The local jobber that I buy my red offroad fuel from has switched to biodiesel. My question is , is this stuff going to affect my fuel system on my 2007 takeuchi with a yanmar engine or is everything o.k. ??
Depending on usage.. and basically that's it.. you CAN NOT let it sit.. where ULSD will sit for a month w/ no adverse effect, bio will gel and separate and gum up the system in just a couple of weeks.. IF it were mine, I would find another supplier.. Your probably going to get a lot of armchair scientists answering this thread.. BUT.. how many have torn down & repaired 10's of thousands of injection systems?? Gel, separate & gum aren't the scientific terms for what happens to the fuel but you get the idea..
What percentage of biodiesel? Usually it's something like 2-5% which isn't nearly as bad. Biodiesel is more expensive than dino diesel, so hopefully it's a small percentage like that. Bio diesel is almost as bad as ethanol blend is for small engines. Chicken skin and algae are the technical terms thepumpguy was looking for , neither one is a desirable injection pump aid. Pumpguy, how many pumps do you see gummed up where they were running low percentages, or didn't know they had bought a blend?
I believe the sign said it was up to a 20% blend, but whatever it is, it sounds like I need to run the other way quickly!
Get away from that stuff quickly unless you have alot of fuel system cleaner you need to burn. I have had problems with a JD engine with only 4% bio mix.
Delmer, its hard to say what % the customers were using.. The ones I get in the mail from folks from the mid West smell like pure 100% Bio.. you can smell it before the box is even opened.. and I get cussed out by the mail carrier all the time.. 1 carrier puts them in THE BED of her p/u truck and wont touch the box.. another time 1 leaked & they wouldn't deliver it.. I had to go pick it up.. it stunk up the post office. Lol I wish I could find or had the service bulleten from Bosch.. it was a warranty letter to all dealers about the % of *alternative* fuel allowed in their fuel systems to be considered/denied for warranty.. the % was 5-10% total.. so I don't know where the govt gets off offering/dispersing 20% at the pump.??
If you live in very liberal states, i.e. California, Minnesota (and thats not my fault) you don't have a choice on the percentage of bio-diesel that you are mandated to use. Its not the perfect fuel, but it does work ok. Actually you may get better performance out of bio in some instances. I would have no qualms about using it. I have had it eat a fuel line off after extended usage and as the earlier stated , the shelf life is sucky. In my opinion it does not belong in fuel in cold climates. I have to run it at 5 percent(mandate) but have run it to 100percent. I would avoid it if I had the option, but like me you may not have that option.
I had a customer that tried it a few years back and found out a truck running Bio would not pass an emission test. They had a fleet of dump trucks that and the test trucks were failing. When they switched back to #2 they passed without any modification to the systems.