I was filling up in SW Michigan today, Near South Haven at a Shell station. I noticed that the diesel was augmented with soy. Is this good or bad for my engine? The one thing I noticed was that the engine semed to run quieter.

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Bob Morrison
92 300D 2.5 -197000 Miles
87 300D-170000 Miles The Californian
87 Volvo240DL-200000+MilesGrandson's Now

I know of palm oil, but soy?

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... Kerry

126 tailed by a 203, 129 leading the pack.

That really don't surprise me at all. You see there is a plant in Zeeland that is producing this "soy-diesel" , and they are marketiing it throught various suppliers. The one that is most prevalent over here, (barry, Ionia county area) is Crystal Flash. It is mostly at the truck stops. I have inquired about how it is made, but like always people behind the registers and to varying degrees even the management DON'T have a clue. What I want to know is ...are they just mixing soy oil with Petro diesel, or is it actually Bio-Diesel? Maybe you can help.... what does the exhaust smell like? This will help me greatly! To answer your question, NO it will NOT hurt your engine at all. In fact it shouldn't hurt your mileage either, it should possibly improve it. The reason is this, it has MORE lubricity than regular petro diesel. When they took out the majority of the sulfer in diesel fuel, they took away the lubricant as well. Which is why I used to put a pint of auto-tranny fluid in my fuel at ever fillup. ( to lubricate the pump and injectors) You see, Germany as well as many other countries overseas have a better grade of diesel fuel than we do here in the states. Our fuel has always been inferior to theirs and with good reason. The MAJORITY of cars sold in Germany, France, etc. are diesel ! I think that the "soy-diesel" is a good thing, it will not only improve the quality of fuel, but it reduces the emissions that are commonly associated with diesel vehicles. Which makes for cleaner air. ( NO I'm not a greenpeacer) You are also correct in your perception that the engine runs quieter and smoother, again lubricity factor! You might also notice that it will run "cooler" in the summer , just watch the temp guage if you don't believe me. Again, I would love to know what the exhaust smells like if you would post this info or even email me, it would be greatly appreciated. You see I don't buy my fuel from service stations ( I'm boycotting OPEC) so I have to go by what other folks have experienced using this fuel, I just refuse to give in to the "deep-pockets" I've found a way to get around the system on fuel and I'm trying to work out the bugs on the engine oil now. It's hard to make a good engine oil (diesel anyway) from a veg-oil base. I WILL SUCCEED THOUGH ! Tom

My folks go to Europe yearly. My Mom's cousin is the GM of VW/Audi dealer in Hamburg. Europe is big on Rape seed oil (I believe it's called Canola oil here, more pleasant name). My Dad tells me there is a much bigger interest in bio or semi bio fuel there. They seem to have more corporate interest in developing alternative fuels than we do here.
Bio fuels make sense. They are almost non-poluting, renewable, give the farmers a boost, still need refineries, distribution etc.. I don't think we will totally do away wil petro fuels in our lifetime. The Europeans are more motivated due to costs, populations and other aspects that affect them.
When gas was pushing 2.00 there was a lot of talk about bio fuels, now it has dropped to 1.15 here. Most people are not concerned anymore.

I am from Canada and it is very common to see taxi fleets, police vehicles and company fleets in general running on propane and natural gas. I know this is not bio, but the thrust to alternate fuels is there.
There was a try at a 10% corn based methane fuel a few years ago, but my Volvo had a horrible knock with it.
I have written Shell asking them if they have any info on the product.
The exhaust, by the way is not as strong a smell as normal diesel.

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Bob Morrison
92 300D 2.5 -197000 Miles
87 300D-170000 Miles The Californian
87 Volvo240DL-200000+MilesGrandson's Now

Bob - do let us have an insight on what Shell has to say.

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... Kerry

126 tailed by a 203, 129 leading the pack.

From what I understand, fuel lubricity is not a concern on Mercedes diesels (at least the older ones). I thought the injection pump was lubricated with engine oil.


Aaron

Thank you for adding to my credibility Bill! I have almost 100k miles on straight bio-diesel in the Route Rabbit and I'm just getting rolling on the Mercedes cars. I will most likely do a conversion on the '76 and run it on Straight Waste Veggie oil, rather than using bio-diesel in it. The pump (injection) is a much better candidate for this than is the rotary pump in the Vw's. There seems to be less problems associated with the "inline" type pumps. It has something to do with the rotary type pumps having a "sensor" in the first part ( there are actually 2 pumps in the injector pump on these, I'm referring to the "transfer" part of it ) What this does is sense how viscid the fuel is and adjusts the pressure accordingly. This causes problems when you are "preheating" the used veggie oil to 170°F , which makes it thinner and thus the pressure is adjusted causing a negative effect. (because it is thinner than petro diesel as well as hotter!) The Mercedes pump is not negatively effected by this from the research that I have done. Anywho! Hppy Clattering all! Tom

If you do a web search for biodiesel, there are many sites that have great information. I haven't tried it yet, but really want to. I live in Iowa and have a salesman for either pure or mixed biodiesel only 10 miles away. Hope this helps.