Re: Sprinter Vans?

I'm told that somepeople on this forum run Sprinters (Dodge or Freightliner) on B100. If so, please pass along your experience. Thanks!

Try this link... They run B100 in their Sprinter. https://www.peacecoffee.com/van.htm

I have run up to about B30. I run B20 quite often. I have run B100 in my other cars, but not in the Sprinter.

quote:

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Originally posted by jmcbrew
... I have run B100 in my other cars, but not in the Sprinter.

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Why not Jesse?

I am running B20-B30 in my 2005 Sprinter Van. My mileage never gets above 19 mpg in City and Highway. Why am I not getting better mileage? I was getting 23-24 mpg just after I purchased the Van in Feburary running PetroDiesel.

Ron, you said it best in another thread... some people can afford to live "on the edge". I can do that with my cars, but my Sprinter has to make 2-4 trips from MD to OH and back to MD every month. I cannot afford to have any problems with the van. I feel pretty safe running B20 (from the Pentagon). The other problem is that I cannot get B-Anything during my MD-OH-MD trip once I leave MD. No time to go too far off the track... and not much room to carry fuel once I have four pallets in the van! Sprinterbd, I get 23-24 MPG with petrodiesel and B20-B30. No difference I can see. I don't know what might be going on with your van... have you checked the tire pressure? Speaking of which, have you gotten the recall notice for the tire stems?

Hello all, I am new to posting on forums so let me know if I am doing anything goofy. I wanted to join in this forum because I have been running a 2004 Dogde 3500 Sprinter bus conversion as a local tour and transportation guy in Oregon since 12/31/04. The main focus of my business is running bio-fuel blends in my Sprinter to offer a chance for folks to support bio-diesel in other ways, even if they do not have a diesel of their own. I have been using a B20-B30 blend from our local Shell station and am about to shift over toward B99 for the summer. I figure I will have to replace another filter but should be good to go for a bit after that. The main issue I faced over the colder months was making sure I used a conditioner every other tank or so to keep things moving. I also replaced a fuel filter off the bat once I started using bio-fuels, since my rig had about 3000 miles of regular diesel run through it first. Funny enough, all the issues I have been facing and why I have ended up surfing forums have had nothing to do with the bio-fuels so far. Right now my main issue is that the local Dodge boys have replaced my front rack twice because of an audible clicking noise when I swivel my steering wheel! This is in addition to other warranty issues such as a leaky tranny case for one thing. And now that noise is back for a third time! The local Dodge boys are new to the Sprinter game and when I first got there did not even have the right diagnostic equipment. We are trying to work it all out but I wish I had more issues from the bio-fuels because that is what I had prepared myself to deal with. Sorry to babble on for this first post but I wanted to give some perspective on why I am here. Thanks for the time and I look forward to reading more here and learning more from all of you.

John, Sorry to hear about your Sprinter problems. Don't you just hate having to take a Mercedes to a Dodge dealership for work? I have run biodiesel in a number of vehicles... new and old. Don't worry about what you hear regarding filters. 3k miles of diesel fuel won't leave behind enough junk to clog the filters. My '85 300D had well over 200k miles of petroleum diesel on it when I switched to B100. No problems. I switch back and forth between B20 and petro diesel in my Sprinter depending on what's available. No problems there, either. As far as cold weather, talk to SoyPowrd. He runs his cars on B80/kerosene20 in the winter and has been okay down to about 10F. Also, note that most anti-gel additives for diesel do not work the same for biodiesel. Let us know how the Sprinter likes the B100!

I'm new to the forum, just purchased a small Sprinter RV and am very interested in running biofuels in it. Do all you folks just run it straight into your stock vehicle, or after you install a "kit". Thanks

You certainly wouldn't want to run straight vegetable oil (SVO) in the car untreated. You'd either convert it to biodiesel before putting it in the tank (preferrable, but more work) or run a secondary tank for the WVO.

If you want to run biodiesel, no modifications are necessary.

 Sprinter vans offer an interesting BD challenge, so I've been told... (I was going to buy a fleet to rent out)

 Apparently they have a fuel chiller for the common-rail efficiency... (this of course sends chills up the spine of a BD person), so...

Dr, Dan of  http://www.fuelwerks.com/ ...

