Alternative Fuels???

[Gina, Rob and Kids]

Well I am rather new around here but I neded to ask a few questions. Do any of you use Bio Disel?
My husband and I live in San Diego and for us to continue our adventures in our Freighliner and 40 ft 5th wheel we are considering converting to Bio Disel.
We have a 1998 3126 in a 1999 Fl 60. From the research we have done on Bio Disel, if we make B100 (the best quality). It can go directly into any disel engine.
Any thought on this? Please give me your opinions, I can handle it!!!
Thanks, gina

[Gina, Rob and Kids]

Well I am rather new around here but I neded to ask a few questions. Do any of you use Bio Disel?
My husband and I live in San Diego and for us to continue our adventures in our Freighliner and 40 ft 5th wheel we are considering converting to Bio Disel.
We have a 1998 3126 in a 1999 Fl 60. From the research we have done on Bio Disel, if we make B100 (the best quality). It can go directly into any disel engine.
Any thought on this? Please give me your opinions, I can handle it!!!
Thanks, gina

[vicsryd]

B-100 isn't a qualtiy rating. B-100 means it's 100% biodiesel. B-20 means it's 20% bio-diesel and 80% plain diesel #2.

It turns out Bio-Diesel has a solvent quality which has been shown to cause problems on used engines with more than a few hundered hours on them. One reported problem is fuel line failures because the material, usually older, wasn't designed for bio-diesel. Another problem is fuel pump failure although I think all of those reports were Cummins centric. The most common problem is plugged fuel filters caused by switching to B-100 all at once on an empty tank causing any sludge/deposits in the system to migrate towards the injectors.

My suggestion is to swtich to B-20 first and run with that for a while and see how it goes. If you have regular B-100 sources available to you then I recommend you start filling with a mixture of B-20 and B-100 where the net effect is to raise the bio-diesel in your tank by 10 points every 500 miles.

As far as I know, Catepillar has yet to produce an official document that fully clarifies the use of Bio-Diesel in their engines. The last document that even references it that I know of is from 2003.