Windsor
Veteran Expediter
Pro masters are really cramped up front compared to the sprinter if your a larger driver. Nothing still beats a sprinter for room to move around and stretch up front.
Mercedes Recall
- Thread starter akkshole
- Start date
Windsor
Veteran Expediter
Windsor
Veteran Expediter
Windsor
Veteran Expediter
Scott I would tell you all of my skills but it's to much to type.
I have solution for def, for the diesel fuel , I use ace's 2, makes fuel burn at 95 percent or more instead of 85 percent
if you like pm me. I will give you the phone number to get it, one of my customer that I do consultant work for on the side
if you like pm me. I will give you the phone number to get it, one of my customer that I do consultant work for on the side
Warranty approved?
Far as I know. Mercedes, anyway, doesn't void a warranty for any off-the-shelf fuel additives, especially for additives with just naptha, toluene and paraffins, since those are in nearly all diesel fuel additives, anyway.
Power Service has those things, plus Hydroxy Alkoxylate (detergent injector cleaner), Ethylbenzene (anti-knock and octane increaser in gasoline, and a cetane booster in diesel) and Cumene (natural constituent of crude oil and engine fuels, it is added to produce high octane in jet fuels, as a cetane booster in diesel fuel, and as a solvent (adds lubricity) for paraffin waxes).
Howes Diesel Treat has all of the above plus a Super Sektrit "fatty acid amine reaction product" (for lubricity and for water demulsification), and Nonane (solvent and flow improver - one of the main constituents of kerosene, actually).
Most all of the fuel additives on the market contain more or less the same stuff. Power Service and Howes handle water in the fuel very, very differently, so they have different stuff for that. Howes Meaner Power Kleaner has some different stuff, particular for cleaning injectors.
Power Service has those things, plus Hydroxy Alkoxylate (detergent injector cleaner), Ethylbenzene (anti-knock and octane increaser in gasoline, and a cetane booster in diesel) and Cumene (natural constituent of crude oil and engine fuels, it is added to produce high octane in jet fuels, as a cetane booster in diesel fuel, and as a solvent (adds lubricity) for paraffin waxes).
Howes Diesel Treat has all of the above plus a Super Sektrit "fatty acid amine reaction product" (for lubricity and for water demulsification), and Nonane (solvent and flow improver - one of the main constituents of kerosene, actually).
Most all of the fuel additives on the market contain more or less the same stuff. Power Service and Howes handle water in the fuel very, very differently, so they have different stuff for that. Howes Meaner Power Kleaner has some different stuff, particular for cleaning injectors.
Windsor
Veteran Expediter
Who asked um
been using ace's 2 for over ten year's and has help me save money
in 2003 started using it on my 2001 western star with a c10 cat,
ran same mile in 2003 as I did in 2002 and cost $10,000, and started using in 2003 $7,000, saved $3,000
never had a problem with mb
in 2003 started using it on my 2001 western star with a c10 cat,
ran same mile in 2003 as I did in 2002 and cost $10,000, and started using in 2003 $7,000, saved $3,000
never had a problem with mb
That would be a true statement, except it been used for years in Europe with no problems.
I agree with you, but for the Sprinter drivers with an 2006 and before 14 foot is all you got and 69 inches height back door, plus only 50 inches between wheel wells. The two problems for the Promaster are 69 inches back door opening and 13 foot cargo length. It does have great cargo carrying capacity and 56 between the wheel wells.
The main problem for the Transit comes down to the stupid engineers and their I keep the E class van wheel base instead of longer wheel bases that the other two MFGs have.
So its the governments fault, this much is true.
As I type this and then preview it before posting, I see that Xiggi has typed the exact same thing using just two sentences. Thaaaaanks Xiggi.
There are a couple of issues in play that make the US and the European implementations of DPFs very different.
One is the type of diesel used, specifically the cetane number of the fuel. A high cetane number means more than just easier starting on cold mornings - it also means a more complete burn in the chamber and thus less diesel particulate matter (soot) in the exhaust. In the US, federal law requires diesel to be a minimum of 38 cetane, but allows for a variance all the way down to 32 cetane. But it's up to the states to individually adopt their own standards for cetane. Most states have adopted ASTM D975 as their diesel fuel standard, and the minimum cetane number is set at 40 (with variances down to 35). The only two real notable exceptions to the 40 cetane are California and Texas. California CARB diesel fuel currently has a minimum cetane of 53, and under the Texas Low Emission Diesel (TxLED) program there are 110 counties where diesel fuel must have a minimum cetane number of 48. The vast majority of the diesel sold in the US is between 38-42 cetane.
