There has been a lot of discussion about the new ultra low sulfur fuels and how they may be damaging the fuel injection systems of older engines. You may ask yourself, what is it about sulfur that was good for engines? You mix it with water in the atmosphere and you have sulfuric acid. The same process takes place in your engine with condensation and fuel air mixture. Why in the world was sulfuric acid good for engines?
The thing is, the sulfur wasn’t good for anything. The process of removing the sulfur is the problem. During the process of filtering the sulfur from the diesel fuel, the refineries also filter out the lubricity components of the fuel. Those lubricating polymers then must be added back to the fuel as additives. This is not always done at the refinery. Sometimes it is done at the distribution level. This is not a perfect process and there have been cases of fuel being distributed with substandard lubricity content. It doesn’t matter if your engine is new or old, low levels of fuel lubricity will harm the fuel injection system in your engine. Be careful where you buy your fuel.
It seems additives are going to be important to keep fuel system wear down. The only additive that I have personal experience with is “Marvel Mystery Oil”. It is an old product that seems to improve lubrication in oil, diesel fuel, and even gasoline.
BE
The owner of the FV Southern Seas in Kodiak, Alaska built a system that enabled him to pump his waste oil out of the engines and through a 2-micron filter.
The waste oil then went directly into his 2000 gallon fuel tank and mixed with the fuel-which his engines burned.
I wonder if the filtered waste oil could improve the lubricity of the fuel?
I know that John Deere has discouraged the practice of mixing used lube oil with diesel fuel in the past. This was probably due to lack of filtration and the acidic level of the used oil. With the new low sulfur fuels the acid level may not be an issue and with the filtration to 2 microns It sounds like a possible solution to waste oil disposal. Have you talked to the Captain of the Southern Seas to see how it is working out for him in the long run. Any long term issues with his injection pumps or injectors?
The engines on the Sierra Seas are all Cummins: The main is an 855, then there’s one 6BT gen set, and another 4BT gen. The engine life of all three have been good.
The owner, Al Utter told me he got 40,000 hours out of the 4B. I changed out the injectors on the main at 11,000 hours, which isn’t bad life.
I’m wondering now if motor oil is also low sulfur like the new fuel?
This brings up another topic of low sulfer. Motor oils have sulfer in them. When mixing sulfer with the moisture in the crankcase, creates sulfuric acid in minute amounts. In pleasure craft that sit for months with that same sulfuric acid is sitting on the main and rod bearings slowing eating away and pitting. In the old days, it was reccommended that the oil be changed in the engine every six months to prevent the damage caused by the sulfuric acid. The question is…..is this still the reccommended procedure?
I have been reading up on the Aneson Surface Drives. I understand that they are expensive but due to their design, they reduce drag on the water surface, increased steering is something else and by design increase fuel economy drasticaly. As I have a lot of interest in the product (and so do several of my clients) who is the local Aneson Distributor in the Seattle area?
We are finding out that the United States has the worst fuel in the world as far as lubricity is concerned.