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Diesel Engine-Friendly Fuels
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Monday, June 28, 2010
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 By Al Seckinger, Retail Division Manager, 507-639-7114, aseckinger@nuwaycoop.com
My topic today is the new high pressure common rail diesel engines being produced by Caterpillar, John Deere, and every other equipment manufacturer. This new engine is great for the environment. They say the air quality behind the common rail engine is cleaner than the air quality in California. But, you need a little education to run this new technology without incurring a slough of downtime and a mountain of repair bills.
I’m no chemist, but I’ll play one for just a moment. The issue is this: these common rail engines have been designed, by government mandate, to be very clean. But they don’t like diesel fuel very much, and you should know that if you’re going to burn it.
The engine pumps fuel into the injectors at extremely high pressure and burns it. There’s no way of getting around it—with the amount of pressure and temperature that builds up in the engine, you’re going to have residue. Nothing burns 100%.
This new ecologically sensitive design pumps that residue back into the fuel tank for another try at getting burned—herein lies the problem. No. 2 diesel or any biodiesel produces too much residue. The injectors, which can plug at 30 microns, cannot tolerate these lowergrade fuels. By comparison, a human hair is 70 microns in diameter.
To prevent costly repairs, engine manufacturers recommend owners of these new engines burn premium diesel with a special additive package—like Cenex Roadmaster® or Fieldmaster®. These premium fuels are just pennies higher than No. 2, but you do not have residue plugging your injectors.
Cenex® and NuWay Cooperative, we’re part of an innovative system, providing solutions to new challenges facing you every day.
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