Fuel lubricity

I am not looking for a fight here but I thought this is interesting. People have mentioned that US fuel doesn't have the lubrication needed to keep our fuel pumps happy thus they use additives. I wondered about this just because of the fact that my sisters husband owns a construction company with many direct injected rotary pumped diesel engines and has never had a problem with pumps even on 25 year old equipment. Well I read a Bosch study and it is when they process the fuel to make it low sulphur that the problem occurs. Therefore California, and any states that have the low sulfur fuel should use additives but the rest of us are fine.

Oh and before the poop hits the fan,,, I am not saying that you shouldn't use additives. That is a personal choice. I am just informing people who don't use them and have wondered.

I know some pumps are more sensitive than others. The old Standyne DB2 pump on the GM 6.2L diesel was very much so, as I'm sure others are and are not.

I don't know if it is a fact or myth that the Bosch pump is sensitive, but some have speculated that it is. Therefore, and lubricity additive is going to help and certainly not hurt. My only question is how much is necessary.

It is very much the case that the process of removing sulfur from the fuel also lowers the lubricity and require additives to compensate.

I would assume the refinery would adjust its mixture to compenaste for this.

I doubt they would want customers to shift to a brand that is doing this adjustment.

Bottom line is, I am placin my bet that we won't have to be concerned......

I just took a trip to the US and I think we here in canada get spoiled with nicely refined DEEEEECEL. My car smoked the whole time down there. The car did not run the best. At least it was only 1.5 tanks thru the US. I found that our Irving Fuel is the best here. I still use "Turbo" Diesel additive from Irving. I noticed a huge difference in the pedal feel and performance. I only use a tiny bit since the bottle recommends 100ml for 227Litres of fuel. So about 2-3 ounces for you US guys.

On my trip to Waterfest, some truck drivers told me to use ATF fluid every 6 months. He said add about 1/2 a Qt to a full tank. Anyone here of this?

Andrew

Never ATF. I did try the ashless 2 cycle oil thing once.

I know some pumps are more sensitive than others.

Click to expand...

Some pumps are manly and others are sissies. It just depends on the color of the car.

US fuel may or maynot have the lubricity. Its a crapshoot.
There is no lubricity requirement in the diesel fuel spec.

Page 15 of this PDF file has the straight poop, right from Bosch, for fuel pumps. Granted, its a VP-44 pump, but you can decide if this is relevant.

http://www.arb.ca.gov/cbg/meeting/2003/022003bosch.pdf