| Author | Message | ||
     Bob Knouse New member Username: Bob_knouse Post Number: 8 Registered: 03-2007 |
Thanks for the heads up. We've been using B-5 and B-20 (test vehicles)for a while. Don't use over B-5 if there's an engine warranty involved. B-5 is viewed as an 'additive' where anything over B-5 has been viewed as an alternate fuel and if a fuel problem caused the issue your warranty is void. The Bio fuels(up to B-100)are being approved for warranties IF they meet the manufactures standards, which none of them do at the moment. Ya can't buy high quality Bio yet. No matter what the base component of the bio is, use additives anyway. Between any coagulation of the bio components (cold or too old, you have about a month to use it) and the UL water content, everyone's(transportation and trucking)been having lubricity problems off and on with 'crappy Bio' and UL. We don't use Bio during the freezing months because of the problems we've had. It's not the underground tank that's so bad, but we don't have indoor (or even covered) parking and our main problem is in the actual vehicle fuel tanks. Bio will certainly keep ya on your toes. There's soy, corn,used vegetable oil,lard combinations of these and constant experimentation with other items. Our fuel contract just ran out. Maybe we should all get together and negotiate a yearly for the entire state transit properties. We got buying power. Bob | ||
| Steve Myers Member Username: Steve_myers Post Number: 52 Registered: 08-2004 |
RRTA has been using a B5 blend for the past two years. Within the past few months we had a couple of buses that just shut off and would not start. No engine codes. We replaced the fuel filters and the bus started and ran fine. Than we started having problems with our fuel dispenser slowing down and losing pressure. We changed the filter and it would work fine for a couple of days. The company that installed the dispenser called the filter company and they suggested that we may be having a problem with the Bio product seperating. So I called our fuel supplier and low and behold they changed their supplier of the Bio product. Instead of using a Soy based product, this company uses chicken fat to make the Bio. The animal fat product is more prone to cold weather failure than the soy product. So with our new contract, we made sure the Bio product is soy based only, no animal fat. The reason the fuel supplier changed it's Bio supplier is because Keystone Biofuels in Mechanicsburg went out of business. They started using United Biofuels in York. Our new supplier, Isobunkers, is using AmeriGreen as it's supplier of the Bio product. In our new contract we increased to a B10. We'll see what happens next. So if you are using or considering using Bio, find out what the supplier is using to make the product. If it is made from animal fat, you will need to put an additive in the fuel for cold weather. Maybe we can add this to one of the topics to talk about in Hershey Steve |
