ULSD and old engines

[socaldmax]

Originally Posted by Sailmonkey

ULSD is supposed to be backwards compatible with older engines......
As to the other fuel....it's either regular old diesel or biodiesel...but not both. I'd be surprised if you find any biodiesel up the rio.


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That's what the refiners are going to say, only to get out of liability for damage to older diesels. The truth is, back when CA switched over to LSD, I had just gotten a used Toyota Corolla diesel with about 30k miles. In a very short time, the injection pump failed and I took it into a local diesel shop to get it repaired. When he told me it would take at least a month, possibly 2 to get it back, I was shocked. Then he showed me a very large lot, filled with older diesel cars and trucks, every one of them there because their injection pump failed from lack of lubricity. The shop that was rebuilding the pumps was overwhelmed with work. It was all due to lack of lubricity in the fuel.

When I got the car back, I started using additives for lubricity, and increased the dose when we went to ULSD. It may have been good for the environment but it cost us a lot of money in failed injection pumps.