ultra low sulfur fuel

87, the deal about the low sulpher fuel has to do with the pump.Seems the sulpher worked as an add lubricant on the wobble plate,rotor and the shaft. Seizure and galling or the by product of this "new type fuel"
don't know about any fixes tho, I am sure there is a fix for the older motors,just have not had any reason to research the issue.
    boat dr

I use the Standadyne additive, same manufacturer as my pump.

Low sulphur fuel will eat my ($1500 pump + labor) real quick. Even the last reduction in sulfure reduced pump life, so I'm not taking any chances, because my next pump is not on factory warrantee.

I was re-warned by my diesel-tech just last month when I had it in for service.

He had nothing to gain by warning me, he just saw I was an enthusiast becuase my engine is hopped up, and wanted to save me some pain. And he was pretty impessed with the performance of my truck with the Heath ECM reflash and wastegate.

just inscase anyone is interested, I read the tag on the diesel pump today. It said that the ultraa low sulfur fuel was safe and recommended for all diesel engines 2007 and older, but it a requirement for 2008 and newer.

I don't believe the sulfur itself serves as a lubricant but the cracking process to remove the sulfur can hurt lubricity. ULSD however has additives to improve lubricity. Modern diesel fuel systems have much tighter tolerances and operating pressures than older fuel systems, for these reasons lubrication is even more critical. ULSD is backwards compatible with older engines.

Running non ULSD on new engines doesn't cause a problem with the engine. The problem comes in with aftertreatment (catalytic converters for diesel) and emissions. Sulfur poisons diesel aftertreatment systems. If you run high sulfur fuel through an engine with a catalyst the sulfur locks up the receptor sites for the regulated emissions and the regulated emissions will pa$$ through. The sulfur can be removed from a poisoned catalyst but it takes a much higher temperature regeneration cycle than with a typical regeneration cycle.

I'm an engineer for a major diesel engine manufacturer, so hopefully that will lend my story some credibility.

boat dr, I don't disagree with you JP4 will cause problems. It is jet fuel, not diesel. Jet fuel is very close to kerosene, which contains almost no lubricity. ULSD is supposed to have lubricity enhancers that make it equivalent to the older stuff. I have read of cases where there were bad batches, that have caused problems but by the standards it is supposed to equivalent from a lubricity standpoint. Additionally a small mix of biodiesel B2-B5 greatly improves the lubricity of ULSD.

The military likes to get it's engines certified to run on jet fuel because it allows them to have only one fuel. Very advantageous from a logistics standpoint. Due to the low lubricity of jet this is very difficult for modern high-tech diesel's. Some fuel filter manufacturers offer filters that contain a doping agent that releases lubricity modifiers into the fuel prior to the high pressure pump.