Blutec Diesel Truck

I drive a diesel Volkswagen Jetta and mine has performed perfectly, except for the few times I bought cheap diesel (Walmart etc). I usually run Shell and have had no problems.

I doubt it is ULSD, although maybe Cummins has a problem with it... But ULSD is the way of the world... Where are you buying your fuel?

Last went down at Shell. But whatever is at the I 10 exit with the best sign and price is the choice. In small W Texas towns there often is no choice.

I know ULSD is the new standard. I am ready to chuck this one and go back to unleaded...15yrs...

I have driven that stretch of I-10 from San Antonio to El Paso many times with no problem.

It really sounds like bad fuel... Are you buying auto diesel or truck stop diesel mostly?

I clogged up a fuel filter with truck stop diesel that was full of water..

Yep Truck stop.

Steve

Whether truck stop or otherwise it can be a crap shoot. Some places clean their tanks and filter the fuel well and others don't.

I read recently that biodiesel is better for your engine because of it's better lubricity.

Several years ago the refineries started using a different process that is more efficient and does not effect the quality of gasoline but produces an inferior diesel fuel with less lubricity. At least this is what I read on the web site of a company that rebuilds injectors. They do not sell additives but did reccommend those made by the Stanadyne corporation.

Don't feel put upon too much. Owners of the new Ford diesels get injector bills of close to $3000 lately. The injectors have on board electronics. Cute.

Bio diesel is too aggressive for some sealing materials, if your engine has not been given a clean bill of health to run Bio Diesel from the Manufacturer, do not take the risk.

It could end up with a fairly complete strip down, just to replace dozens of O rings and the like once diesel starts oozing out all over the place!!!

It will not otherwise damage the engine per se, just your wallet contents!!! the seals are only worth a few Dollars, but the work involved and the setting up afterwards.....!!

By the way, have you tried letting the water out of the diesel filter from time to time. There should be a place where you can place a cup or similar under some drain point and let out the water.....if no water is seen, then water was not the problem.

Look on the web for other people with the same engine and a similar mileage and see if they also get problems!!

Also, I have never heard of a Diesel with a Catalytic converter (it is of course possible!), the unit on the exhaust looks much the same, but as far as I am aware, only the monolith is in there as a super filter, no heavy metals are needed.....like Platinum or Rhodium etc....

Does indeed have a filtered exhaust system.....filter is $2000. aint life grand. System cleared again. good bill of health. Searching web for viable aftermarket fuel filter system.

Check this out:

www.turbodieselregister.com

-Keith

Love Dodge , but the trans fail early.

My one ton chevy has 500,000 miles, gas engine, same transmission, no repairs,

good luck with your big truck!

The new transmissions that Chrysler is using (since 2004) are a lot better than the old ones.

It does sound like bad fuel is at least part of the cause. As one reply put it, it can be a bit of a crap shoot. Usually high volume dealers (such as by an interstate) go through enough fuel that water or other contaminants in their tanks aren't the problem. I suspect that the problem coud be the type of fuel put into the tanks. In the United States, Ultra low Sulpher Diesel only has to be "available" in 80% of the market, rising to 100% by 2010 if I remember correctly. In Canada, where I live, the law is that all road use fuel is ULSD and all non-road use (farm, logging,fishing, etc) can be regular diesel until 2010. Your savings of a few cents per gallon may be getting you into a station that doesn't always get ULSD and the station may not even know, because the fuel supplier doesn't tell.

At the moment, only Shell has made the commitment to supply all its stations with ULSD. Thier refinery expenses (current and future expenses) to meet ULSD standards for North America has been put at 2.5 billion dollars. You may want to take that with a grain of salt as those are the numbers Shell has provided

One other point that many people gloss over with a new ULSD engine is the need to use the new low ash synthetic engine oil. with the huge selection of oils on hte market, many dealers, oil change shops, etc do not realize that not using the new oil can cause issues with the paticualte filter as well as not using the right fuel.

As for what appears to be a catalyst, it isn't really. It is most likey a ceramic particulate filter that traps "soot" and when it reaches a level of flow resistance, a heater comes on and vaporises the soot (roughly 1,100 F). According to the design engineers I've talked with, it is possible to ruin this filter by too frequent operation. The soot either isn't vaporized or the filter exceeds its temperature limits and melts. In this respect the particulate trap and a catalyst are the same; overload them and they self destruct.

