This question is for my fellow American CDI'rs. What gas stations are you filling up at? I am currently trying Exxon Diesel. After exhauative researching, I have come up with no one here in Dallas, Texas is selling ULSD. Not exactly making me happy. Funny in Canada and UK they sell it everywhere, in fact it's what makes them (Diesels) such great chioces. Any input/feedback would be appreciated. I do know that BP and some others available in California (ironic right? ) sell ULSD. What gives Texas. I have even tried calling Chevron/Texaco, Mobil/Exxon and both say not yet. So much for the US being on the cutting edge of technology and R&D.

 

Excellent question. Here in Michigan, the corner Shell station's Diesel pump proclaims itself to be "low sulfur". However, I've had no luck ferreting out numbers - cetane rating, sulfur content. No literature is available and the teen at the register was surprised to find out there was a diesel pump out there!

A couple of weeks ago in London, Ontario, the Shell station I filled up at had two grades of Diesel, priced only .02/liter apart. No indication of what made "Premium" premium, tho.

 

I use the BP Ultimate available over here for 88p/Litre.
The supermarket is of low quality so adding injector cleaner every 4000 miles or 3 months helps. I would def reccomend these kerosene based cleaners.

Not so long ago i put cheapo disesel in since i was running dry and it made my car sound like a tractor..literally......couldn't wait for it to be used up...i then used bp Ultimate or Shell optimax and the car was as a lot less noisy at idle.

 

That would kill your your CDI engine.


That would kill your engine too. Shell Optimax is PETROL!!!!

 

I've investigated the USLD situation in Texas, too. It appears to me that there is no USLD retail outlets in the DFW area at this time. It is possible to purchase USLD wholesale, but that is only applicable to individuals or organizations which have facilities for storing bulk quantities of diesel and a fleet of diesel powered vehicles which can benefit (possibly in ways other than technical) from USLD. School bus operators or regional transit authorities come to mind.

The quality of diesel is scheduled to improve in the eastern third of Texas next Spring as part of the Texas Low-Emission Diesel Fuel (TxLED) Program. On 4/1/2005, the minimum cetane rating of diesel fuel would be raised to 48 and the "maximum aromatic hydrocarbons content" lowered to 10 percent. The maximum sulfur content is initially 500 ppm (same as the national "low" sulfur diesel limit,) and will be lowered to 15ppm 6/2006 as part of the nationwide transition to USLD.

This link has more information: http://www.tnrcc.state.tx.us/air/ms/...rams.html#dsl1

There are outlets for "premium" diesel fuels elsewhere in the state (nearest one to DFW that I found is in Fairfield, TX), but claims of superiority in these fuels center around cetane rating, cold weather performance, emissions and lubricity. The sulfur content of the fuel is not advertised, which leads me to believe it is no better than the national "low" sulfur limit of 500 ppm.

From other reading, I believe that the sulfur in diesel is more or less inert, as far as the engine performance is concerned. The effort to lower it is because sulfur is a pollutant and the high sulfur content in the current fuel would poison the exhaust system emission control devices which will be necessary to allow diesels to meet the tighter emission standards taking effect later this decade (and, as a side effect, allowing the 320CDI to be sold in all 50 states.) Additionally, while sulfur itself does not affect the lubricity of the fuel, early methods employed to remove the excess sulfur during the refining process also removed the beneficial lubricants, which led to concerns about the lubrication properties of ULSD and the mistaken belief that the sulfur in the fuel served as a lubricant.