I keep hearing on the forum that bio-diesel contains alcohol and it's killing our fuel lines or that special alcohol resistant fuel lines need to be used. I could not find any info showing this to be true. I did find that Bio-diesel is processed using Ethanol or methanol alcohol, But said alcohol is in fact removed to be reused to process more biomass in the transesterification process.
what is bio-diesel (http://www.esru.strath.ac.uk/EandE/Web_sites/02-03/biofuels/what_biodiesel.htm)
Still using the OEM tank to engine hoses on our 1993 U300. Most all in California and all in the Sac Valley is biodiesel. No problems at all. Our 300SD is almost ten years older than the U300 and while it has steel lines through the body the firewall to engine lines are rubber and made long before biodiesel was for sale. No problems with them either.
As I posted a couple of weeks ago, it's my fuel of choice. If you lived in our smog, it would be yours too.
If you watched the NASCAR All Star race tonight, not one of the cars had petroleum oil in their engines. Dino products are fading like the dinosaur.
Pierce
Doesn't really matter. You will need to replace the fuel lines eventually unless you're lucky like Pierce and me. And when you do, they will outlive you.
It's not only a biodiesel thing, age and heat also effect the fuel lines.
Bio-diesel is a very good cleaner. Be prepared to replace your fuel filters a lot more frequently until the old deposits are washed away into the filters.
Very true Twig. But I think that a lot of folks on this forum shy away from Bio-diesel because it has been said it's liquid death to your fuel lines and engine. Even cummins did an about face on their 2002 and newer engines and said B20 is fine after saying that B20 was bad. The engines didn't change. So I don't know why it wouldn't be the same for our older M-11's. Cummins only did testing back to 2002 and probably won't test our old M-11's.
The only caveat I could find is that Bio-Diesel does have a naturally higher viscosity than #2 dino-diesel. Which means it has more lubrication than #2 but gels up at a higher temp than #2.
The biggest caveat is lower emissions!
P
Caveats are more about a warning, But your point is valid and a great one ^.^d
As I was taking short trips when we first bought the coach and was traveling the gorge in Oregon. I had been pretty much exclusively running B20 from the Flying J at Biggs Junction for the first three years as it was so convenient for us. Zero issues, No clogged filters.