My limited research into bio-diesel does not show that using soya or canola based bio -diesel causes problems with seals. If there is alcohol (usually methyl is the worst causing problems at concentrations as low as 5%) in quantity, then there can be seal problems. The biggest issue with bio-diesel that I have come across is that it cleans all the "debris" out of a tank which means one tank of bio and you will have to change all fuel filters at least once if not twice. A secondary issue in colder parts of the country is the fuel gels a lot easier than normal fuel which has its formula adjusted no less than once every theree weeks by major companies to suit the weather in that particualr area.

Hope this helps and good luck cause Trucks rule, cars drool!!

The above information has been supplied to me in interviews with engineers from Shell, Ford, Mercedes-Benz and GM and used in articles I've writen for various publications.

Just the luck of the draw, things turn out just the way they are to be. Live with with it! I have driven a diesel from "89" to today, over 600,000 miles less than $ 1,000.00 in replacement parts. All you have talked about is covered by warrenty. Have faith, it will be as it will be.

Change the title to zen and the art of diesel truck driving.

I LIKE DODGE BUT I HAVE HERE OF ALOT OF PEOPLE WITH THE SAME INJECTOR PROBLEM YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT. MY FRIEND HAD ONE AND IF I REMEMBER RIGHT THE FUEL FILTER DOESN'T FILTER OUT FINE ENOUGH PARTICLES TO PRVENT THE INJECTORS FROM CLOGGING. PLEASE DOUBLE CHECK THIS BECAUSE YOU WOULD THINK THAT WOULD BE A NO BRAINER AT DODGE. THAT INFORMATION COULD OF JUST BEEN MY FRIEND BEING MAD. HA HA

All U.S. model year 2007 and later diesel highway vehicles are designed to run on Ultra Low Sulphur Diesel (ULSD=15 ppm). They are equipped with additional exhaust filters that will quickly clog up if you run a couple tanks of the last generation of diesel fuel: Low Sulphur Diesel (LSD=500 ppm sulphur). There are no hallucinogenic effects from ingesting this kind of LSD, unless you get dizzy reading the repair bill. It is quite possible, as "writer" suggested, that you could have filled up with LSD inadvertently. Look for the new green sticker on the pump that says ULSD. Of course who's to say the delivery truck didn't put LSD in there inadvertently.

Were those repairs covered by Dodge's warranty? I would sure hope so, but I know that emissions components aren't covered sometimes. The injectors could just be faulty out-of-the-box. Check your fuel filters if you haven't yet (they should be changed every 15,000 miles anyway). They would catch any debris in the fuel and hopefully save the injectors, but look for water in the filter housing because that will get through and surely cause damage. As a former diesel repair mechanic I will attest that CLEAN FUEL IS CRITICAL IN A DIESEL ENGINE. There may be more than one filter. It should have a final filter of very fine material, catching anything larger than about 5 microns. If not, try and find a replacement that does.

I am lucky enough to have a 2006 model year diesel (Ford) so the new ULSD is not an issue for me (except the lack of lubricity, which is supposedly adjusted with an additive at the refinery).

Actually EPA requires a 5 year warranty on emission systems.

This is VERY likely not so much bad fuel, but bad fuel storage. That Cummins engine is a modern version of the old C model built 30-40 years back. It will not have too many upgrades left in it that aren't already re engineered years ago for all types of fuels. Install your own fuel filter bank. Google "0.3 micron diesel fuel filters" or 0.6 micron. Google 'micron' to get a feel for just how small this is. Average diesel fuel filters are 5 or 10 micron. Depending on how much room you have under the hood, I would remove the Cummins suppled filters and put on a 5 micron coalescing filter to knock out the water, then two 0.3 micron (two in parallel with a 3 way valve to swap between them). Put a fuel pressure gauge upstream of the 5 micron and down stream of the 0.3 micron. When the 0.3 micron starts to show signs of blocking, switch to the new one slowly with the engine running to avoid loosing prime on the system, then change the blocked one. If pressure does come up to near the value of the upstream pressure gauge, then the 5 micron needs changing soon. You can add a third gauge between the two filters to eliminate guess work on the blocking of the 5 micron. Yes . . . . . everyone will add that you can buy filter differential gauges, but I like 2 normal gauges with real readings versus differential gauges for other trouble shooting reasons.

