B20 in 99 E300TD
 

I have been thinking about filling my tank up with B20 next time I need fuel. Is this a good or bad idea? Is it likely to cause problems with my engine? What effect will it have on performance and fuel economy? Is it worth the extra thirty cents a gallon? Thanks.

I'm not sure about your engine's compatibiilty with b20. I'd guess that it'd be OK.

Effects on performance and fuel economy will be small. But downward if any. Not worth an extra 30 cents a gallon IMO, but if it makes you feel good, go for it.

B99 is fine too. If your fuel line orings are already old, switching to bio will likely hasten their failure; that failure will happen regardless and shouldn't occur immediately.

Other than that there should be no problems. I get 10% less mpg's on B99.

If they are charging EXTRA for B20, you are shopping at a boutique... B20 should be 10 or so cents less than D2... it SHOULD not harm your car, but it can clean out your lines/tank to a degree, and if your system is dirty, it can clog up marginal fuel filters. if you have no problems changing filters, go for it. it will MARGINALLY reduce the foreign oil importing if you use it, but aside from that, I would not pay extra for the privilege.

Sounds to me like i'm going to be sticking to ULSD with my power services additive. Thanks for the info.

Don't be afraid of commercially prepared bio; ULSD will deterioate your oring seals too.

Economically it makes little if any sense as its higher priced and less efficient; but it wont hurt anything.

On my car, B99 ran great, but it swelled the o-rings so when I switched back to B20 for a cold snap, they all started leaking. Now they are Viton, no leaks, and finally got rid of the smell from all the encapsulation panels.

Us too
 

We just had exactly the same problem with our '96 E300D, except that our switch from B99 to B20, a month ago, was due to the price of B99. I have viton o-rings on order.

Jeremy

All of the biofuels around here are B20 and are more expensive than D2. I have run B20 in my '98 and never noticed any difference in the way it ran at all.

Graysilm.......one of the inherent qualities of BioDiesel is that it is a great injector and fuel system purge. It is a great carbon solvent! Even if you only occassionally fill your tank with 20 gallons of B20 for an extra $.30 per gallon your essentually getting 4 gallons of solvent/purge/Biodiesel flowing through your fuel system for an extra $6.00. A liter of "Diesel Kleen" or "Purge" would cost you more than twice that and probably would not do as thorough a job.........
I have run everything from B20, B99 and mixed my own ratio of B50 with no ill effects in my 98 with the exception of a slight loss of mpg with the B99.
The car has over 170K and the engine is running better than ever since I started using Biodiesel on occassion.;)

F18, did you modify anything? thanks

Its not necessary to modify anything to use Bio. Just be aware that leaks can develop due to the change in fuel type. The oring are accustomed to the aromatic chemicals in ULSD now and when missing the rubber changes chemically. Bio also breaks down some rubber, specificially the buna product MB uses as OEM. Most of us that have gotten tired of this have switched to viton orings. Go to fryerpower.com (a forum member) and get a kit for your 606.962 or buy your wone 10 paks. Counts and sizes of the important ones are here...http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/177588-om606-962-o-ring-size.html

B20 is the same or less than D2 here. I have not checked on B99 in a few months.

Is that commercial or a coop making large batches of local brew?

In NorCal Bio is a considerable premium. I paid $5.70 for B99 the last time I purchased in the Bay Area; D2 was $5.10 at that time. Jeremy up in the North Bay said B99 was $6.20 or $6.30 not long ago.

I have clients that have that year model on there MB, and they love it. We only sale B100 for a price of $4.79. If it's your first time filling up with biodiesel have a second fuel filter on hand for both filters you have on your car, just in case you have lose of power.

Using biodiesel is a 100 times better then diesel in every way.