Vegetable Oil Off The Shelf

[Luke_IDI]

A while ago I came across this lubricity study, which I guess has become rather famous in these circles:

Info: - Lubricity Additive Study Results

The following are the preliminary results of a research study on diesel fuel Lubricity Additives. There is likely to be further commentary and explanation added at a future time. PURPOSE: The purpose of this research was to determine the ability of multiple diesel fuel additives to...

www.dieselplace.com

Interesting that the winner by a considerable margin is soy biodiesel. The sole diesel engine I use currently is an IDI, so lubricity additives are important to prevent injection pump wear. I live in the Gulf Coast, where biodiesel is not readily available.

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Is there any reason not to simply go to the grocery store, grab a gallon of soybean or canola oil off the shelf, and dump that into the tank when I fill up with ULSD? (The lubricity study tested a ratio of 50:1 ULSD to biodiesel.)

 

[Jesus Freak]

If all you're concerned about is lubrication, why not just put a heavy dose of Lucas in with your fill up? Then you won't have to be guessing.

I run WMO in my truck, so I'm a bit of a gambler of sorts. If you feel like a gambling man, dump some soy in and report back. There's not really any WVO guys on here, we do WMO.

 

[lotzagoodstuff]

The only shortcoming with soy or canola is low temp and/or blending issues, but down where you are I don't think you'll have any issues. I say go for it, especially if you like the way it smells

One more thing to consider: it's common in many states for diesel pumps to be B5 or even B20 biodiesel even though they don't advertise. I don't look so much now that I have a Powderchoke, but in Washington it was harder to find straight diesel than it was to find a pump that was B5 or B20. Ask around and find out if there's a station that sells a B5 or B20 blend all the time.

Lubricity is pretty important in an IDI. When I owned mine, if I couldn't get anything I would always dump a quart or ATF or 2 stroke in to keep the pump happy.

Good luck whichever way you end up going.

 

[rreegg]

Agree that linked study is pretty famous. They only use a 2% bio blend in the test which is pretty small compared to the 5-15% bio blend found at most stations. Not sure what's available from pumps in your area - Cali for example has a lot of R99 at stations.

I've been under the impression basically all stations carry at least b5 - which doesn't need to be labeled as bio. Above b5 needs to be labeled as bio

If you're really just looking to increase lubricity throwing in a quart or so of whatever veg oil into your tanks shouldn't be a problem IMO. A cetane additive is probably the most common method

 

[Luke_IDI]

Thanks for the responses guys. It seems like fuel lubricity isn’t really an issue as long as you’re getting some percentage of biodiesel at the pump. I’m a pretty infrequent user of this IDI and still relatively new to it. I’ll take a closer look at the pumps and not worry too much about it!