Has anyone heard anything about the new Low Sulfur Diesel fuel being harmful to older diesel engines?

Answer 1

No. They've been using ULSD in Europe for quite a while now and I haven't heard about any such problems.

Answer 2

Yes, Sulphur acts as a lubricant for diesel vehicles. I drive Land Rovers, and if you log on to some of these forums- there is usually a long list of discussion on it.

You can add lubricants to the fuel to increase longevity of the fuel pump - Which is all that will wear out anyway. If you have a prized posession this is a good idea. Otherwise a small quantity of new Vegetable oil to your tank will provide a similar lubricant effect for the pump. - not too much or you may damage the pump in cold weather.

More importantly for older vehicles is the type of oil you use. Modern oils do not contain the same anti-wear features older oils do, and many will cause your seals to fail. - Read up on it and see what the old boys do.

Answer 3

The only damage I’ve heard about is in the injectors and seals, rotary injector pumps, but that seem to have more to do with how the sulfur was removed rather then the removal of sulfur itself. The cheapest of these involves hydrotreating, a process that removes sulfur by treating it with hydrogen. Hydrogen is highly reactive and also reduces the lubrication properties of diesel.

Right now Cummins engines seem to be among those hardest hit. They use a rubber compound called Buna-N and that is the source of the problem.

Detroit Diesel has reported some problems, body seals on the injectors, but it’s too early to tell if the problems are the result of new fuel. Detroit Diesel contend that any part in contact with the new fuel are “not susceptible to attack from low sulfur formulated fuel”.

John Deere cited the possibility of "fuel injection pump wear or internal failures caused by low sulfur fuels [on its] 300 and 400 series with rotary-type fuel injection pumps. Deere recommended using its diesel fuel conditioner.

Isuzu, “The Isuzu engines we provide to the power sweeping industry utilize the in-line Zexel pump, not a rotary pump. These do not have any r-nitride/Buna-N components in contact with the fuel. As far as I am aware, we have to date had no reports of unusual fuel leakage on any of these engines."

Basically you’re going to see some seals fail, and once there are replaced, with non-r-nitride/Buna-N components, you shouldn’t have any problems after that.

Hoped it helped

Answer 4

Yes. It is hard on the injector pump as the fellow with the Land Rover stated, however that is not all.

It also deteriorates the fuel lines on the older engines, as they were not designed for the harshness of the new fuel. There are other problems as well, but I cannot remember all of them. I read about this in an issue of Diesel Power magazine about a year ago...maybe less. If you look through old issues of this magazine, on the cover it says that that this issue contains information about BIODIESEL and new vehicles. (Warranty issues, etc.) The information on ULSD was in another article, but same magazine. Hope this helps!

Answer 5

No, it is not. Ultra low sulfur diesel fuel (ULSD) has very low lubricity compared to conventional diesel, but that is addressed by adding lubricity improvers or bio-diesel (which has excellent lubricity.

Answer 6

Down in the Ecuadorian jungle Texaco used raw crude oil. Left a little extra deposits in the engine but not bad.

Answer 7

its the other way around...the old high sulfur fuel screws up the new engines by wrecking injectors and catalytic converter

Answer 8

You can add a quart of veg. oil to help the fuel.Best to run B5 biodiesel.

Answer 9

no