The lower cetane in the US means a less-complete burn in the chamber which results in higher outputs to the exhaust of diesel particulate matter, and most specifically the mono-nitrogen oxides of nitric oxide (NO) and nitrous oxide (N2O), and the other 5 members of the NOx Family, dinitrogen dioxide (N2O2), dinitrogen trioxide (N2O3), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), dinitrogen tetroxide (N2O4), and dinitrogen pentoxide (N2O5). All of these will clog a DPF in a heart beat.
The other issue is how the DPFs are used. In Europe, they are designed specifically to primarily capture carbon monoxide. Carbon monoxide doesn't really clog the DP filters and thus cause "problems." They intentionally allow the heavier particulates to pass through the filters, which contain most of the NOx gasses. In the US the DPFs are specifically designed to capture both the carbon monoxide and the NOx particulates. And it's the NOx that cause the quick filter clogging and related "problems" here in the US that are absent in the EU.
So not only does lower cetane result in more filter clogging material in the US than in Europe, we actually capture most of it in the US where they capture very little of it in the filters in Europe. So it's not surprising that we have DPF problems here that they don't have in Europe.
Now, if you define 'problems' to mean air quality, then the air in the US is mountain minty fresh compared to that of Europe (and Japan and China and Russia). The EU Commission in charge of the Environment admitted last year that since 1992 the Euro 1 through Euro 5 regulations (acceptable exhaust emissions) have failed to spur improved diesel emissions, particularly regarding NOx, mainly because the regulations specify carbon monoxide and the main pollutant and do not require the diesel particulate filters to filter out the oxides (because their cetane numbers are shiny and pretty and thus expel fewer oxides so no need to worry about them). However, the stricter “Euro 6” regulations that replaced Euro 5 this past fall is supposed to correct that. It will still take 20 years or so before things start to get better in Europe.
One of the problems with the Euro 1-5 regulations is they had different (stricter) emissions standards for gasoline vehicles than the same diesel powered vehicles. Less emissions regulations means better fuel mileage, and as a result more than half of all passenger cars on the road in Europe are these OMG dirty nasty evil polluting diesels. So when Europe starts spouting off about air pollution and then points to the US as the culprit, point right back and those Eurohypocrites.
London Fog, you say? Nope. London Smog.
Well, if it was mandated nationwide, we wouldn't have any lower cetane diesel to compare it to, so it's hard to say.
But all things being equal, it should be about 2-5 cents a gallon more for 50 (or 60, for that matter) cetane than for 40 cetane.
Backing up a tad, as to what it is, the benefits, and how the fuel is made...
Both new and old engines can benefit from higher diesel fuel cetane levels. Cetane plays an important role during the combustion process and helps users get the most value from every gallon of ultra low sulfur diesel (ULSD) used. But what is cetane? Most people think of high cetane as being nothing more than something that gives you easier starts on cold mornings, but it's much more than that. It is the indicator of how quickly diesel fuel will begin the ignition process, the indicator of how readily, and completely, the fuel will burn in the combustion chamber. The sooner it starts the ignition process, the more time it has to do a complete burn in the chamber. The more complete the burn, the more power you wrestle out of every spritz from the injector, giving you better performance from the engine, and fewer harmful emissions.
The rub is, fuel with a native high cetane has prortionally lower BTUs. But there's a way around that.
The way fuel is made in the first place is through the distillation process of crude oil. Crude oil that is pumped out of the ground is a thick, gooey soup composed of thousands of different hydrocarbon compounds - compounds composed of carbon and hydrocarbon (everything from industrial grease to propane is all in that barrel of crude). The carbon atoms link together in chains of different lengths, shapes and sizes. Each individual chain length or molecular size has different properties including progressively higher boiling points, so they can be separated out by boiling point or distillation.
