B20 in 2003 TDI

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I recently bought a new to me 2003 Jetta TDI with 270,000 miles. The car runs ok but does seem to have a few hiccups and blow some black smoke while climbing a small incline on the interstate at 65mph. I doubt the previous owner ever put a cleaning additive into his the fuel. Will it hurt anything/is it beneficial to run a tank of B20 through this car to try and provide some cleaning to the fuel system?
 
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I don't think that engine is biodiesel approved. I could be wrong though. I usually see those tdi's blowing black smoke. kinda thought that was more normal. I'd try a diesel additive. And make sure the fuel filters are changed.
 
I say its lack of sulphur in todays diesel fuels.Without that lubricant,rubber seals will dry out/crack,shrink....etc I have seen,and smelt many a diesel that when new runs clean and with nary a fume,fast forward a couple years and they are smoking and smelling like diesels of old.While they may last 200-300K miles,most of those are dirty,smelly miles.
 
You don't need anywhere near 20% to get it to clean things out some. And you need to make sure this time of year what standards it conforms to. If you get something with too low of a cloud point and it gels in your fuel lines, the engine will not start until you either remove the biodiesel from the fuel system or the ambient temperature rises.
 
Originally Posted By: NHGUY
I say its lack of sulphur in todays diesel fuels.Without that lubricant,rubber seals will dry out/crack,shrink....etc I have seen,and smelt many a diesel that when new runs clean and with nary a fume,fast forward a couple years and they are smoking and smelling like diesels of old.While they may last 200-300K miles,most of those are dirty,smelly miles.


On that vehicle with the miles on it, I would just use one of the top fuel additives with injector cleaner.

Sulfur in diesel was not the lubricant. It was the process of removing the sulfur that removed the lubricity qualities. How would one then explain how biodiesel, which has no sulfur of any measurable amounts, has such high lubricity that no additive on the market can touch it with a 10 foot pole. The lubricity level of biodiesel at just 5% blend exceeds the lubricity of 500 ppm LSD, let alone the 15 ppm ULSD that is available now.
 
It's not gonna hurt anything to run b20. I would run it all the time if I could but finding around my parts isn't that easy. Supposedly you can run b100 in our alh's. I would be willing to try it. I use tcw3 combined with power service white bottle in the winter or silver bottle in all other times of the year. As others have said, your problem could be a clogged intake or maybe limp mode. Check out tdi club. Those people are lifesavers when it comes to our tdi's!
 
Originally Posted By: NHGUY
I say its lack of sulphur in todays diesel fuels.Without that lubricant,rubber seals will dry out/crack,shrink....etc I have seen,and smelt many a diesel that when new runs clean and with nary a fume,fast forward a couple years and they are smoking and smelling like diesels of old.While they may last 200-300K miles,most of those are dirty,smelly miles.


Sulfur was NOT the source of the lubricity in diesel. The process to remove sulfur removed the lubricity qualities of diesel. Biodiesel, which has virtually no sulfur, will add tremendous amounts of lubricity to diesel, and do so in small quantities. A simple B2 bio blend will take ULSD diesel lubricity to LSD levels. A B5-B10 blend will exceed lubricity of pre LSD levels, or better than the "old diesel" we had in the early 90's.

Each area of the country is different, but almost everything around me for the last 5-6 years has had a B5 bio blend in diesel. I have yet to fuel at any major truck stop chain in the last few years that hasn't had bio blend diesel at the pump as the only diesel. I haven't seen a non bio diesel at any of the major truck stops in years. That is from Colorado to Virginia, from Minnesota to S. Carolina, and everything in between. My last two semi trucks have never seen anything but at least a B2 blend in them, and mostly B5 or greater.
 
Trucker, If the diesel fuel is B5, aren't they supposed to reveal that on the pump??
I stopped at a lot of Pilots across the country this past summer and I don't remember seeing it on the pumps at the auto pumps.
 
Originally Posted By: TiredTrucker
Originally Posted By: NHGUY
I say its lack of sulphur in todays diesel fuels.Without that lubricant,rubber seals will dry out/crack,shrink....etc I have seen,and smelt many a diesel that when new runs clean and with nary a fume,fast forward a couple years and they are smoking and smelling like diesels of old.While they may last 200-300K miles,most of those are dirty,smelly miles.


Sulfur was NOT the source of the lubricity in diesel. The process to remove sulfur removed the lubricity qualities of diesel. Biodiesel, which has virtually no sulfur, will add tremendous amounts of lubricity to diesel, and do so in small quantities. A simple B2 bio blend will take ULSD diesel lubricity to LSD levels. A B5-B10 blend will exceed lubricity of pre LSD levels, or better than the "old diesel" we had in the early 90's.



That's not entirely true....

Neat biodiesel has lubricity equal to ULSD, the added lubricity comes from impurities in biodiesel, namely mono-, di- and triglycerides. There are quite a few studies confirming this.

So as biodiesel production will become cleaner, the lubricity will drop again. You just can't be sure how lubricious your biodiesel blend is...

That said, just like motoroil it doesn't matter how the blend is made only the end result matters. B20 will likely have enough impurities in it to assure proper lubrication, this isn't always true for B5.
 
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Originally Posted By: loneryder
Trucker, If the diesel fuel is B5, aren't they supposed to reveal that on the pump??
I stopped at a lot of Pilots across the country this past summer and I don't remember seeing it on the pumps at the auto pumps.


No. There is no requirement to disclose biodiesel level until it is higher than B5. So one might get B2-B5 or they may not be getting any bio. Only way to know is to ask the station manager.
 
I guess, Jetronic, the key thing to ask would be, "what would the motivation be to improve biodiesel refining process to remove the lubricity components?" They seem to offer a positive effect to ULSD, so not sure why they would want to increase cost of bio production to "clean" it up more and remove those lubricity qualities. You could very well be right, but not sure how they would be motivated to change the way they are doing it now. Kind of counter productive to increase the cost of refining and at the same time reduce the positive aspect of the fuel you are refining.

Either way, at this point in time, bio offers positive lubricity qualities. It will be that way for a while.
 
because the unrefined biodiesel might push the finished mix out of the norm.

I'm thinking a lot of biodiesel isn't meeting the standards aswell, which could be good with regards to lubricity...
 
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