Has been using a pre-heated Racor filter on the Sprinter's, as well as routing the lines closer to exhaust for additional heat.  This has proven fine in the PNW climate. (might be too much heat in TX or AZ.)

 Personally if I was running BD in an expensive vehicle I would be sure to have a Racor prefilter (BEFORE factory filter) + a fuel pressure gauge (pre-injection pump).  The Racor filters have a translucent bowl to indicate what kind of stuff you are feeding your engine, and to indicate the presence of water.  + the filter elements are CHEAP. Keeping tabs on your fuel pressure is critical to the health of your VERY expensive Injection pump.  You might want to add a 'lift' pump to assure pressure remains adequate.

 Sprinter would run fine on B100 as long as it was good stuff, soy feedstock is questionable, (Europe is buying most of the Canola BD) so I would stick with B20 below 40F

 janb

I own a 2003 Sprinter van, I also run a 1998 Dodge 3500 (cummins). I make my own fuel and I run B100 in the 3500 - absolutely no problems. However the Sprinter is a whole different story. Every 1100 miles right on the dot, the van starts coughing and sputtering and the warning light comes on to change fuel filter. I have gone through over a dozen filters with no improvement. I did get the tank professionally cleaned before I started running the biodiesel. for 1000 miles the van runs great, no issues, plenty of power etc. I look at the Dodge sprinter specs and they caution not to run more than 2% biodiesel (why bother). Changing the filter is a major pain, a minimum of 30 minutes if all goes well and longer if it doesn't, Unfortunately not going right is the norm. Does any one know if there is an aftermarket fuel filter (like on the cummins), that I could switch to????

Does anyone run B100 on sprinters?

 Thanks in advance

Hello: I have the 2005, 2500 series Sprinter. This of course is diesel. I have watched my brother in law burn biodiesel in his 2002 truck for 500 gallons. this is vegetable oil converted to biodiesel. I had 5 gallons of diesel in the 26 gallon tank when i put in 20 gallons of biodiesel. I ran 20 miles and the engine warning light came on. The next morning I drove about 15 miles more and the engine would cut off at 45 to 55 miles per hour. I added 3 gallons of diesel and took it to the shop to check the engine light. The fault code was low fuel line pressure or low flow fault. The warning ligt was reset at this time. After leaving the repair shop the Sprinter ran perfect. Highway speeds of 75 MPH without a problem. After this I hooked up the trailer and drove about 60 miles and the engine light came on and it died. After towing this back to the Sprinter dealer the engine warning light was checked again and I was told it was low flow and high flow fault codes. Today I am waiting to get the Sprinter out of the shop. The tank has been drained and cleaned the filter has been changed and the injectors were cleaned. $648.00. Now it still won't start since the fuel line pressure is less than 4000 psi and I was told it need up to 20000 psi to operate this system ( i am leary of this ) So the fuel pump has been ordered and the 2100.00 for this includes the labor. But it takes 5 days to do this entire task. for a current total of $2748.00. That Brother in law of mine is a 1)*($*#@&$!(*Y$!*$&!#)(@$. Any thoughts about this

Filed under: Biodiesel Sprinter [Edit Tags]

I have exactly the same problem running my sprinter on B100  for years and going through a lot of fuel filters...

Did you ever find a solution for this fuel filter problem?  change every 1,100 miles....

Please let me know.

best

Robert

Yes I have been running B100 in my 2002 Sprinter for years and have the same Fuel Filter early change problem you described.

Did you ever find  a solution to improve the life cyycle of the fuel filter?

Did you find a better fuel filter?

5000 miles and counting .....

http://www.mackconsult.com/?tag=wvo

Lookin' good, mackconsult!

If you constantly plug filters, consider that your fuel may not be well filtered.  I am running B100 in all my diesels, and have not plugged filters more than usual.  I got 30k on the Jeep CRD filter and 20k on my VW filter.  But my fuel is polished through a 1 micron element.  If you buy your fuel at the pump, who knows...

Biodiesel users need not fear the fuel "chiller" either.  It's just a little radiator exposed to the air, so you cannot chill your fuel below the ambient temperature.  And if your fuel clouds at ambient temperature, that's a problem in itself.

I run WVO in my 05 sprinter and bio-diesel in my passat (during winter B50).