B-20 vs D2?

[ALLY Fox]

We are in Boulder Whyoming, pulled our 5th wheel over some pretty rugged but spectacular scenery. I noticed that since we're away from B-20 land, I'm getting a lot more black smoke and cold startup is a lot noisier. Also, low end power seems less but maybe that has something to do with 7,200' elevation vs sea level. I don't see any signs of boost leak and once turbo spools up power is good. All normal or should I be looking for something that's causing smoke? All the stuff fell out of my CAT a long time ago so I expect a little more smoke and I know the bio stuff puts out less smoke, hoping it's all normal. Any ideas?

 

[DAVe3283]

A bit of smoke at 7000' elevation isn't something I'd worry about, but it is hard to know what each person considers "a bit". That might be because you aren't running any biodiesel, could be the elevation, could be both.

As for the low end being down on power, that is completely normal at 7000', and I wouldn't give it a second thought.

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[Hoffie]

You can add some cetane boost to the fuel to help with the lower ratings that you run into when up north. All the truck stops have some additives. I use the grey bottle Power Service and on the back of the bottle it says to boost cetane ratings you can add all of the 100 gallon bottle to a tank of fuel. My truck always runs worse when I am up north compared to the south.

 

[clrussell]

If your at that elevation you will have a power difference and smoke.. Just ask my old 12v I took to Laramie

 

[ALLY Fox]

Thanks for the responses, just don't want to have any issues out here in the wilds. There aren't many people, let alone shops in this neck of the woods and we've got a lot more miles to go over the next month plus. I do dump a bunch of DK in every tank, especially running pure D2. I kinda miss the B-XX stuff, my truck has been on it for over 3 years now.....

 

[THEFERMANATOR]

B-20 does smoke less than regular diesel does. Theres less btu's/power in a gallon of b-20 than regular #2 diesel. As to down on power, thats the elevation as straight diesel makes more power than b-20 does.