Fuel Filter Plugging on B20 Biodiesel

[HEMIMANN]

Anyone else having problems with fuel filters plugging on B20 biodiesel fuel? I have to change fuel filters every 50 hours due to plugging and engine power loss compared to 150+ hours before the State of Minnesota passed a law mandating ONLY B20 sold in the state.

Which of course was due to corporate agribusiness lobbying (read: bribe) of state legislators. Prior to 2018, they mandated B5, which didn't seem to make much difference.

No, I don't store fuel and run the engine multiple times per week under heavy load. I also use performance and preservative additive (Hot Shot's Secret).

I wrote the state a nastygram if only to protest:

 

[crash68]

Not only do you get to change the fuel filters sooner but all diesel manufacturers recommend that the engine oil also be changed at shorter intervals.
The bigger downside with higher concentration of bio-diesel is it has the tendency to gel sooner in cold temperatures

 

[HEMIMANN]

Not only do you get to change the fuel filters sooner but all diesel manufacturers recommend that the engine oil also be changed at shorter intervals.
The bigger downside with higher concentration of bio-diesel is it has the tendency to gel sooner in cold temperatures

I know all that. I'm an engineer that worked in diesel applications for 22 years.

My question is specific - how often owners who ARE FORCED TO buy biodiesel are having to change fuel filters compared to prior. Other members have reported they are not forced to buy biodiesel, or only forced to buy low percentage blending.

 

[ppine]

In Minn you might want to add a pre-heater to overcome gelling in cold temperatures. No 1 diesel would help. Maybe some additives would help.

 

[HEMIMANN]

In Minn you might want to add a pre-heater to overcome gelling in cold temperatures. No 1 diesel would help. Maybe some additives would help.

In MN, they drop B20 to B5 in the winter due to gelling. They also mandatory blend No. 2 with No. 1 based by month. My question is about B20 only.

 

[06 Dodge]

In MN, they drop B20 to B5 in the winter due to gelling. They also mandatory blend No. 2 with No. 1 based by month. My question is about B20 only.

FCA does not list a different fuel filter change interval if using B20 and I have yet to read of anyone who does use a different filter change interval for B20, but that does not mean some may do so, I just have not read of any so far. The only different filter change interval FCA has when if using B20 is to reduce oil & oil filter change interval miles from max of 15K down to 12,500 or 400 hours or oil change due message or 1 year which every comes first...

 

[HEMIMANN]

FCA does not list a different fuel filter change interval if using B20 and I have yet to read of anyone who does use a different filter change interval for B20, but that does not mean some may do so, I just have not read of any so far. The only different filter change interval FCA has when if using B20 is to reduce oil & oil filter change interval miles from max of 15K down to 12,500 or 400 hours or oil change due message or 1 year which every comes first...

Well I can guarantee on a Yanmar Diesel Engine, the twin filters plug at least 1/3 the time as B5 diesel fuel, an more like 1/4.

I can't say if Minnesota's B20 is different from any other B20 in the U.S.

 

[06 Dodge]

Well I can guarantee on a Yanmar Diesel Engine, the twin filters plug at least 1/3 the time as B5 diesel fuel, an more like 1/4.

I can't say if Minnesota's B20 is different from any other B20 in the U.S.

Cant say if what you have in MN is different then the B-20 I had to run for a few tanks this summer on part of my trip in KS, and it will not be changed out until Dec/2025 or Jan 2026. I do know by accident, I went a full 24 months on my front fuel filter when I first got the truck, it ran on B5 99% of that time as B-5 is required in Oregon year round, oh the rear filter was changed every 12 months, IIRC the rear filter is 5 micron and front nano net filters down to 3 microns

 

[HEMIMANN]

Why Minnesota is one of only a handful of states that MANDATES BY LAW that ONLY biodiesel is allowed is probably because it has one of the largest agri-processors in the world HQ'd here - Cargill. Still privately-held by the Cargill family, so no one knows what they're up to unless they squeal on them.

Not only have they consistently bribed state legislators here, they've pushed through legislation mandating 20% biodiesel in spring thru summer, causing all sorts of problems in fuel tanks and systems. They also did this with corn ethanol into gasoline, and were trying to mandate 15% blending until the EMA got riled up enough to push back. Today it remains @ 10% year round.

Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) is another bad one, but they're HQ'd in Illinois, at least they were.

This is NOT your local farmer advocating for food made into fuel - these are gigantic mega corporations doing this, then pushing out propaganda about how it's so good for Fred Zweifel & Co. Even worse, the bribed legislators are forcing general tax funding from all of us to pay to these a-holes for requiring their unnecessary products that hurt our engines and use more fuel.

USA - the land of the best government that can be bought-off.

Content Retired - Compliance Assistance Centers

 

[06 Dodge]

Why Minnesota is one of only a handful of states that MANDATES BY LAW that ONLY biodiesel is allowed is probably because it has one of the largest agri-processors in the world HQ'd here - Cargill. Still privately-held by the Cargill family, so no one knows what they're up to unless they squeal on them.

Not only have they consistently bribed state legislators here, they've pushed through legislation mandating 20% biodiesel in spring thru summer, causing all sorts of problems in fuel tanks and systems. They also did this with corn ethanol into gasoline, and were trying to mandate 15% blending until the EMA got riled up enough to push back. Today it remains @ 10% year round.

Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) is another bad one, but they're HQ'd in Illinois, at least they were.

This is NOT your local farmer advocating for food made into fuel - these are gigantic mega corporations doing this, then pushing out propaganda about how it's so good for Fred Zweifel & Co. Even worse, the bribed legislators are forcing general tax funding from all of us to pay to these a-holes for requiring their unnecessary products that hurt our engines and use more fuel.

USA - the land of the best government that can be bought-off.

Content Retired - Compliance Assistance Centers

But you need remember it was the farmers in IA & MN who started the bull we need to mix Ethanol into gas, in fact I recall that farmer owned co-ops started some of the first ethanol plants as a way to get rid of their excess corn they were growing, as for Bio I recall it was soy farmers & a few others who bribed, oppsy I mean lobbied congress critters and senators to get the tax credits for soy bio to be mixed with diesel just like they did for corn, they sure do like milking the government teet for all they can and yet still cry they need more, as my cousin has said many times they are mostly 4x4 farmers, i.e. they plant for 4 weeks, they harvest for 4 week and then bi-tch an moan for the other 44 weeks ...

 

[HEMIMANN]

But you need remember it was the farmers in IA & MN who started the bull we need to mix Ethanol into gas, in fact I recall that farmer owned co-ops started some of the first ethanol plants as a way to get rid of their excess corn they were growing, as for Bio I recall it was soy farmers & a few others who bribed, oppsy I mean lobbied congress critters and senators to get the tax credits for soy bio to be mixed with diesel just like they did for corn, they sure do like milking the government teet for all they can and yet still cry they need more, as my cousin has said many times they are mostly 4x4 farmers, i.e. they plant for 4 weeks, they harvest for 4 week and then bi-tch an moan for the other 44 weeks ...

I don't remember that part - I remember when I started with Onan Corp. there was all sorts of bribery going on at the Minnesota Legislature in the 90's and how we couldn't store any of that crap fuel.

Then I remember the E85 campaign with GM especially touting "flex fuel" vehicles. The entire thing was a corporate welfare plot and it worked, because the general public is too stupid to know what's being done to them, even as their tax dollars are being used to do it.

I'm not pro/anti govt/tax. I'm against cheating, stealing and lying.

The agri corporations were the ones that built the ethanol plants around here.

 

[06 Dodge]

I don't remember that part - I remember when I started with Onan Corp. there was all sorts of bribery going on at the Minnesota Legislature in the 90's and how we couldn't store any of that crap fuel.

Then I remember the E85 campaign with GM especially touting "flex fuel" vehicles. The entire thing was a corporate welfare plot and it worked, because the general public is too stupid to know what's being done to them, even as their tax dollars are being used to do it.

I'm not pro/anti govt/tax. I'm against cheating, stealing and lying.

The agri corporations were the ones that built the ethanol plants around here.

The reason I have some idea of what went on it IA in the 60's, 70's, 80's is my uncle was a farmer for close to 30 years and then worked 15 years for the co-ops to gage/estimate grain in farmers storage bins