Well I've only owned my Dmax for a little over a month(see Signature for disc. of truck). I have used the same Fueling station untill the otherday. A station in town had there Fuel about 8 cents a gal cheeper so I filled up. For the next 8-10 day I felt like I lost all the Power I had when I bought the truck. 2 days ago I went back to my regular station and WOW I have power again. Can fuel make that much of a difference or is it my imagination.





PS. The power is well worth the extra $$.Edited by: Baloo

There is fuel that is smoother and more powerfull. Alot of the premium diesel has an additive put in it at the station. Some are betters than others.

Baloo


It has been documeneted in some fuel test that even the minimum cetane rating had not been achieved. Some fuels have lower ratings due to how there processed IIRC. The Cetane index is used to rate diesel fuel 40 being the minimum and 50 Being the high. I think it can exceed 50, but it has no more effect on the power output IIRC. I personally wouldn't go back to that station again as you are probably getting very dirty fuel or it's contaminated in some other way, unless it just has a poor cetane index ( just my opinon ). I would probably replace my fuel filter if it ran that poorly as you may have had some major contaminat's in that tank of fuel ( Just a thought ). You may want to do a seach on this site to find some very good info on fuel quality and filtration. This has made me decide to go Pre OEM filtration to protect my new truck when it arrives.


Hope I haven't scared you just trying to enlighten you on what I feel could be some issues. Just my .02


Best of luck, Fran

I actually have a Nickthane Pre-OEM filter on it's way as we speek.


The service station that I got the "bad" batch of gas from sells alot of Fuel, so I wouldn't think its an extremally dirty fuel. I was wondering about the addivives and the WINTER Blend though, would a winter blend give you less power than a straight #2 Diesel? I have read that you loss MPG but hav not read anything about power.


Also I know your not supposed to run RED Diesel in a highway truck(in california anyway) but has anyone found it to run differently (better or worse)? Or should you not run it due to injectors or any other reason?

My belief is by the seat of the pants you can't tell quality of fuel unless you received slug of water and had no start or hesitation .... Winter blend will normaly show up in MPG ...


Mac

From the different post I have been following here, it does not always seem high volume is a guarentee of fuel quaility. I think new stations are going to have better tanks and filtering/monitoring equiptment. There is also a difference in who actually makes the fuel. I.E. Exxon or Sinclair. It is hard to get a read on the fuel coming in though because they can change suppliers due to prices availibility.

Also I know your not supposed to run RED Diesel in a highway truck(in california anyway)


the fuel is dyed red so d.o.t. can easily spot it. it is a tax free grade for farmers and marine diesel. i have herd that some marine grades are better than what we get on the road. if you get caught with the tax free grade, be ready to write big brother a check.

mako, when I researched this locally last spring, I was told by the local oil distributor that there hasn't been a difference in diesel between highway and offroad, in many years. The only difference is the addition of red dye to make it easy for DOT to spot violators who are trying to get by without paying highway user taxes. Not sure about marine diesel though, since I didn't ask that specific question.


Jim

Some fuel has a higher BTU rating. British Thermal Units. This means that per gallon your would produce more heat. More heat means more power per gallon. Cetane is also another factor. 47 to 50 is where you want to be. This controls the point at which the fuel actually ignites. Whose fuel is rated at what? I do not know.

The more kerosene (#1) that the fuel has in it for the winter blend, the less power will be produced. #1 fuel has a lesser amount of BTU per gallon than #2 diesel does. Also a reason why it shows up in MPGs.


Sidenote...Do a search on specific energy tables and you will see this. It especially shows up when converting gasoline engines to run on liquid propane that I have done. There is actually more fuel burnt per mile, but the cost of fuel is much cheaper, so it works out. Plus it was good for the trees.


Hopefully that is all that you had noticed, and not a slug of water laden fuel.


MN.

Same with ethanol. Less BTU's per gallon, however much cleaner. Just put in bigger jets( old school) and you can get the same power with less emissions. You would probally need a bigger fuel tank though.