Diesel Fuel Additives

When do you use a diesel additive? And what products do you use?


I've been up and down on this and because of a lot of activity, I have chosen not to use additives. However, my usage over the next 6 months or so will be minimal so should I use an additive?


Yanmar

What does Yanmar say?


Caterpillar say use one when one of their fuel specs aren't met. Seems only logical compared to all the guessing by internet commandos.

I use Archoil AR6200 and have been for several years. I always add it when fueling and found it keeps fuel safe for at least a year of non use. Although that's not the main reason I use it. See attached. And I get somewhere around 6-10% better fuel economy. You can buy it online at archoil.com, amazon or eBay. Also at better marine stores,but much more expensive.

Paul,


Yanmar is silent of additives, however, we see that often with products that are 10 or 20 years old, and technology changes and there's better products out there.



Just wondering if there's something out there that should be considered.



I've seen that change in aviation fuel/oil additives.

I use Technol 403 summer fuel conditioner with every fillup. No smoking at all on my 4800 hr DD’s even at start up. I use it to improve lubricity since the ULSD is not as slippery as the old stuff.

For fifteen-plus years I've been satisfied with Power Service Diesel Kleen. They claim it increases cetane, helps clean injectors, and lubricates the fuel pumping machinery. (Note that it does not prevent low-temperature gelling - they have an alternative product for cold climates, which I don't need). https://powerservice.com

Widely available at truck stops and Wal-Mart. Last week my local Advance Auto Parts store had a good discount on the 32 oz. jug.

My observations: fuel consumption is reduced, exhaust produces less smoke and soot, and cold starts are easier. I feel like the engine is more responsive, but that's hard to quantify. The stuff smells awful, but otherwise no negatives to report.

Used Power Service Diesel Kleen in both my Ford truck and Ford Lehman on the boat.....never noticed one bit of difference now and have used it on and off for 18 years.


Have had the boat injectors out multiple times. Still deposits and still smoke.


But no performance differences with or without....especially increased economy.


All I can say is try it or any conditioner as it doesn't seem to me to good or bad....that is unless you have a specific issue to improve...and then use the correct treatment.

It appears that most of these positive responses come from folks that have been using additives for a number of years.

That raises my question. Is there any special consideration to using a diesel additive on a new to you boat? Say you buy a 20+yo boat with a diesel with 2500+hrs. Do you just all of a sudden start using an additive? Pros\Cons??

Positive responses from long term users of course are common.


People who use them "long enough" to see any effect and there is none...then why would they keep using them?


Convinced users are going to continue to use them long term because they are "convinced".... pretty common in many aspects of life.

It depends upon your engine makers requirement for fuel lubricity to keep the injection pump alive. In my case the DD’s were designed over 50 years ago when the properties of diesel fuel were very different to today’s ULSD. An additive is needed to replace the slipperiness removed when the sulphur was removed. Since the fuel is all that lubricates the injector pump and injectors it needs to have a certain minimum lubrication ability.

It’s not a blanket yes or no, you have to do some research. And I don’t mean just asking an Internet forum.......

BTW the previous owner used diesel kleen and I switched to Technol a year ago, since then there is no longer any smoke at start up of a cold engine like before.

I use Stanadyne Lubricity fuel treatment because the new fuels are ultra low sulphur and that decreases the lubrication in the engine overall. Do I notice a difference? Yes.......I sleep better.

I used whatever the manufacturer (in my case Detroit) recommended, which was nothing. If the fuel dock used ValvTec, I had no issue with that. Modern diesel fuels have lubricity additives.

I have been using Biobar for over 40 years and I can testify that I have never broke a ring, sucked a valve, run up on the rocks, been arrested, never replaced an engine and never ran into another boat so I’m convinced it is good stuff.

Bigsfish said:

I have been using Biobar for over 40 years and I can testify that I have never broke a ring, sucked a valve, run up on the rocks, been arrested, never replaced an engine and never ran into another boat so I’m convinced it is good stuff.

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If I could get someone like Watfa to look after me...I would use EVERY additive...

Scott

She’s available, just support her and feed her and she’s yours.

I've never used additives with Detroits or Cummins, with no ill effects.

I have been using Howe's Lubricator and anti-gel since my truck was new, some 226,000 miles ago.
It was recommended by a long haul trucker friend.

My boat PO was using diesel kleen, so I choose to continue with it...
I found some discounted at very cheap price nearby and have enough to serve me for at least the next 5 years considering my fuel usage.
Does it make any difference? No clue.
Why do I use it? Well at the beginning because the PO used it and found it cheap.

