Tips / Power Stroke diesels

[emmett]

Asmany of you know I have been in the repo business for many years. We also have a Wrecker service. My family and I use Ford F Series trucks as a result of once being big Ford contractors and most are equipped with Power Stroke Diesel engines. Many of ours have over 500,000 miles on them. One has much more. We also have a V-10 gas engine with over 600,000 in a 2001 Ford F-350.

In recent years the diesel fuel we burn in our engines has changed. With today's requirements fuel sold from retail pumps must contain no more than 15ppm Particulate Matter. This relates to sulphur content which when burned of course is what contributes to carbon emisions from the diesel engine. The EPA's haste to acheive a certain standard however left Americans with a pretty ineffiecient means of lubrication for older engines. The newer engines are designed to run on the new ULSD (Ultra Low Sulphur Diesel) fuels. Older engines however, and frankly I think the newer ones too are being affected adversely by this fuel. It lacks "lubritcity" and for diesel fuel...THAT is a killer. Diesel Fuel is a lubricant as well as a fuel. Because diesel engines burn their fuels in the combustion chamber off of pressure, not spark, they work hard. They are much more powerful than gas engines and metal stress factors are different too. The Fuel Injectors and delivery system are vital in diesel engines and must remain effiecient to produce the right doses of fuel into the chambers at just the right time and amounts. Fuel Injectors MUST remain well lubricated to work properly. The fuel that passes through them acts as their lubricant of the jetways and inner parts.

Fuel Injectors also have to be cooled due to their fragile nature and the fact that they contain moving parts. A thin "cup" houses the injectors in most designs that allows the end of the injector to protrude out but have it's body exposed to the passage of coolant which is kept seperated by the cup I mentioned. In most cases these cups are constructed out of copper and crack easily. If this happens coolant is allowed to mix with oil and visa versa and is catastrophic. It can destory the engine in only minutes by making it run hot and cause damage in other areas. Not to mention very poor performance caused by small leaks and slighter mixing of liquids.

All of this is the result of poor lubricating ULSD fuel. Now to the tips part. After experiencing a run of this stuff in our older engines we decided to play with lubricants in the fuel. Lucas works good when mixed with diesel fuel at proper levels but too high a content or heavy prolonged usage of it can cause burning of the injector tips and degrade their "spitting" ability. These types of additives have strong detergent like cleaners in them that if allowed to become too concentrated in the fuel can cause damage.

Some people are experimenting with adding small amounts of twostroke motor oil. Mercury QuickSilver has an excellent Two Stroke oil that burns ashless, leaving no residue and ups the lubricating ability. Castrol makes a pretty good 2 Stroke too. Another good product is "Howe's Diesel Additive". Tune it down a touch in mixture from the instructions though. The fact is Howe's is not as good, well, not as strong a cleaner in my opinion as Lucas but that actually works for you in regards to lubrication. The Howe's doesn't burn quite as well. I mean the difference isn't extreme but noticeable to me in my tests. Therefore it seems oilier, which is better. I would also assume since this is the case that it would not be as apt to be as destructive to tips upon prolonged usage. Please understand that I mean "prolonged" usage. The advantages outweigh the risk in this regard to me as we have experieced a sharp decrease in injector problems when using some these tips.



Another tip I have had mentioned top me by truckers and others is using Rotella T 15W40 oil in Diesel Engines as being the best product. I agree! Having been a trucker for seveeral years in my working life I have found that it is the best oil for the money that there is. Many will argue that Synthetics are better. I do not use synthetic myself so i have very little experience with them. I have found them to cause leaking gaskets and seals. Just haven't had good luck with Synthetics. Except Lucas Oil Stabilizer. Frankly I run that stuff 1 part to 5 parts oil in my Harley Davidsons.

I tried to keep this easy to understand for someone who might not have much experience with these engines so I hope the experts don't feel insulted by my laymen usage of wording. LOL. If you are using Power Stroke Diesels or know someone who does you might want to let them know about our some of these tips. We used different products over a couple of hundred thousand miles to conduct our testing. We kept very good records and made special note to fuel mileage recording. We found that we realized slightly better mileage when using some sort of additive to better lubricate the fuel system. We also left one truck burning only the new ULSD and used a minimum of additive. It experienced trouble regularly. Even after a set of new injectors was installed on this engine it required repair twice for Injector related difficulty. In each case the mechanic told us he believed damage was due to poor lubrication.

We even have a theory that Exxon Diesel Fuel is slightly better then others. While chance could be a player in this we found that while burning Exxon Diesel Fuel we acheived slightly better fuel mileage on a regular basis. We have no theory as to why except its composition could contain some additive we are not aware of.

Up until we started doing something about this fuel we were replacing injectors so regularly it was about to sink us. Complete replacement of all eight injectors, the labor and other parts come to about 3,000 dollars or more so even if those reading don't do what I've recommended you should at least read up so as to be ready for future trouble. I predict most new Power Strokes won't go 200,000 without needing complete replacement of injectors. I am very good friends with a Ford Dealer in my area and see trucks coming in to have them done under warranty (less than 36,000). Many before 60 and 70 thousand.

Hope this is helpful if applicable.