What other possibilities could there be, bearing in mind that it's running well, no loss of power and averaged 39 mpg over the 3,000 miles with a roof box and luggage for eight.

 

A [full] tank of bog standard Shell fuel is about £80, and is about Cetane 35-45. Regardless of brand or price how many extra Cetane[s] need to be added [via fuel enhancer] to that £80 tank to get a higher BHP increase at [variously different] engine RPM. Depending on the base crude source some diesels will need a lot of improving while others need less. For myself the improver's are beneficial in terms of [BHP] Cetanes only, and need to be used every single tankful changing my tankful from £80 to £100 quid a tank - adding a huge amount of cost to annual travel. Other so called improvements are more to do with Paul Daniels or putting quantities of eye of newt or toe of frog in the mixture.

I would have thought AlanC's 3 thousand motorway miles would have delivered enough 'thrutch' to burn out anything that was possible to have been burned out, and at the same time re-educated the engine software and gearbox out of 'sleepy urban mode'

 

Thanks for your input QinteQ. Just to add a bit more information; I last filled up in Calais, drove onto the train and from Folkstone to home only managed an average of less than 50 mph due to congestion and roadworks (the M1 and M6 were both closed so had to do a bit of a detour). Therefore the engine wasn't stretched on the journey home and the smoke has only appeared since arriving home and only when I accelerate hard. Also I am still driving about with French diesel in the tank so I am hoping that this is part of the problem.

 

Euro standard EN590 for diesel fuel specifies "lower limit cetane #51".

Leedsman.

 

I run all my cars on V-Power derv or V-Power Nitro unleaded (For my GT4) not for the cetene or octane improvers! But for the the fact that there is 25% more additives in these GTL fuels and lubes over normal dino fuels. This will help keep the whole fuel/combustion and injection system clean and lubricated. I overkill my oil burners by using 2T low ash in my fuels! But for what it cost me (£2 for 600ml) next to nothing! I feel its worth it for piece of mind as in the past I've have fuel pumps fail due to the low sulpher diesels...

 

HiYa AlanC, with a 2.8 lump on automatic its difficult anyway to 'stretch' the engine other than the heat created on a long cruise. I wrote recently that locking it in a low gear and giving it 20-30 minutes 'thrutch' @ 4k RPM on a quiet trading estate was the best we could do other than a long drive as you have just done. Maybe you have had a bad batch of EUROdiesel, try a dollop of premium now that you are home and see what happens, although I'm not even convinced that premium is worth the extra ...................

In the UK we began to see HP CRD's in the early 80's I think, when this delivery system became the norm with its very fine tolerances attention suddenly needed to be paid to detergents / stabilisers / lubricity etc, for myself I'm not convinced that anyone from refiners, premixers or anyone else does pay attention - I think it - diesel, is just sold and bugger the consequences. We all think we have badly engineered cars where in fact we have half decently well engineered cars running on an inferior fuel form for the engine design tolerances. Government and industry has no interest in correcting this and shortly we will have to cope with the much heavier shale. tar and other types of mixing. Our fuel is becoming the 'Fanny Mae' of diluted minced up who knows what's in it product we have no choice but to buy. Indeed they continue to water it down with recycled plant and animal fats and cooking oil against our [the motorist] will after pressure from the sandal wearing hair shirt and windy-mill brigade.

Hope you get sorted M8 !

 

Over the next few days I plan to use the last of the EUROdiesel that remains in the tank, mainly by giving it a blast in low gear for 20 minutes, then fit the new fuel filter, empty a can of BG244 into the tank and fill up with Shell V-Power at the same time.

I shall report back with the results.

Edit: Forgot to mention that the car has done less than 78,000 miles.

 

How about Cataclean is it any good?


Cataclean Fuel Additive For Petrol & Diesel 475ml

 

From the description it sounds like it cleans the exhaust tract, not the injectors.

Edit: It's got some good reviews on Amazon.

 

You would be better going for something specifically designed for diesel engined motors! I have found in the past that the ones used for both can be a bit watered down! If you know what I'm getting at! The only one I've used that isn't is Archoil 6200