My take is that considering my engine this is making no difference. I have a 50+ years old engine that is able to run on anything barely similar to diesel (I read that some folks tried to burn oil and even tranny oil in it) so putting street car diesel in it should be far enough.

Would it be the same with a modern engine, not sure. But as I read somewhere, if it was really useful it would have been added directly to the diesel and considered as a sale argument...

L

Never used anything.
Zero crud in the 2020 racors and none when I drain the crud sump.

Snake oil, lol
Every one got a favorite, here's mine XM5 out of Saskatchewan, great additive for the engine oil and fuel, transmission and gear boxes, been using it for years no better on the market.
if your wanting to treat your fuel for algae and such Howes Diesel Fuel Conditioning and Anti Gel cant go wrong.
Detroit Diesel, longer you listen to one the quieter it gets!

Have you left the dock ?

One other thing you can do to improve your fuel, is run you old engine oil through a Coffey filter and put it in your fuel tanks, got that from a fish boat captain, Diesel engine called a Diesel after Rudolf Diesel the engine was designed to burn anything ( older Engines ) 20 gallons of used oil through the exhaust, 2 miles up the coast better than what they do with it in the recycle bin.

"One other thing you can do to improve your fuel, is run you old engine oil through a Coffey filter and put it in your fuel tanks, got that from a fish boat captain"

Chunks of crud taken out of used oil does not make the waste oil fuel.

It is still full of metal fines, carbon and acids.

Detroit Diesel has great photo material on engines RUINED by this practice.

Detroit Diesel has great photo material on engines RUINED by this practice.

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Yes, they very specifically prohibit this in the shop manual. The only time they recommend an additive is if you are going to store the boat for a long time, use something like Biobor then. They specify maximum sulfur content, but no minimum.

I once did an experiment about 10 years ago, where I collected fuel samples while refueling, from Ocean Petroleum in Brunswick GA, Port Consolidated in Fort Pierce, and Land and Sea (truck) in Ft. Lauderdale. Sent them off to Detroit's lab and they all met the lubricity standard handily.

Here you go: way more information than you may want to know, but read the section on additives, beginning page 83, but read especially the last page before the appendix. It may be useful for certain additives in very cold temperature environments, otherwise, you are just guessing. I used to add Stanodyne, but now add nothing at all. I’ve opened my tanks to look inside and they seem fine to me. I change my filters regularly and trust that the refiner and distributors have provided the correct lubricicty additives.

https://www.chevron.com/-/media/chevron/operations/documents/diesel-fuel-tech-review.pdf

Jim

I use Stabill and Biobor.
Never had any problems related to fuel quality.

caltexflanc said:

Yes, they very specifically prohibit this in the shop manual. The only time they recommend an additive is if you are going to store the boat for a long time, use something like Biobor then. They specify maximum sulfur content, but no minimum.

I once did an experiment about 10 years ago, where I collected fuel samples while refueling, from Ocean Petroleum in Brunswick GA, Port Consolidated in Fort Pierce, and Land and Sea (truck) in Ft. Lauderdale. Sent them off to Detroit's lab and they all met the lubricity standard handily.

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ULSD was rolled out in 2007 afaik, was that the fuel you had tested?

I've been in the diesel engine business for 20+ years. The additives I use and recommend are.... nothing.

One exception is biocide if you can't get all the water out of the bottom of your tank.

Most diesel injection systems, most of the injection system is oil lubed, not fuel lubed. Except for CAV pumps and Bosch VE pumps and Cat 3208 and most common rail, all fuel lubed. The plunger, barrel and injection nozzle valve are pretty tolerant of varying lube quality of the fuel.

Regarding running waste lube oil as fuel, I did an experiment on an old diesel hurricane gennie in my shop. Put about 10%(??) old lube in the fuel. Ran fine, no smoke, no weirdness.

About 24hrs later the gennie trips off line. Walk out to the shop and it had blown the sump load of oil out the blowby tube. What a mess. Refilled the sump and it would not start. Rings stuck!! I did a chemical treatment to unstick the rings, that worked, and I got it back on line. Had to get rid of that fuel.

Experiment was over!! Not going to try that again.

I think a few % might be ok, but not going to take the chance.

Woodland Hills said:

ULSD was rolled out in 2007 afaik, was that the fuel you had tested?

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Diesel fuel in late 2009 and early 2010.

If you are paranoid about it it's easy to have tested. It's not the sulfur itself that is the lubricating agent, by the way.