Driver:Audi 5000TDI
Miles:486
Gallons:9.679
Model Year:1996
Modelassat
Tranny:M5
Fuel type: B3 w/Flying J Pre Katrina D2 Summer Blend w/ 3 oz/10gallons Power Service Gray Fuel conditioner.
MPG 50.21
This is the first time I've run Shell Rotella T Synthetic 5w-40.... A noticeable improvement in MPG right off the get go. I'm guessing about 2 to 3 % increase in MPG.
I really think the summer blend fuel here that comes out around August is high calorie fuel. The Flying J brand stuff had a really syrup brown color to the fuel, and was good quality stuff. Not the clear watery fuel or the Chartreuse green no foam fuel thats been severly hydrotreated to get the sulfur content down to 15ppm
Next tank should again yield 50 or better mpg, but that might be January before I fill up again.
Usual stuff... 65mph indicated, 62 actual, coasting down hills where safe or practical, no drafting of big rigs, I just bought a brand new windscreen, the last one took a rock. Tires aired to 32 psi.
Added Note: Most all of this tank was run with cooler temperatures and relatively high relative humidity, about 55 to 80% with an onshore fog/flow, as was Ernies 790 mile trip to Fresno, CA... if it matters to those that count for elements to economy in mpg.
I am a firm believer that the quality of the ULSD fuel we are getting here in tropical Southern CA is of a good grade and a quite high cetane rating from the major suppliers.
Here's a little bit of backround about BP/Arco's ULSD development here in CA...
60 Cetane rating!!!!
http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/servicerpt/ulsd/chapter3.html
and a clip from the above...
In 1999 Arco announced that it would produce a premium diesel fuel— which Arco termed “EC Diesel”—at its Carson, California, refinery.50 EC Diesel is a “super clean” diesel designed to meet the needs of fleets and buses in urban areas. The reported quality attributes include less than 10 ppm sulfur, less than 10 percent aromatics, and 60 cetane, among others.51 Arco indicated that the crude slates of the Carson refinery would remain unchanged, with only the operating conditions modified. The refinery had to selectively take out a sulfurous, aromatic cycle oil feed stream to the diesel unit and repeat this every few days for batches. If continuous production were required, a major capital investment would have to be made. In April 2000, Equilon also announced that its Martinez refinery in Northern California could provide ULSD for fleet use in that region of the State.52 The challenge of producing ULSD from feedstocks that are difficult to desulfurize is well represented by the experience of Lyondell-Citgo Refining (LCR) at its refinery in Houston, Texas. In 1997 the refinery moved to a diet of 100 percent Venezuelan crude.53 The gravity of the crude oil was less than 20 oAPI, and it was highly aromatic. To produce suitable quality low-sulfur diesel product the refinery had revamped a hydrotreater to SynSat operation in 1996 and then converted to SynShift in 1998. The revamped hydrotreater has a capacity of 50,000 barrels per day and consists of a first-stage reactor operating at 675 psig pressure, a high-pressure stripper, and a second-stage reactor that uses a noble metal catalyst. The feed to the unit is a blend of light cycle oil (LCO), coker distillate, and straight-run distillate (approximately equal volumes) with 1.4 percent sulfur by weight, 70 percent aromatics, and a cetane number of 30. The product has about 40 percent aromatics, a cetane number of 38.5, and sulfur content less than 140 ppm.
Citgo reported that the LCR hydrotreating unit was the largest reactor of its type when installed in 1996 and that the volume of catalyst in the unit, which had been 40,000 pounds in the old unit, had increased to 1.7 million pounds in the revamped unit. The diesel sulfur level produced in the unit reportedly met the 15 ppm sulfur cap at initial conditions at start of run, but as the desulfurization catalyst aged, the reactor temperature had to be revised to achieve target sulfur levels. If the revamped unit had to consistently meet a 15 ppm diesel sulfur limit, the cycle life could be greatly reduced from current operation, causing frequent catalyst replacement and more frequent shutdowns. Under the current mode of operation, the frequency of catalyst changeout is managed by reducing the cracked stocks in the feed to the unit. More frequent catalyst changeouts to meet a 15 ppm sulfur cap reportedly could raise the cost of diesel production.54