Distillation is the first major process at an oil refinery. As the crude oil is heated, different hydrocarbon compounds are separated by their boiling temperatures. The lightest components such as ethane and propane come off the top of the distillation tower as those have the lowest boiling points. The next components, called naphtha, are used for making gasoline. It isn't gasoline yet, although it could be used as gasoline, but it's used to manufacture gasoline.
After the naphthas, next in line are the heavier hydrocarbons used to make diesel fuel. Diesel fuel contains larger hydrocarbon molecules, with more carbon atoms than gasoline. But this simple distillation does not produce enough gasoline and diesel fuel, and it's all raw, anyway, so heavier fractions of crude oil (the still larger hydrocarbons) are broken into smaller gasoline and diesel-sized compounds by thermal or catalytic cracking (hydrocracking), to produce higher volumes of gasoline and diesel fuel.
The gasoline is then blended with gasoline from other batches to attain the consistently desired properties, as well as having the necessary petrochemicals added to achieve the desired octane and detergent levels.
The diesel, on the other hand, is mostly (in the US), what you see is what you get. Most natural diesel distillates from Light Sweet Crude (which is the oil that Texas and Oklahoma is famous for) are, not coincidentally, in the 38-40 cetane range. Viola, it magically meets the federal standards right out of the box. Amazing coincidence, that one is. Some diesel distillates are really low, like in the 30 range, and some are naturally high, like in the 60+ range. They take the low and the high and mix them together to achieve the minimum 40 cetane.
To lower the level of sulphur in the fuel, of which Light Sweet Crude is loaded, some of these heavier fractions may be hydrotreated, which is a refinery process that reacts a fraction of crude oil with hydrogen at high temperature and pressure, along with a catalyst, to reduce the sulfur content and improve color and odor. Various component streams along the entire refining process are blended to meet the required diesel fuel specifications of whatever cetane number they want. 40 is certainly the easiest.
But these various component streams can just as easily be blended differently to achieve naturally higher cetane levels, and at the same cost. It's just that there would be a fraction of a percent (like 0.1 or 0.2 percent) less diesel when its all done (but the same fraction of a percent more of something else, like butane or some kind of ether). Because naturally refined high cetane diesel has a lower BTU number, it's better to start with lower cetane/higher BTU fuel, and add the cetane improver to it.
The easiest way to get a higher cetane while keeping the high BTU level is by adding a cetane improver. The Federal diesel fuel oil spec VV-F-800D lists the following compounds as acceptable cetane improvers.
- Amyl Nitrate
- Isopropyl Nitrate
- Hexyl Nitrate
- Cyclohexyl Nitrate
- Octyl Nitrate
- 2-Ethylhexyl Nitrate
The last one is the most commonly used, and when you buy a bottle of cetane improver (like Amsoil Cetane Boost Additive, or Schaeffer's or Stanadyne ) that's what it is. You can buy a bottle of cetane improver, or you can get the cetane improver as part of another product (like winter white Power Service, which adds 4 cetane for the anti-gel formula, and 6-7 cetane for the dingy gray silver summer bottle). When you take the 40-45 cetane diesel fuel and add a cetane improver, you not only bump the cetane for a more complete burn, but it also
B100 (pure vegetable-based biodiesel) has a cetane of 46-52, and animal-based biodiesel is 56-65.
Incidentally, a gallon of diesel has 127,500 BTUs.
B20 is 125,400 BTUs.
B100 is 117,100 BTUs.
So, they can refine high cetane diesel without any additional costs, except for the BTU cost of the lighter fuel. So adding Nitrate cetane improver will add to the cost, but really only by 2-5 cents a gallon.
BP Amoco and Chevron branded diesel fuels are, with very few exceptions, going to be 50 cetane or higher. They add the cetane improver right at the truck racks (or pipeline in the case of some truck stops). Most, but not all, "premium" diesel is going to be 50 cetane or better. In Indiana, CoutryMark has their Premium Dieselex-4 that's guaranteed to be 50 cetane.
If the states or the Fed ever get around to mandating 50 cetane minumum, it will most likely be achieved the way that BP, Shell, Chevron and others achieve it, but adding concentrated cetane improver to the stocks, which is how they do it in Europe and Canada. But you can do that yourself for about 3 cents a gallon. The places where regular (40-45 cetane) and premium (47-51) is sold, the premium is usually about 10 cents per gallon more, even though it only cost them 2-3 cents to do it.