What scares me is that water gets into diesel fuel all the time especially during winter months. And, it gets into our tanks all the time. Last couple years I have had to drain water out of my 6.0L F450 several times during the winter. This whole subject scares the bejesus out of me. where is that test strip we need to test fuel?

 

the word "premium" on a diesel pump means nothing,as the "clean" does.
i can verify a regularly used diesel station here uses anything but "clean" fuel,thanks to my see through stainless steel filter on an aftermarket electric fuel pump.



"In North America, most states adopt ASTM D975 as their diesel fuel standard and the minimum cetane number is set at 40, with typical values in the 42-45 range. Premium diesels may or may not have higher cetane, depending on the supplier."

source:
Cetane number - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


as for asking the person behind the counter anything about their diesel fuel; save your breath.you'll only get the deer in the headlight stare.

i once got such a bad dose of water,my truck ran soo bad it had to downshift to 1st gear on a hill.luckily this was before my new injection pump and injectors (which are medium ware items on the old school 7.3l idi engine)
but,it took out my injectors on my wood chipper.
as for trying to get the station to pay for the damage? your kidding right.didn't even waste my time trying.


i would not want to drive a modern diesel engine today with such poor diesel standards in the US.i feel for you boys.


not so.
we used my fathers truck ('08 f350 6.4l psd) to tow my truck home a couple years ago when i bought it out of state.
we fueled up in a major city and got a bad batch of diesel.the truck struggled towing my truck on a trailer part way down the interstate and didn't clear up until we ran the tank low and fueled back up.by struggle,i mean less power than my old school 7.3l idi without turbo.
thought we'd be trading truck positions there for a bit.

the cetane rating does not pertain to the cleanliness or lubricity factory of the fuel.
(but you lucky sob lol.wish i could get that stuff here.if their statements are true about their fuel.......you should be golden.)


winter diesel fuel is cut with #1 (aka; Kerosene.)

"Number 1 fuel oil is a volatile distillate oil intended for vaporizing pot-type burners.[1] It is the kerosene refinery cut that boils off right after the heavy naphtha cut used for gasoline. Older names include coal oil, stove oil and range oil."

source of definition:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_oil

 

Im an EMS Helicopter pilot in West Virgina. Our company policy in regards to getting Jet fuel away from home base is to do a "white bucket" test. Take about a 1/2 gal or so of fuel from the sump, put it into a white bucket (usually a ceramic lining) and look for water and obvious contaminates. Its not uncommon to see a little bit of water, and by a little bit, I mean 9 or 10 drops in the bottom of the bucket. On rare occasion rust and all sorts of other crap will show up!

I guess maybe we need to start keeping a white bucket in the back of the truck...

We do have our own fuel farm at the base. So when we get a load of fuel the driver provides a print out of the fuel. It contains the type and quantity of contamination as well as the sulfur content (Jet A is about 600PPM). Im sure gas stations get something similar.

As it was said above, I cant belive that a company would design an engine/fuel system that required fuel quality that is above center mass of comercial availibilty.

Leo

 

Thats a unique idea. The white would highlight anything in there that is abnormal. I would be curious how the water shows up. Is it just a bit of fog on the bottom? If you sample fuel with a clear glass bottle you can see it from the side as a smoky/foggy layer. If there is a low percentage its very hard to tell its even in there.

 

I am from Australia so this is more relevant to me, but it notes how Caltex would prefer to use the EU standards for Cetane than the US standard.

http://www.environment.gov.au/atmosp...ubs/caltex.pdf

http://www.environment.gov.au/atmosp...ubs/cetane.pdf

It seems our current min of 46 is better than what you guys are getting and my engine in my 6.7 built for the US market is possibly better suited to Australia and Europe.

 

The fuel your buying at the gas pumps is 15ppm ultra low sulphur diesel.

 

Yup. Our Jet A is just over the LSD threshold. I just thought Id toss that figure in.

