Shell diesel

dayofthejackal

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Fellow Frogger
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Went to fill up my daughter's DS5 tonight and the pump had a choice of Shell diesel or Shell V power diesel. Only ever seen "diesel". Anyone know much about the difference ?
 
All diesel sold must satisfy a common standard set down by a Commonwealth legal specification. So it's all much of a muchness.

But retailers like a point of difference, so "premium" stuff has additives, like extra detergent, or best of all - bowser anti-foaming compounds, as if that will keep nozzles clean. You might get a corrosion inhibitor added to stop fuel rails and pipes from rusting if you think that might happen.

It's more important to get fuel from high turnover tanks that are unlikely to have condensation water in them. That keeps vile black diesel-eating fungus out of your fuel lines.

You won't get extra power, just marketing.

Truck diesel is the same stuff from a faster pump and nozzle.
 
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If given the option to buy the standard diesel instead of "premium" I will always go for the standard. It makes zero difference to the performance or economy of the car.

Premium diesel is for the same numpties who believe the hype about special petrol blends cleaning the inside of your engine. Like anyone really cares if the inside of your engine is "dirty". In fact 98% of them wouldn't even know where to start looking.
 
Diesel is remarkably stable stuff. The other day I started a diesel tractor that had been outside unused for maybe 10 years. It fired right up.

Roger

Boyracer's family has a boat that is anchored in the bay outside their house in southern Sydney. Michael tells the story that they put 700 litres of diesel in it when they bought it a couple of decades ago. It's never had any more added. Kick the starter and the little Lister diesel just does its thing.
 
Went to fill up my daughter's DS5 tonight and the pump had a choice of Shell diesel or Shell V power diesel. Only ever seen "diesel". Anyone know much about the difference ?
Yes I do. The V power has special chemical additives that are very effective at their intended purpose. What these additives achieve is to remove more cents per litre from your pocket into theirs. Its another fantastic triumph of marketing over knowledge. No need to concern yourself over cetane number, just fill up with Premium and you will feel better in the knowledge of whatever image the marketer has conjured up in your mind.
 
Hi :)
Well I worked in a couple of servo a lot of years ago but unless the physical laws have changed since then, all our underground tanks had water in them. The old fashioned brass dip sticks had a dark stain from it which was easy to see and every day when the tanks were dipped and the volume written down, the water volume was also written. The water comes in by the normal 'breathing' of the air in tank that contains humidity which condenses in the cool tank. If the water came up a bit in wet weather or got up too high it was pumped out. Otherwise there was a long term pumping plan to manage it. We never had a problem but some servos did when a tank sprang a leak, rust usually or ?? and the tanks were dug up and replaced. 🥴

" It's more important to get fuel from high turnover tanks that are unlikely to have condensation water in them. That keeps vile black diesel-eating fungus out of your fuel lines." So I never know what to make of this sort of statement. Even at storage depots the fuel is moved by pipes that are flushed with water and "pigs" between the different types of fuel. This water is allowed to settle in the bottom and removed as necessary. To pretend that there is no contact between water and any fuel, diesel or petrol is a fantasy. o_O It is managed !
Jaahn
From; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pigging
Normal Pig
A "pig" in the pipeline industry is a tool that is sent down a pipeline and propelled by the pressure of the product flow in the pipeline itself. There are four main uses for pigs:
  1. Physical separation between different fluids flowing through the pipeline
  2. Internal cleaning of pipelines
  3. Inspection of the condition of pipeline walls (also known as an Inline Inspection (ILI) tool)
  4. Capturing and recording geometric information relating to pipelines (e.g., size, position).
 
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There is some water at the bottom of tanks, sure. But have you ever had a fill that contained a significant amount of water? I have, from a small servo, and more than once. (I know, because I had a glass bottomed filter, and got very tired of draining it)

My present car, always filled in town, has never been infected by the black fungus that needs water, but my previous vehicles have been. Cleaning out fungus isn't easy. I drain the Citroen filter from time to time, but haven't had a glass full of water yet.
 
The really dangerous contaminant of diesel fuel is petrol. It does happen. Petrol engines, even an 03, run very badly on a diesel mix, tends to stuff them, diesels run too well.
 
Noticed that with not so much use lately and the 5km lockdown in Melbourne, the Megane Diesel engine seemed to be lacking in basic performance, we can't get out on a highway to induce regeneration cleaning and the plugging performance was getting worse. So on any downhill short run, I left it in neutral and ran the engine at higher revs. After two or three such rev-ups, the engine seemed back to normal, any one else finding the same.

