# Thoughts on cetane boosters



## L S G (Dec 30, 2008)

I own a few late model diesels and two diesel tractors my Ford 6.7 falls in a production range that have had catastrophic fuel system failures many now recommend fuel filters replaced at 15,000 miles and a cetane booster. 

There blaming it on crappy American diesel fuels with low cetane. Anyone seen issues with diesel tractors. 

if you read about the Ford failure it’s spendy to fix.


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## marc_hanna (Apr 10, 2017)

Tractor engines are much tougher than truck engines, and usually have lower compression. This allows them to handle a fuel with a lower cetane number. Many of these early common rail engines had problems with stretched head bolts, which does apparently result from low cetane number and the associated peak cylinder pressure.

I personally buy 5 gallon pails of 2-ethylhexylnitrate(2-EHN) and treat my fuel at 250:1 to achieve a 10-point rise in cetane number which will get any north american grade fuel into the 52 - 60 cetane range. This will make it run well in any diesel engine.

For engines with EGR and DPF this is a huge benefit because it reduces soot production almost down to zero in some cases. An experiment I conducted with a long hauler showed that number of regen cycles were reduced by 2/3! For newer tractors, this can mean a lot less down time.

The other thing to consider is fuel lubricity. ULSD does not have the same lubricity as non. And this is where your fuel system is heavily impacted. With newer engines, because of the tighter tolerances and associated wear, and with older engines the lack of supplemental lubrication systems on the injection pump.

Where I live, the diesel has poor lubricity and 42 cetane, so I treat for both.


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