 

My 2011 6.7 diesel has been sitting in a Ford Dealership shop waiting to be repaired now for 2 weeks. Ford motor company refuses to replace the fuel pump citing "Contaminated Fuel". According to the Dealer this is a $12,000.00 repair. Woah! Im still dizzy. My truck had 58,000 miles on it when the first fuel pump started making a loud whirring sound. At that time Ford replaced the fuel pump and installed 2 new fuel filters at their expense. This was in October 2012. I had the oil and fuel filters changed again in December 2012. On February 15th of 2013, at 63000 miles,I was driving down the road when the engine out of no where just died. Been running just fine. Called Ford Dealer and had it towed to the shop at my expense. They took a sample of the fuel and it was fine. They then pulled out some sensor and called ford. The sensor showed a brown tint on the metal surface meaning, according to Ford," Fuel Contamination". I've been buying my fuel at the same place for years and I presently own 3 other diesel trucks that have over 100,000 miles on them with no problems using the same fuel. According to the mechanic at the Ford dealership they have had alot of problems with the 6.7 fuel system and Ford refuses to make the proper fixes. My so called "Fuel contamination light" has never come on warning me of such disastrous consequenses of contaminated fuel. I turned this over to my insurance company to no avail. Meanwhile my truck just sits. Hope someone needs a 50000.00 trotline weight. Look on the internet this has been a freQuent problem with the 6.7 and will continue till Ford owns up to their mistake and takes responsibility for their product. I had 2 other Fords and just sold them. Ford Im done with u guys!

 

Lets get this back on track from the I'm pissed at Ford post.

I went through the thread and found nothing as far as micron ratings on the fuel filters on this truck. Has anyone managed to locate them? If so what are they?

I'm a heavy equipment mechanic, and all of our stuff since tier 3 engines came out have been using 2 micron absolute filters and 10 micron prefilters. It seems to me like the auto industry is seroiusly lacking in the filtration department, the fuel filters on an off road cummins 6.7 are significantly larger in overall size and filter media than anything the auto industry has. The fuel filter on my soon to be gone 5.9 cummins dodge is an absolute joke compared to what is on the heavy equipment.

Has anyone looked around on the GM boards and seen similar issues? The new Duramax is also running a CP4 injection pump. Whats their filtration look like?

I know that some of the Dodge guys had sucess in installing 2 micron Caterpillar fuel filters on the 5.9 trucks, has anyone tried that, either themselves or aftermarket for the 6.7? I'm looking to get mine ordered up in about 2 weeks, just trying to see if anyone else has dug into this and found answers before i dig into it.

 

Ford should produce an engine and fuel delivery system that runs with what is supplied without making the consumer ask if they diesel is good or not.

 

Well that sux! Sorry to hear of your trouble. I wish this problem would go away. Oh yeah, welcome aboard.

A couple of questions if you don't mind. Did you use any fuel additive? If so, when did you start and how frequent? Also, what brand of additive? You mentioned that at 58,000 miles your fuel pump began to make a whirring noise. Was that the low pressure fuel pump, or the high pressure fuel pump?

 

I was told that the filters are as following for the micron. Frame mounted= 5 micron, engine mounted = 2 micron.

 

Ron, No Ive never used any additives at all. It was the low pressure pump back in October that was changed

 

I'd be interested in knowing if anybody can put this whole fuel contamination situation into prospective. While I feel for the people who have experienced Ford's denial of warranty because of "contaminated fuel" and I agree Ford should suck it up and honor it's warranty, how many times has this actually happened?

How many 6.7L trucks has Ford produced and how many of those will ever experience the problem (crystal ball not withstanding)?

Auxiliary vehicle mounted tanks were mentioned as a possible source of contaminated fuel. Has anyone experienced or heard of a warranty denial because of an after market fuel tank? (this interests me because I'm having a Transfer Flow 50 gallon in-bed tank installed next week.)

 

It seems to me that if there are enough customers experiencing these warranty denials, they should discuss potential legal action somewhere else because it's against the rules here on FTE.