B20 Bio Diesel

[JEBar]

in January of 2013 we were traveling around Houston and stopped at the Flying J .... I'd already pumped something over 70 gallons before seeing the 20% bio sticker .... on our drive west toward San Antonio I couldn't tell any difference in the sound or performance but it didn't take long to notice how rapidly the fuel gauge was dropping .... bottom line, the truck's mileage dropped by just over 2 mpg (when you are only getting 10 or so a drop of 2 is significant) .... this past January and February we didn't take on a single drop of fuel at a Pilot or Flying J .... so far, Texas is the only state where we've encountered Flying J pumping only 20% bio

Jim

[Ray,IN]

http://www.afdc.energy.gov/fuels/fue...ison_chart.pdf That chart has the information. B20 has 99% of the energy/btu of one gallon of one gallon of dino-diesel, so yes, you will see reduced mileage; should be a 1% drop.

[smiller]

Originally Posted by JEBar

... bottom line, the truck's mileage dropped by just over 2 mpg (when you are only getting 10 or so a drop of 2 is significant)

As above, B20 only has about 1% less energy than standard diesel so that alone couldn't possibly account for a 20% drop in mileage. You likely had some headwind or another factor going on.

[JEBar]

Originally Posted by smiller

As above, B20 only has about 1% less energy than standard diesel so that alone couldn't possibly account for a 20% drop in mileage. You likely had some headwind or another factor going on.

negative .... we keep very close records and I just went back and took a look at the period when the B20 was involved .... after taking on the B20 we covered 642.3 miles over the next 27 days prior to taking filling with 81.3 gallons of regular diesel (7.9 mpg) .... I can assure you that we didn't have a headwind every time we were in the truck for that 27 days .... the next tank of fuel lasted 13 days during which we covered 421.6 miles the mileage of 9.7 mpg was much more in line with our truck's historic performance .... in the year + since, consistent mileage performance shows no mechanical issues

Jim