Well, the refineries are finished up with turnaraound and I am seeing improved mileage, probably from them turning out the summer blend fuel here.

My around town jumped from 14 to 16 during the last tank, so it seems I am finally catching a little break from paying the highest price for fuel on the west coast here!!

Also, will B5 biodiesel mess anything up in my mostly stock 24V, I'm liking the lubrication benefits for the vp44 I have been researching?

Thanks,

 

There is B5 in Portland and I get it when I can and as often as I can. Usually cheaper there also. I have had no issues and like it. Wish it was in the Couve also but haven't seen it here.

 

Do they even use a winter blend fuel in the PNW anymore?
When I lived in E Wash 12 years ago and in Montana presently all that was available unless you specified it for winter fuel was straight #2 with anti-gel additive.
Cheaper and doesn't effect performance/mpg as much a as #1-#2 blend.

I think what brings your mpg down in the winter more than the fuel is longer idling times and more driving without a fully warmed up engine.

 

The same up here. All our winter fuel is winterized with chemicals now. Density of winter fuel is the same as summer fuel so no power loss any more.

 

I wish we could still get #2 with anti-gel in the winter but the anti gel they used to use would cause Bio diesel problems in MN during the winter so now they can't use it so we get #2 and #1 (70/30) blends in the winter and the mpg numbers suck compared to the old winterized Arctic diesel we use to get several years ago.

 

My around town jumped from 14 to 16 during the last tank, so it seems I am finally catching a little break from paying the highest price for fuel on the west coast here!!:


Cross the 49th and welcome to the land of carbon tax on fuel! I'm sure if you drive north 30 miles you will pay more on the west coast. Hey just bugging you, just today I talked to a tanker truck driver and asked him where he gets his fuel. Said he loads in Burnaby, which is the terminus for for Alberta oil sands fuel. Great to hear cherry point is up and pumping again. Hope to see a little competition this summer.

 

Running BioDiesel isn't the best thing for trucks. I own a small fuel company in Indiana, so i know enough to be dangerous about this stuff. BioDiesel puts out 1/3 the emissions but also cuts 1/3 power to the engine. It's a completely failing industry. (emissions and power of fuel for engine depends on the % of biodiesel is blinded into regular ULSD). I for one would never run a single gallon of it in any of my diesel engines, but that's just me. I know some people out there love and swear by the stuff and more power to them, it's just that they really arn't getting the power out of the fuel they need in an engine that wasn't built to run that kind of fuel. And remember if your running "biodiesel" at a 10-15% rate, then you won't even know the diffrence but it's those who run it around 20-30% that will see the difference.

 

Then how come Europe is willing to buy almost all the BD that the US produces?
The BD industry is doing very well, it's the ethanol industry that's going though some tough times.

 

That's all good /interesting info.

Also makes sense about winter driving and warm up.

I see b20 and up a lot around here, but noticed one place carries b5 and it's the same price as #2.

If its less potent then I will probably keep throwin 2-3 bucks worth of Power Service in at each fill up, which is what I have been doing all along.

 

Here is an older report from the WSJ: U.S. Biofuels Subsidies: Not for Farmers, but for Europeans

From the WSJ report:
The U.S. taxpayer forks over a $1 subsidy for every gallon of biodiesel that is blended in the U.S. for export later. The idea was to give a nudge to the U.S. biofuel industry. But it is boomeranging, as the Guardian reports today in the latest installment on biodiesel “splash-and-dash.”

Increasingly, traders ship biodiesel from Asia or Europe to U.S. ports, where it is blended with a “splash” of regular diesel, the paper reports. That qualifies the shipment for U.S. export subsidies. Then it is shipped back to Europe where it is also subsidized. European biofuels organizations talk about between $30 million and $300 million in U.S. subsidies being exported that way to Europe.

Another report on it here: http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0608/p02s01-usec.html Biofuel boondoggle: US subsidy aids Europe's drivers

A maneuver called 'splash and dash' cost US taxpayers perhaps $30 million last year, but the charges are rising fast.