I have an '06 6.0 with 15,000 miles on it. I have run Bio in it since it was new-(B100 in summer and blends in the winter).The other night on my way home from doing some running around it started running rough-(like it was not running on all cylinders if it was a gas engine) I stopped at a stop sign put it in neutral gave it a little gas and it seemed to smooth out. I then continued down the road, in about another mile I was barely able to get it off the road. I got it into a parking lot and called my wife to come get me. It was the coldest it has been so far this winter around 18* or so. Since it has 15,000 mi. on it and I still had the original fuel filter in it I thought it could be that. So I changed the filters and tried to start it back up. It ran for about 30-40 seconds then died again and would not start. I then thought that maybe I didn't have enough blend in it for how cold it was so I had it towed to my garage, let it sit overnight in the warm garage added 10 gal. of diesel and tried again in the morning. Still no start, checked the fuel pump fuse it's OK, checked everything I could think of with the fuel system but still nothing.
Had it towed to the Ford dealer. The next day the dealer called me and told me the fuel pump was bad they replaced it and it was covered under warranty.

My question is... Do you think it could have been the Bio that caused the premature failure of the pump. I use Magnesol in my bio process. After cleaning it through the 5 & 1 micron sock filters I pump it through a in line 10 micron then 2 micron than a 1 micron absolute filter. So I don't believe it could be that. But I have noticed that the B100 seem's to be thicker than diesel could that have caused it.
Or could it just been a bad pump...Any ideas???

 

Your bio should be the save viscosity as dino. Check with Fabman, mine is but im in AZ with warmer temps.

What was the outside temp?
WVO is guaranteed to take out a pump (it did on mine) so if the transvercification process failed its just super clean veggie. Cut up your percentage a little, I know that the dealers up north dont sell in winter because of the gellling issues they have. Personally I bet your doing everything right and its just a bad pump. Mine went after 400k miles and 1 tank of WVO. New one is just fine bio or dino. 522k miles plus on the truck now.

 

The temp that night was around 18*, but even in the summer it seemed the bio was thicker than diesel. Thats why I was thinking the pump may have been working harder.

 

Soy bio B100 with get very thick at 40 degrees. My fuel supplier will not even deliver B20 after Thanksgiving. Because of possible problems with gelling. I would say the B100 was gelled at 18 deg and starved the fuel pump. Might have done some other damage also. These engines like fuel and doesn't like to be hungry.
I would put some of your fuel into a sealed jar and place it out in the cold/freezer and see what happens.

 

B100 at 18 degrees is below the cloud point of most BD feed stocks.
I believe your assesment is correct.
With those temps you might want to run B 50 or lower.

 

Fab knows of a product that brings the gel point down even further. Maybe he will post it again or follow up.

 

I dont run bio yet but my fuel pump did the same thing to me around the same time. i was under warrenty so i didnt worry to much about it.. as for the bio working your pump harder.. sounds like it might have.. but thats just a guess.

jorylee

 

I guess I wasn't very clear on my fuel ratio's.

In the summer I was running B-100 which seemed to be thicker than regular diesel even at temps. around 75*.

When the fuel pump went to lunch I was running a blend of around 50/50 or so.

What I was really wondering is if the thicker than diesel viscosity of the B-100 could have caused the failure.

 

My pump got weak and died over a period of several weeks. It would hardly run on B100. Adding petro diesel to a level of B20 or so would clear up the problem. The pump eventually died and took the #1 injector with it. Fortunately it was under the 100K warranty.
You are correct that it is slightly higher in viscosity. On the lower end of the viscosity scale however a slight change in viscosity can be double or triple that of petro diesel. Drop the temperature a few degrees and it increases exponentially.
I don't know how sensitive these pumps are to higher viscosity. That is why I now limit my Bio level to 50% when I wxpect temperatures below 50°F. Only time will tell if this is necessary.

 

Thanks for the replys. I was thinking of thinning the B-100 with white kerosene(the stuff you use in those kero heaters) it's cheeper than diesel. Would that be ok?

 

Kerosene is used to winterize the diesel sold up north. From what I have read it is diesel purified to the next level. It has low lubricity, but running it with biodiesel should be no problem since it only takes a small quantity of bio to get the needed lubricity. Some of the guys on other web sites covering bio and waste oil are using a blend of waste veggie oil and kerosene in their rigs. Sooo looks like the mix you are proposing should work.

 

kerosene cheaper than diesel? I might have to look into that, last time I looked it was quite a bit more here.. but diesel has gone up quite a bit. Isn't #1 Diesel the same as kerosene?

 

I believe that is true. Just be prepared for lower mileage. I've heard you'll lose MPG's running #1. We don't use that down south so I didn't pay enough attention to remember the reason.

 

I read on some biofuel how-to site that a farmer was cutting his homemade B100 with dino-GASoline to help with gelling and overall viscocity. Has anyone here heard of this?

 

just a couple of gallons of unleaded thats all