I recently found a station that sells diesel with "up to 20% bio", B20 I guess, right? It is a little bit cheaper, so Im wondering what the trade off is.

Has anyone compared the mileage they get with Bio compared to regular diesel? If it is anything like ethanol-flavored gasoline it is a considerable decrease in mileage and not worth it. (Of course ethanol is actually bad for gas engines on top of it.) I know Bio offers some lubrication benefit so thats good. Am I better off sticking with regular diesel or alternating or what?

Assuming mileage is less with Bio, I guess it would depend on how much less it costs to see if its worth it. This particular station was selling B20 for about 10 cents less per gallon than my normal station, if I remember correctly.

 

Well, I never seen any reduction in mileage with B5...There will be a reduction in BTU content of the B20 (138,000 btu/ga) compared to D2 (140,000 btu/ga) by about 2000 btu/gallon...let's assume this to be correct, so a gallon of B20 has about 98% the energy content of a gallon of D2. If a gallon of D2 costs $4.00 and you can get a gallon of B20 for $3.90, the B20 costs 98% of the price of D2 - so it is a wash. BUT, your truck might really like B20...mine loves to run on B5! Biodiesel will clean up your fuel system too...I ran it for about a year straight and when I did my in-tank mods it was spotless. You might want to get a spare fuel filter, it will loosen up any crap in the system.

 

Thanks Neal

The only Bio I see available around here is B20. I think I am going to run it for a while. I just changed my fuel filter about 2k miles ago, when should I change it again assuming I run nothing but B20 in the future?

 

I can't say Stu, because there is no way to tell how dirty your fuel system is. Believe it or not, I am allergic to biodiesel. I get it on my arms and I break out in bumps and itching. Straight diesel has no effect on me at all. I also added a prepump filter (big honkin' CAT filter) when I did my in-tank mods. My fuel bowl filter always looks new when I check it now.

Here is a picture of the 11" CAT filter (not my picture though)

 

I used B20 for several years, and I never noticed any difference in mileage. My truck seemed very happy with it. As stated, make sure you don't get a gunked up fuel filter due to the bio cleaning out your system. Never happened to me, but I've heard where it's happened to others-


I just recently stopped using it exclusively simply because the B20 pumps are a little too far away to be convenient. Like you, I liked the idea of added lubricity in the fuel.

 

I would think, a fuel pressure gauge will tell you when it filter needs changing. Defintly I'd do the intank mod though.

 

I think theoretical drop in mpg for biodiesel is about 10%, so running B20 you'd loose 2%. Not enough difference to measure.
Than it is common on topics where owners of cars design to run on Premium -use regular on them saying their mpg has raised. This is easy to explain, running on worse fuel makes the engine performing less, meaning less acceleration. Less acceleration gives better mpg, what might compensate for lower mpg on flat driving.
Lot of manufacturers advise using B5 on older diesel to get a lubrication lost in fuel by cutting down on sulfur. Even I don't have bio stations in convenient for me areas, I like to put some of it once a year as a cleaning solution. Never had filter plug with it, when last filter lasted me for 80,000 miles.

 

Put it in. You may not notice a difference. It will improve lubrication.

 

I think I am gonna switch over to B20. I had been using Diesel Kleen pretty regularly, mainly for lubricity, now I can not spend the money on that and save a little on the Bio! Its a win-win!

I dont even know what the intank mods are yet. I have seen them mentioned around here and feel sure it is probably the next thing I start researching.

 

I bet you will like the effects of B20 Stu and you will have savings from omitting the DK. I'd do the in-tank mods BEFORE switching over to B20 and add a pre-pump filter at the same time. Here is a link to photos of the how and why of the Hutch mod.

 

I see the photos of it, but not the "why" part. What is the general purpose of the hutch and harpoon mods? Are those the two "in-tank" mods?

 

The Hutch mod why is the first four or five photos in the link I posted. The fuel return line dumps into the tank right next to the pickup and in a very short time there is a lot of entrained bubbles in the fuel right where the pick up is. The mod moves the return to the other side of the fuel tank...your injectors will appreciate the mod.

The harpoon mod will just allow you to rapidly and completely fill your fuel tank.