ULSD and driving in Mexico - Car Talk
Cut from one of the answers in the Cartalk thread from Oct 2011
"Most of Mexico Should have changed over to ULSD some time ago... That is not to say that all fueling locations have switched.
To answer your question you should know why we use the ULSD. The ULSD was formulated to reduce particulate emissions from the exhaust as required by the EPA. In addition to the ULSD, diesel vehicles were also equipped with a Diesel Exhaust Filter (DPF).
This filter captured the black soot normally spewing from the tailpipes of pre 2008 diesel vehicles. Take a look sometime at the tailpipe of your new diesel, you will see it is clean as a whistle, no black soot coating. Right now you are saying get to the point already... I am sure you have seen your instrument cluster indicate exhaust cleaning. Just like an air filter, the Exhaust filter will become clogged over time, roughly every 100-300 miles (Sometimes more). Replacement of a filter every 300 miles would never be acceptible, so instead of having to replace the filter, the vehicle will perform the Exhaust regeneration procedure.... It is simply period where the Exhaust is superheated above 600 to 1200 degrees, to oxidize (Burn) the particulate matter away in the DPF. (Basically a rolling selfcleaning oven)
When the particulates are burned away they will always leave an unburnable ash left over (Granted in a much more reduced volume) As the regerations accumulate over time, so does the amount of unburnable ash left within the DPF... Obviously there will come a time when the DPF becomes so loaded with ash that the exhaust becomes a excessive restriction and will need to be purged or replaced....The expected life span for a DPF is 100K-150K miles (Approx)...
So you asked what would happen if you used LSD as opposed to the ULSD??? Very simply, the particulate output would increase drastically (Very drastically) This increase would cause the DPF to load up very rapidly.... End result, much more frequent exhaust cleanings/regenerations... More regens equals more ash, more ash means the life of the DPF will be reduced.. Keep in mind that the selfcleaning regeneration heat is a byproduct of using diesel fuel... The more exhaust cleanings are performed, the more diesel fuel is used, fuel economy will drop as a result. Theses truck will handle such cases for a short time, so if you get a tank or two of LSD, the truck will survive, just do not make a ongoing habit of it.
Exhaust regenerations will have an adverse affect on the diesel engine oil... Every regeneration will result in a small amount of diesel fuel getting into the engine oil... Continous regenerations could easy overload the engine oil and result in poor lubrication and eventual engine damage. Do not panic, new trucks do have an oil life monitor that takes into account the number of regenerations and will display to you when it is time to change the oil... The older trucks did not, and had many cases where the oil was fuel saturated combined with the fact that the customers were always late for their oil changes equaled some truck down time. When the truck tells you to change the oil..... Change it...Real simple
What is more critical for these trucks is keeping the water and rust out of the fuel system.If the water in fuel light illuminates, pull over and drain the water separator. If you see a shady looking fueling station that looks like it it rarely visited, keep on moving. A fueling location used by tractor trailers prefered, with the continued heavy truck traffic, the fuel in the storage tanks is being circulated (Less chance for it to grow micro-organisms)"
I think you should look at your owners manual and investigate a lot more that the single snip that I copied. My '97 and '05 will run on #2, LSD or ULSD because they don't have some of the emission systems.
Bob4X4 posted:
"Yes it has a tipm,but the
bigger issue will be not having ulsd available and the long term effects it will have on the dpf.4x4 low range for extended time will also be a concern with the regen system"
I think more research is in order IMHO.
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