Let us know what helped so we can learn.

I like that filter arrangement, and I think I will copy it on my next project truck, which starts this spring.

Don't happen to know where I could find a truck with the 5.9 engine and automatic transmission and 4 wheel drive do you?

I am building a very nasty expedition vehicle that has lots of Hp for highway, and loads of torque for the off road fun.

If you are a new owner, I'm assuming you have the new 6.7 Cummins and not the bulletproof 5.9. That should tell you alot right there. I doubt you're seeing alot of other people in your area fighting the same problems, which is a sign that it probably has nothing to do with fuel. Everybody likes to blame the unknowns, but a little bit of deduction and common sense will point you to the most likely culprit.

Check to see if Dodge changed injectors when they went to the new engine. I'm pretty sure they did. Also, I wouldn't call that an exhaust filter. It is more like a trap. In order to meet the new stingent emission laws and increase horsepower you have to cool the exhaust, but by doing so it doesn't allow all the residuals to 'cook off'. The trap captures residual material, then recooks the leftovers within the trap. This is also a new design and might still have bugs to work out.

My guess is you are dealing with issues that relate to new design that has yet to work the bugs out. I have a 2005 3/4 Ton Chevy Duramax that I took the time to research before buying. Here is an example of what I found during my research;

Between 2001 and 2004

Ford 6.0L Power Stroke had 77 technical bulletins issued for a wide variety of problems, which inturned caused Ford to file a law suit against the manufacturer.

Chevy 6.6L Duramax had 8 technical bulletins issued mainly due to having the injectors seated on a cracked bushing inside the valve cover allowing oil to fill the crankcase.

Dodge 5.9L Cummins hand 0 technical bulletins issued.

I chose the Duramax over the Cummins due to Cummins not having a variable turbo and after talking to the people at Gale Banks Engineering I found both his sons drive the Duramax.

Most of these engines listed all use Bosch Injectors. Now on some of the new releases the manufacturers for going with piezo-injectors for quicker response times. If your Dodge has that and with the new trap design, you are probably suffering through the growing pains of buying something before it has been debugged completely.

....and not the bulletproof 5.9. ..yes the newer 6.7. was second choice, I asked for the gasoline Hemi.but time restraints and a damned good saleswoman, convinced me to take the diesel.

This is also a new design and might still have bugs to work out...... The exhaust system "trap" when not allowed sufficient time to cook out, does indeed plug up and once it reaches the engine check lite point, it will no longer regen.

Secondary problem at this time is that distribution of ULSD in south Texas is not complete, not even to all truck stops where high volume sales occur. Use of the LSD(500ppm) more that twice in a row will adversly affect the engine performance, and begin the Filter's demise.

id take a poor running cummins over anything chevrolet makes including the (MATEL )want to be duramax

Injectors can go bad in two ways, they get plugged with whatever the filter missed, or the electronics go bad.

The filter is getting plugged up I suspect because of incomplete combustion, that black smoke normally associated with diesel trucks, on older trucks the injector pump was adjusted on the new trucks the software has to be adjusted. Personally I would get in touch with ATS Diesel Performance or Banks Engineering, both equally good in after market diesel performance and know just about everything there is to know about modern diesels.

The filter is their response to the green theme and is more for political correctness than anything else, can't have those nasty diesel trucks smoking. I drive a diesel Land Rover and the motor is tuned for better power and smokes quite a bit, but she sure make a lot of power. I also burn peanut oil and olive oil when I can get it in bulk and cheaper than pump diesel. Used cooking oil also works well once it is filtered, I don't use the methanol wash to remove solids, just a very fine filter. It is the methanol removal procedure if done wrong causes attacks on the "O" rings, if the methanol is not removed correctly the concentration gets too high. Synthetic rubber "O" rings are not affected, it's the old style rubber ones that have issues.

Good luck with the problem