Biodiesel in Cats?

I know Joe Black has had a lot of experience with biodiesel. Joe????? GWH

I run B-10(ten %) for off road in my company. The higher the blend the more problem with cold weather, it will gel if too cold. It will clean fuel systems, so be prepared for a couple of filter changes on older Cats.-glen

I think it was on here a couple years back that a couple people were burning old cooking oil they get from kitchens that have a surplus of the used stuff.

R4pat, there shouldn't be a problem with cold weather jell in your area. I was considering running biofuel (Houston area) but am more concerned about stuff growing in my fuel tank in the warmer climate😮 . Any experience out there?

A couple of years ago there were problems with Biodiesel gelling in trucks here in Minnesota's winters. Even a few schools had to cancel because the buses wouldn't run. But I think it was traced to incorrect blends. Somebody was playing with percentages/blend, trying to make an extra dollar.

Good luck with your RD4

Biggastractor

The old Cats such as the RD4 were designed to run on low-grade diesel-type fuels, and Cat regularly bragged about this ability. Cat even had an optional system for burning fuel oil (bunker oil) in Cat engines.

The only problem with bio-diesel in any older diesel engine, relates to where the bio-diesel is made, or how it's made. If it's a professional supplier product, there should not be the slightest problem.
However .. if it's a home brew (and some people run old diesels on straight waste vegetable oil - WVO) you can develop engine problems from not removing the heavy fats from the oil.

These heavy fats do not burn well, and will cause gumming, and build up deposits in the combustion chambers that can cause engine problems such as hot spots, dropped valves, and piston failures.
The proper process for WVO treatment for fuel use, involves the process known as trans-esterfication .. whereby the heavy fats are altered by chemical reaction .. yielding glycerine, alcohol and biodiesel.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biodiesel_production

One other thing to consider is will the biodiesel cause problems with rubber gaskets washers, o-rings, seals etc in the fuel system. I would worry about older rubber products dissolving in the bio and causing leaks and clogs.

Rick

Is the lubricity of biodiesel the same or better than #2? That would be my main concern.

The lubricity of biodiesel is generally regarded as being equal to, and in many cases, better than diesel. Biodiesel and even 100%, clean vegetable oils pose very little by way of problems, when it comes to using them in any older compression ignition engine. It's the tallow and other heavy animal fats that can produce the problems when using WVO .. as many cooking oils are not only a blend of different vegetable oil varieties, but some have animal fats added as well.

Some of the current, high tech, electronically-controlled diesel engine manufacturers, are among the few who do not give a blanket O.K. to biodiesel and vegetable oil fuels, due to the narrow fuel parameters set in the engines computers by these manufacturers.

Letter from Stanadyne to KS govt committee regarding biodiesel lubricity .. http://www.biodiesel.org/markets/pre/resolution.pdf

Biodiesel information on lubricity, combustibility and cetane rating .. http://cleanairusa.org/truck-lubricity.html