Anyone have any advice on how many miles is just too many for a F250 Diesel? I found a 92' 4x4 Extended Cap, for $4500 with 213k miles on it, looks like it's in good condition, supposedly no impending repairs, and his brother is a Ford mechanic who has done all the work. 213k is a lot, but what does that mean in Ford Diesel mileage? I have another car, just looking for a fishing, camping, haul stuff to the dump, get the hell out of town when the next disaster hits, vehicle!

 

Give Interstate Oil Company a call, they have a distribution center in Redding and carry Biodiesel.

http://www.interstateoil.com/

 

The 7.3L PSD is quite capable of greater than 400K miles. Unlike a gasser the truck body is more likely to wear out than the engine. Just be sure the anti-cav has been kept up, the oil has been changed regular and often, pull the air intake tube at the turbo and check for dusting, and have the tranny checke if its auto.

This site has a bunch of info on what to look for in a used PSD

http://pages.prodigy.net/stevebaz/_i...az/index3.html

It is a very long page just keep scrolling, about 1/3 of the way down from the top. Look for a section titled "Buying Used Power Stroke Diesels"

 

Great info, thank you very much!

 

For info on biodiesel and fueling stations go to www.biodiesel.org

 

ronin,

I don't know why our Lower Mainland distributor has chosen B40 (40% blend).

When Biodiesel first started selling locally the choices were B5 B10 and B20. The choices now are B5 B20 and B40.

I guess as experience with biodiesel has increased so has the confidence and that is why we are now seeing higher ratio blends at our pumps.

B40 was beta tested last winter here on the Lower Mainland without any problems and the supplier decided to start selling it this spring commercially.

It usually does not get very cold around where I live as we are right on the Pacific. It may dip down to 25F occasionally during the winter, but for the most part it rains most of the time in the Vancouver area during the winter.

The biggest concern with higher ratio blends of Biodiesel is fuel gelling and separation. The biodiesel I buy is in-line blended with No. 1 diesel and if it get to cold will separate which is not good. Note, splash blends are a lot worse for separation than inline blends.

Once separated you will have biodiesel at the bottom of your tank and the light stuff on top.

I will see how the B40 will run this winter. One thing I have noticed already is the the colder the B40 the better the trucks seem to start and run quieter.

Next time I fill up I am planning on taking some B40 samples and maybe freeze them in my freezer to see at what point I get separation.

Seb....

 

Great Idea! More people should check their fuel. I take samples every 3-4 batches, and test for Cloud point, Pour point, Complete reaction, Soap,Etc.

Two of the worst samples I've seen were from Commercial Producers..............

Kudos to you for taking the time to test your own fuel



FABMANDELUX.

 

The only problem I would have is the wife.... Putting diesel fuel in the freezer... I would never hear the end of it.

 

Separation of BD and Petro should not be a problem. They are similar enough in molecular size, weight, and polarity to remain mixed.

As far as gelling goes I have heard that as little as 5% petro, or B95, should avoid the problem. I live in south Texas where it might freeze every other year so I haven't encountered that ptoblem

 

Yes but us northern folks who have wind chills to -30 or more with actual temp of 0 to -20 need to know for sure or be stranded along the road or at work until spring thaw.

 

Wrap it up in an opaque package and tell her its frozen chicken guts you are gonna use for bait the next time you go fishing

 

That's ok, my wife does not know the difference between salad oil and diesel oil. I will just put it in a salad oil bottle and stick it in the freezer that way.

If she asks me why I put the salad oil in the freezer I just use my usual excuse about going senile. She has no problem with that one; lately I have been wondering myself about that as I pass thru the midlife crisis I am going thru.

No worries about getting diesel in the salad, she is a meat and potatoes kind of gal.

Seb....

 

Well, I finally got some B40 into my freezer over the weekend and was quite suprised what came out two hours later.

The B40 basically turned into semi-hard margerine. I put the B40 into a 500ml plastic bottle and when you squeezed the bottle the "margerine" broke into clumps. Clearly this stuff would completely freeze up your injection system. There is no chance of it flowing anymore. As near as I can tell my freezer runs at about 20-25 deg.F.

Note, a hour after I took the bottle out of the freezer it was a clear liquid oil again.

The good news is that I had expected the Bio and Diesel to separate, this did not happen and the B40 stayed a uniform mix.

As a precaution I put a small bottle into the cab of my truck and sure enough we had the first frost this morning (~30F) when I got up. I took a quick look at my test bottle and you could see some minor clouding in the liquid. The truck started fine and ran fine all moring.

Anybody got any good additives that would help me lower the freeze point to minimize the risk of freezing up my truck this winter while running B40? (Methanol, Diesel Antifreeze, ???????, would any of the usual diesel additive help here, i.e. stanadyne formular, diesel tone, Lucas, FTP, Diesel Kleen, etc..)


Seb....

 

Here's a site to locate a biodiesel station close to you.
http://www.biodiesel.org/buyingbiodi...s/default.shtm

 

Ronin, in looking at the biodiesel.org map and MapPoint, it looks like the closest Biodiesel retailer to you, may be over on the coast in Arcata.