Can one put high sulphur into a OM603?
I might drive to Ukraine again in March. The problem is that according to what I saw last summer, about 95% of their petrol stations don't have EU standard diesel. So my question is... would the high sulphur diesel wreck the engine?
Thanks a lot!
Pok
I'm sure you will be safe. Your engine (and mine) was designed in an era when sulphur was added as the norm.
I’ve used high sulphur fuel in mine. Only noticeable effect being an increase in smoke but it actually seemed to run better after using it for a few thousand miles :?
I’m pretty sure it was put in as a lubricant, so you’re more likely to be causing wear and tear on your injection pump with low sulphur diesel.
I’ll be interested to hear about your trip.
Russ
Absolutely. Sulphur was added as a lubricant so ULSD will be more damaging than the Ukrainian one. If I was to use ULSD in my G I'd probably put some rapeseed or sunflower oil in the mixture as a matter of custom....
I think high sulphur levels break down your oil more quickly so it's probably worth changing sooner rather than later. There is a good section in Tom Sheppards VDE book.
Yes .. high Sulphur levels can cause higher levels of Sulphuric Acid creation .. especially if you sit at idle in cool temperatures. This will wash down your bores and start to attack the engine oil additives pack which leads to eventual solidification of the oil (I was looking into this last week)
.. so it pays to
1. Use good engine oil (= good/large additive package)
2. Consider changing oil more often.
3. Don't leave it idling and cold for long periods.
Incidently... veggie oil can also cause issues like this.. they are not the perfect warm weather fuel. And it seems that at the interface between water and biofuel the black sludge algae in fuel is more likely than with Dinofuel. (But all Dinofuel now has Biofuel in it by now...).
e.g. http://www.wipo.int/pctdb/ja/wo.jsp?WO=2010008532&IA=US2009004073&DISPLA...
"Such ester functionalities and olefinic double bonds are chemically active groups making biodiesel fuel chemically and kinetically unstable, causing both the biodiesel fuel itself and the hydrocarbon-based lubricating oil to oxidize, prematurely resulting in sludge and deposit formation in the engine"
and more biofuel engine oil stuff..
http://www.infineum.com/products/fuel/biodiesel/Biodiesel%20effect%20on%...
But if you are just passing through.. so under 4 weeks and say 20 tanks full and you go on to use another 5 tanks after that in next 4 weeks .. there should be no serious issue would be my guess.
In Ukraine at the moment, high sulphur diesel doesn't make much difference to the performance... I have driven close to 8000km since 19th, feb; might actually need to change engine oil again in about 10 days time!!!
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Thanks for the info everybody! I will only be there for 2 weeks or so... so 20 tanks might be on the extreme side!
So the conclusion is that there is nothing to be worried about!