So I'm expecting delivery of my first SD diesel within the next week. I'm sure there are threads out there already but can you guys help with with the regen question? I've heard a lot of issues with regen but I really don't know what causes it and what to do when it does happen. Please let me know a little "regen 101" information. Thank you

 

Regens are a fact of life now with diesel vehicles. Just drive it and not worry about regens as they will happen automatically. If you by chance have a problem, you will get a notice pop up in the center display.

Remember this if nothing else....Forums magnify a problem.....The member of a forum are minuscule compared to the owners of diesel vehicles the forum is about.

So, a forum has 1200 members and Ford has sold millions of vehicles with the 6.7 - 0.1 percent of owners with these figures on the website forum. Also, somone might be a member of multiple forums and post the same problem on all of them. So, the problems tend to get magnified.

 

Regens happen during the course of your systems cleaning the soot from your DPF (diesel particulate filter). Essentially it uses exhaust heat to burn away accumulated soot. If your Exhaust isn't hot enough to do this because of a light load, the system will dump extra fuel into the exhaust stream to cause a blowtorch like effect going down the pipe.

 

Regens happen for 2 reasons, the DPF is full or at 500 miles. I'm not sure about problems you've read about, the only real problems I've read about since I've joined have been the DPF needing to be replaced on trucks with over 100,000 miles on them. And as Larry said, it's only a small sample size. You might consider using a fuel additive. I use Motorcraft PM22A, many use Enerburn, some use others, most use nothing. One of the things a fuel additive does is increase cetane, higher cetane increases the temperature of the combustion burning more fuel reducing the junk that makes it to the particulate filter. My truck makes it to the 490s before it regens. You can also ask your Ford dealer or use Forscan to enable the DPF % full screen in your information center. I work from home and no longer commute with my truck and typically use it for "around town" driving only. Not really ideal for regens. In order for a regen to start the truck has to be "up to temperature". I use the DPF % full screen to know when I need to take a ride. But as folks have said, Regens are a fact of life on all diesel vehicles. 90 - 95% of the time there are no issues, they just happen.

 

Additives have different purposes. PM22a is mostly for lubricity for long fuel pump life, but has little cetane booster. Enerburn is a combustion catalyst to reduce soot via a cleaner burn but provides no lubricity. My personal favorite is Opti-Lube Summer Plus that provides great lubricity and a 5-7 point cetane boost for cleaner burn and fuel mileage. It is also one of the cheapest to use and highest rated. I use Enerburn as well.
Cleaner burning means more complete combustion and less soot which reduces the frequency of regens. If you travel long distances, regens are less of a concern and take care of themselves. Short trips and slow speeds can eventually result in problems. It is helpful to have the %DPF Full screen added (sometimes known as forced regen option) to know when a regen is about to occur and when it is over. They can last from 12 to 30 miles, and if not completed, will cause another one to happen sooner. A regen uses about 1/2 gallon of fuel.

 

How much cetane boost is sufficient and at what point does it not provide any additional benefits?

The reason I ask is I use PM-22 in every tank, tow a trailer around town with some short trips and with a bit of hwy thrown in and I see 450-475mi between regens. I fuel up at the same station 90% of the time because it's right across the street from the house with a truck island with DEF @ the pump which is helpful with a trailer in tow. On the pump they advertise "XtremeDiesel". Looking at the small print, XtremeDiesel consists of a Cetane Boost, Slick Diesel Lubricator, HPCR Detergent Technology (not sure what this means), and Winterized During Cold Months. There is also a Power Service Logo and a sticker stating Biodiesel Blend between 5%-20%.

If PM-22 doesn't provide much cetane boost but I'm getting near the 500mi required regen point, is it due to the combination of PM-22 and PowerService and Bio that is pushing my truck that high? Or is it something else?

 

Probably undetermined. Most of the US is 40. However, CA requires 51 and east Texas 48 for air quality. European standards are 51-55 so I guess that is a good indicator. Soot reduction is good for your truck as well as the environment even if you've deleted. I get about a 1 mpg improvement with Opti-Lube Summer Plus.