My good Lady has been remarking that the only people that are driving at night after curfue are the hoons as she is a light sleeper and hears the engine revs of the speeders. Perhaps they are also Diesel drivers clearing their systems.?

Ken
 
Iffy. The regen cycle requires the engine to run much hotter, so that the exhaust filter clag can burn. The injection program is altered.
 
Originally we running the C5 on Caltex premium diesel from woolies then swapped to the CostCo diesel, did the same with the bosses petrol 307.
Both cars used around 10% more when on the CostCo stuff, so we switched back to Woolies/Caltex for both. Fuel consumption came back down to as it was before.
The C5 would very occasionally hiccup momentarially on the Caltex, especially on cold days.
One day the C5 got filled it with Shell normal diesel. The hiccup hasn't occurred since and there is a slight improvement in economy and both cars just seem to 'run' better, hard to quantify though. So we've been using Shell fuel ever since in both cars. The 307 idles much smoother on the Shell premium petrol.
To me, it seems that there is a significant difference between fuel brands, both diesel and petrol.
I did some research and there is no Standard for Premium diesel and the oil companies aren't keen on disclosing what is the difference between normal and premium diesel.
 
the marketing spin applies to 98 petrol as well. There are mandated standards for 91 and 95 fuels, but not 98 - 98 need only meet 95 to be legally sold. So you do get some actual variance between brands of 98, and government testing has shown an average of about 96 is what youre really getting.
 
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The standard for the fuel component of premium is identical to normal. Both are covered by it by law, and both fuel types have identical combustion characteristics. The standard applies to all brands.

Premium additives are the magic secret ingredients of the individual oil companies, but we know that they include detergents, anti-foaming agents and corrosion inhibitors. None will improve firing.

I normally fill at Shell and Liberty. I prefer the latter because of price. The car performs exactly the same on these. The purpose of marketing is to encourage you to feel a difference.
 
We learned a good and expensive lesson at IHC Dandenong one year when the plant was shut down for maintenance. The water based EPD tank (electro phoretic deposition) through which every part of the truck cab was submerged prior to painting had it's pumps and filtration systems turned off for an extended part of the three week annual holiday/maintenance period. When the pumps were turned back on it became apparent that a form of biological matter (similar to that found in fuel) had infested the 100,000 litre capacity tank rendering it's expensive contents totally useless.
 
Is there more than one refiner left in Australia ?. Some were suggesting that all Australian refined Diesel is delivered out of the then Caltex Refinery and the only different base Diesel is that refined overseas, and that importation should be subject to Australian standards anyway. I like the pong enhancers for those that like a better class of pong in their diesel. :unsure:

I guess some insider will tell us... ;)

Ken
 
There are only four refineries left in Australia and Viva is talking of closing the ex Shell refinery in Geelong. That leaves Mobil Altona, BP in WA and Caltex in Brisbane.
Now the Government has adopted a new policy on fuel security given the changed international situation in North Asia we are to hold at least a months supply on the mainland. This may result in pressure/incentive to keep our refineries open.
 
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There are only four refineries left in Australia and Viva is talking of closing the ex Shell refinery in Geelong. That leaves Mobil Altona, BP in WA and Caltex in Brisbane.
Now the Government has adopted a new policy on fuel security given the changed international situation in North Asia we are to hold at least a months supply on the mainland. This may result in pressure/incentive to keep our refineries open.

yet another opportunity for the oil companies to hold out their hand... just nationalise the bloody things, they run on taxpayer money anyway.

but they successfully lobbied for another delay in emissions standards so they could keep selling their high sulfur poor quality fuel without having to spend money upgrading their facilities, despite having known the fuel standard was coming for well over a decade.

stuff em. buy electric.
 
The standard for the fuel component of premium is identical to normal. Both are covered by it by law, and both fuel types have identical combustion characteristics. The standard applies to all brands.

Premium additives are the magic secret ingredients of the individual oil companies, but we know that they include detergents, anti-foaming agents and corrosion inhibitors. None will improve firing.

I normally fill at Shell and Liberty. I prefer the latter because of price. The car performs exactly the same on these. The purpose of marketing is to encourage you to feel a difference.

reno Cliosport 3 apparently run like crap on 98 but are fine on 95 - so some cars at least run worse with all the additives in 98.

Save the cash, just use 95. getting hard to find though with many of the big servos (around here at least) not offering 95 and only the high profit margin 98...
 
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