Diesel fuel as fuel system cleaner?

[Loobed]

I remember someone posting a link where some guy was trying to make a SeaFoam alternative by using Diesel fuel. I was looking around the Hy-per Lube website and noticed the had a "TOTAL FUEL SYSTEM CLEANER." I looked at the MSDS and 80-90% of the ingredients is Diesel fuel #2. The MSDS says this is a "Gasoline Performance Additive."

http://www.hyperlube.com/images/HPF200-Fuel-System-Cleaner-MSDS.pdf

What do you guys think of using Diesel fuel to clean your gasoline fuel system? I know some guys (when I was in high school) that siphoned diesel fuel from a truck and put it in their car, and the motor got damaged.

 

[NHGUY]

If you put too much in,you will grow big blobs of carbon deposits on your spark plugs and the engine will conk out.The amount thats in an additive wont be enough to stall the engine.

 

[Clevy]

I read an article about 10 years ago. It was to the effect that some Europeans were cutting gasoline up to 25% with diesel(when diesel was substantially less than gasoline). Apparently at this ratio it didn't do any harm and fuel economy was roughly the same as straight gas. apparently it was ok in obi-1 and carburated engines.
I don't know that I put much stock in the whole idea. I would think that the emissions equipment would go crazy and if it worked it would have gotten a bit more mainstream,or the cost of diesel just caught up with gasoline and made it no longer cost effective.
Diesel is a dirty fuel anyways. I don't know how that would clean any better than ethanol does. Now that we have ethanol polluted fuels a fuel system cleaner isn't even necessary anymore. Now their may be valve deposits however the actual fuel lines and injector tips should be fine.
Ethanol does clean really well,and sucks in gasoline. All this insanity with the EPA and fuel economy yet we accept ethanol laced fuels which have less btu's which means we need to burn more of it to get the same distance.
Why not just forget ethanol and mileage will increase. Have dedicated pumps and make it cheaper,so the public can decide with their wallets if they want to use it. Like substantially cheaper,or why bother. It's not like the addition of ethanol really makes a dent in the actual dependence on foreign oil.

 

[Loobed]

What does it do? I know people use it to clean parts. #2 Diesel costs about $4 a gallon. Why would someone buy that stuff at $7 for 16oz ($56 gallon) when they could just buy Diesel fuel at the pump for less. Does the other minute ingredients activate something in the diesel fuel?

This is what they advertise: "'Hy-Per Fuel Total Fuel System Cleaner contains the highest concentration of high tech synthetic cleaners which will clean your entire fuel delivery system including the intake manifold, intake valves, fuel injectors, carburetors and combustion chambers."

Highest concentration of diesel fuel would be more appropriate.

 

[Lead Shoes]

There is a lot of talk on MPG enthusiast forums that cutting in diesel at a 10%-50% ratio provides a benefit of more MPG, with some downsides, but this is all speculation and I have yet to see any studies done on it other than people testing ratios at 5 tank intervals to draw conclusions.

I wouldn't try it unless some serious testing was done and proved to be beneficial with out damaging the longevity of the vehicle.

 

[Donald]

I go for 100% diesel in my Cummins engine.

 

[Clevy]

Originally Posted By: Loobed


What does it do? I know people use it to clean parts. #2 Diesel costs about $4 a gallon. Why would someone buy that stuff at $7 for 16oz ($56 gallon) when they could just buy Diesel fuel at the pump for less. Does the other minute ingredients activate something in the diesel fuel?

This is what they advertise: "'Hy-Per Fuel Total Fuel System Cleaner contains the highest concentration of high tech synthetic cleaners which will clean your entire fuel delivery system including the intake manifold, intake valves, fuel
injectors, carburetors and combustion chambers."

Highest concentration of diesel fuel would be more appropriate.



Ha. Funny
Originally Posted By: Brenden
There is a lot of talk on MPG enthusiast forums that cutting in
diesel at a 10%-50% ratio provides a benefit of more MPG, with some downsides, but this is all speculation and I have yet to see any studies done on it other than people testing ratios at 5 tank intervals to draw conclusions.

I wouldn't try it unless some serious testing was done and proved to be beneficial with out damaging the longevity of the vehicle.

Maybe that's where I read it. Gassavers.com or something maybe.
On a carb'd engine I may try it in one of our compressors since I've got their run times pretty much figured on hours per tank. On a new vehicle I assume it would confuse the emissions system since when diesel burns it would leave a different signature for the 02 sensors to read.
I wonder if maybe that would help fuel economy. The ecu would be trying to get the exhaust gasses to read what is in it's memory and perhaps to achieve that the ecu has to lean out the a/f ratio when diesel is added.
But then that opens a whole new can of worms to figure out the ratio diesel/gasoline. And would using premium vs regular affect it as well.
Sound complicated.

 

[Chris142]

I suspect that diesel could possibly damage the catalytic converter. My jeep has $2400 worth of Cats on it so I'm not going to try this.

Plus Diesel is $.20 a gallon more than gas is.

 

[RiceCake]

Fuel injector cleaners often use a bunch of kerosene as a carrier for other additives, since kerosene burns fine and isn't as restricted for commercial products as gasoline would be.

As a result of that, people started pointing at kerosene as a cleaning agent, and diesel is cheap and much like kerosene, so it became more and more hyped through telephone tag that diesel cleans.

Unfortunately, it doesn't really clean, definitely nowhere near as good as real solvents and additives can, so I wouldn't be using it for 'redneck injector cleaner' to say the least.

The other supposed benefit of diesel is its oilyness, meaning it should help lubricate things. But again, with ultra low sulfur diesel these days, plenty of that added lubricity is gone.

Adding diesel to gasoline itself in small doses will reduce the octane number you're running. I think the "supposed" MPG gains are moot, most I've ever seen are well within margins of error. Any gains would be because diesel has more energy content (its a heavier, denser fuel), but not by a lot. Diesel is cheaper in some places though, like Canada, so I suppose if you can get the same MPG by cutting diesel in your gas, you could save a few bucks...at the cost of having to [censored] around and get diesel and gas, as well as the other problems.

The other problems: the engine pinging, knocking, causing plug fouling, and generally ruining your catalytic convertor because diesel exhaust isn't friendly to three-way catalytic convertors found on cars.

In other words mix in a tiny bit of diesel if you wanna get rid of it...but I'd never make a fun pass time of doing it intentionally.

 

[Lead Shoes]

Originally Posted By: Chris142
I suspect that diesel could possibly damage the catalytic converter. My jeep has $2400 worth of Cats on it so I'm not going to try this.

Plus Diesel is $.20 a gallon more than gas is.


So glad MN doesn't have emissions checks so I can run my 4-1 header right to my HKS hi power muffler

 

[JHZR2]

Current ULSD is actually cleaner than gasoline in terms of "poisons", and there are plenty of aromatics and heavies in there to lubricate. The benzothiophene type molecules that would complex with nickel to form lubricious phases are a moot point here...

Still not sure Id try it, Im not seeing why besides that some of the components in the fuel could serve like a UCL, and perhaps some would be beneficial for solving certain deposits...

 

[getnpsi]

Some gas stations put e-85 in old diesel tanks. The ethanol fuel cleans the diesel tanks and black goo gets in your cars fuel system. This is not saying that diesel at pumps sold fulltime has stuff in suspension that will turn to goo when mixed with gasoline in your tank, but that scared me enough to not do it. If i had a gallon of diesel i had to lose id mix it in a 2 stroke a little at a time before my petrol daily driver.