Diesel Question

[MSSM]

My wife traded in her 2003 duramax and bought a 2007 LMM last week. We have a 500 gallon overhead fuel tank here at the house. I'm able to bring fuel home from work (pumped from major service stations), I bring it in and put it in our overhead tank. The tank was near empty in November or December, but still had maybe 100 gallons of fuel in it. Not sure if that 100 gallons was ULSD or LSD. Since then I have been able to keep the tank topped off (bringing fuel in and running it through the trucks), so I've brought in about 700 gallons that could have been mixed with a little amount of LSD. So, if there was a little of LSD in there at the end of last year and I've brought in hundreds of gallons since then and it was mixed with a little of LSD that might have been in there, do y'all think that that little amount will hurt my wife's truck? Thanks in advance.

[More Power]

The refineries began quietly distributing ULSD about June of last year. By the early fall, ULSD was just about all that was deing delivered to stations. So, I'd guess you've been getting ULSD for longer than you think.

I don't have any information that would indicate what slightly higher sulfur levels might have on the DOC/DPF, except that 500-ppm sulfur LSD would reduce the life of these components. Dunno....

Jim

[MSSM]

Thanks for the info.

So, even late last summer, early fall when I started noticing the warning labels, the diesel could have in fact actually been the ULSD? Interesting.

Does the color indicate anything? I've noticed that sometimes the fuel is clear and sometimes is greenish.

I think she'll be fine using this diesel at the house, but she's scared. I'm probably just going to have her buy at the station until all this diesel at the house is gone. Our daughter's boyfriend will be a happy camper though, I'll start filling him up to get rid of this diesel sooner.

[Craig M]

The reason the oil companies started ULSD deliveries sooner than mandated was exactly your situation. They never completely drain their fuel storage tanks. By pumping out 80 to 90 percent of the fuel, then filling with ULSD, after 2 or 3 fillings the level of sulfur meets the federally mandated minimums. As I recall the actual sulfer content at the refinery is about half of the mandate number. The residual old diesel raise the "at the pump" sulfur level.