Just wondering what effect the long term use of USLD will have on engines. I have read that the lubricity factor of the new fuel is below conventional diesel. I wonder if the 6.4 has been engineered with this in mind, and what effect if any the new fuel will have on the older engines.

 

The 6.4 was designed for ULSD. It will run like crap on LSD. My friends are very upset about this since there are only 2 stations around here that actually have ULSD.

 

I know you can't burn LSD in the 6.4. I was talking about the lubricating properties of the new fuel compared to the conventional diesel. The new ULSD may cause accelerated wear between the cylinder bore and rings ECT.

 

My understanding is the lubricity of the fuel mainly affects the fuel system, IE fuel pump, injectors, ect.

 

Wasn't this a big issue when gasoline became unleaded? Turned out to be fine didn't it?

 

empiretc is correct. All new diesels were designed to use ULSD. The only components that would be affected by the fuel lubricity are fuel system related. Where you may run into a problem with ULSD is using it in a older truck that has some miles on it. ULSD acts as a solvent and will dissolve varnish residues that accumulate on injector plungers as they wear. Once this varnish is dissolved, the tolerances between the plunger and bore increase which may lead to plunger scoring or overfueling. Cam actuated injectors such as those found in large diesel engine are more susceptible to this. Unit pumps such as what the 7.3 and 6.0 use aren't as susceptible to damage.

 

Use PM22, from your dealer, I think it's both ctane booster and a Fuel lubricant if your worried.

 

"Wasn't this a big issue when gasoline became unleaded? Turned out to be fine didn't it?"

Not really try to run an older engine lets say a 327 chevy. these engines were built with the extra lubrication in the fuel to help with valve lubrication, if you do not install hardened valve seats in the heads and install different valve seals the valves will wear very rapidly. This is why the make a lead substitute for the older cars that must be added to every drop of unleaded used in a non updated engine. My dad has a 03 Dodge 3500 with a cummins , and last week it just stalled out and had only enough power to run at most 25 mph. Took it to the shop and the code in ecm was for fuel flow malfunction , the use of ULSD over the last 3 or 4 months had almost destroyed the injector pump assembly. Cummins is aware of this problem and sells an additive to make ULSD meet the lubricating needs of the older engines. This additive is 16.00 a qt and will treat 150 gallons. Luckily the mechanics were able to run the pump on a mix of trans fluid and fuel and it came back around and truck is as fine as it ever was, but it was close to a 2100.00 reapir bill just becausde of this little problem. But I would agree that ford has the hind sight to prepare for this when all of this was engineered. So it should not be a problem for us with a 6.4L but the 6.0 and older guys you may need to check if International has a recomended additive as well.

 

I used Ford's addtive in my older 06 6.0L PSD and I didn't have problem with it when they whiched over to new ULSD. All the station around my area all have ULSD in the pumps.