Cetane? How Much Is Too Much?
 

just wondering if you have your truck juiced up if you fellow the bottle directions is it possable to have too much cetane and have the wrong effect becuse thier is no cetane reading on the pump here in MN.:bombin:

Cetane (CN) isn't an ingrediant in the fuel, it is a measure of a fuel's ignition delay; the period between the start of injection and start of combustion.
In the US, diesel fuel has a CN range from 40-46 for regular diesel, if you can find premium diesel it will be around 45-50. Again, this is a measurement not a content amount.

I want some liquid centane

Clay is correct ....cheers buddy :c:

I am? whew, thats lucky, i was just making that all up. :tada:

so you did not tell me what I want to know if you add a cetane addative to a juiced up truck and fellow the directions on the bottle can it have a negitive affect like too much octane for a gas motor....

no......yer good to go...I dont believe you could ever get the centane too high to cause a problem

I believe somewhere in the latest issue of Diesel Power, which I read yesterday, it speaks of good cetane ratings (and Clay hit it right about dead on, as Whit said). I could look it up but alas, im too lazy.

Heres a thread from a web site up north here, some info on Cetane for you folks

http://www.4wheeler.ca/index.php?showtopic=33506&st=0

I like this statment ...............and its true

Cetane's greatest benefit is that it promotes pre-ignition resulting in a complete "burn" of the fuel and gives the engines a huge power gain.

With that statemant said, Cetane = enemy to black smoke. lol

great it sounds like it would be dam hard to get too much cetane that is the answer I was looking for....

I have been from side to side of this country and never saw cetane higher than 45 points. Usually it varies from 40 to 42, with premium diesel being 45 points.

I can only say that running too much cetane with excessive timing advance will cause ping...I ran a RokkTeck Sensor and noticed the advanced timing with 45 cetane caused a bit of "ping" in my 04.5...

steved

my brother just bought a cetane booster used by the super farm tractor guys. one ounce per gallon of fuel is recommended for street use and it raises the cetane rating 10-12 bars. the super farms guys a ton more than one ounce per gallon and i didnt hear anything out of the ordinary with their motors.

I know a few people who run it but i think you would want to maybe ad a lubricating agent too if you put pure cetane in your tank. I talked to the guys at scheids about it a long time ago and they reccomended it if i remember corectly.

And what is pure cetane?

I dont know really, Me and shane were out at a buddys house to do my turbo and injectors and he showed us this stuff in a galvanized looking metal can that he uses but it is rediculous to buy it costs alot. He told me to call scheids and they sell it.

It's probably toluene, MEK, or the like; that the oil companies use to increase "cetane"...Again, cetane is a rate-of-burn thing, the additive only increases or decreases that rate-of-burn number...but the additive itself isn't "cetane", but more correctly, it is probably a "cetane booster".

steved

never thought of that .........if it is toluene be extreamly careful not to get any on you

WOW............check out this shit I found



2 Cycle oil is a HIGH BTU additive (138,000 BTU's) compared to most cetane booster that are low BTU's (~19,000 BTU's <- NO TYPO!). The more you use a cetane booster the more your wasting out your fuel. This will reduce HP/TQ (Been tested) and also reduce MPG (Been tested). Think about how we all whine in the winter because the MPG falls (HIGH CETANE FUELS). Then in the summer time we all relax again (LOW CETANE FUELS).

whoooaa. so if this is true then it contradicts mike's research. something's off.

I aint sure on this .......need someone that knows ya know"give:

yeah this is gonna get interesting i think. :pc::numb:

so in the winter cetane boost is a bad thing is that what you are saying WHITMOORE. I thought that cetane helps burn the fuel better for less black smoke and moore power

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought cetane was the burn rate of fuel?

The BTU content probably varies from one to the other, but I think the main reason they seem to "work" is they make the rate of burn faster...

steved

You are exactly right and I don't know all about winter blend fuel having higher cetane rating causing poorer milage. What I do know is the ambient temps outside will effect milage of your diesel. I drive from OK to MN in December for christmas and it could easily be 60* here when i leave and I"m getting around 17 mpg...as i approach MN, the temps are closer to 0* and I can't get above 13 mpg....and its all the same fuel....i left OK with 130 gallons so i didn't have to buy any fuel untill my return trip.
Then when i return to warmer climates, my milage returns. This is a simple observation but it was consistent with temps and seemed like for ever 25* drop in temp, i lost about 1 mpg.
My best milage comes in the summer when its 90*-100*... I get 18-19 mpg then.

I cant really tell ya thats why I said we needed someone who knows whats going on here

your still speaking as if cetane is an ingredient in the fuel, like an additive, it is not. It is a rating system or value of that fuel that tells you the burn rate.
Certain other things such as kerosene cant be added to diesel to give it a different cetane rating.

I've left PA at -25*F getting 12mpg...ended up in NM getting over 20mpg. I know all about that temperature thing! :U:

And another thing that completely makes this a moot point is the fact that suppliers add their own concoction of additives to the fuel they put out at the pumps...so we might not even see the effects of the fuel itself, but the additives within that fuel.

steved