3rd set of head gaskets but,still pulls just a hair under 30 mpg.those first 2 years were something though,they learned the hard way,diesels don't like cast cranks,and you can never have enough headbolts.