[Vwdiesel] Dieselfuel 101 part 13. -- ( a backwards glance )

[H.Hagar]

HWY9FERGS at cs.com HWY9FERGS at cs.com 
Sun Mar 7 10:31:27 EST 2004 

Ferguson asked :

Does California have a different formulation for 
their diesel? That's one thing I've heard, but don't know whether to believe it. 

Answer :     Believe it , Yes Kalifornia started to fool around with dieselfuel in or about 1993.

Looks like the Swedes reduced sulfur in 1990  and  Kalifornia  followed in 1993.
Now if only the sulfur was tampered with  , it would be no problem. But the most
important lubricant "THE PARAFFIN WAX" was drastically reduced as well.As soon
as I discovered that ,  I put it right back in.
 
If you google  Bosch VE injection pumps  --   way down the pages is an account
of a Kalifornia investigation of  "Fuel Lubricity"  carried out by Bosch and Stanadyne and
maybe some others.  I strongly suggest reading it.  It has pictures of what went wrong
inside the pumps.

When and how did I discover that Kalifornia fuel was no good ?   In 1993.  My favorite pet diesel
was a baby 4 cylinder Kubota on a 743 Bobcat. She purred like a kitten from the day I got
it.Then one Saturday I was out of fuel --  to the bulkplant can in hand. Shell was the
only plant open on Saturdays. The cetane number was so low that I thought I had
engine troubles.Knowing that it purred Friday night , and the only change was fuel ,I did
what you all would do.Pump it out go to the guy next door  and borrow some Canadian fuel.
She immediately purred like a kitten , and still does.

I was so pissed off that I raised hell at shell  ---they explained that a tanker from 
Kalifornia was ordered by radio to drop a load here ---- Shell here normally get fuel
from a Canadian refinery.   Bet they like to get hold of my sample bottles. Maybe
the tanker was on the way to Alaska. On rudimentary test it looked like kerosene,
after coming out of freezer.

So pay attention to the fuel  or pay at the pumpshop.

Hagar.