TUBE 3T8658 - Caterpillar

Fuel Information
Use only fuel as recommended in this section.
Fill the fuel tank at the end of each day of operation to drive out moist air and to prevent condensation. Maintain a fairly constant level in the day tank (near the top) to avoid drawing moisture into the tank as the level decreases.Do not fill the tank to the top. Fuel expands as it gets warm and may overflow.Do not fill the fuel filters with fuel before installing them. Contaminated fuel causes accelerated wear to the fuel system parts.
Drain the water and sediment from any fuel storage tank before it is refilled. This helps prevent water and/or sediment from being pumped from the fuel storage tank into the engine fuel tank.Fuel Types
Caterpillar Diesel Engines have the ability to burn a wide variety of fuels. These fuels are divided into two general groups, preferred and permissible.The Preferred Fuels provide maximum engine service life and performance. They are distillate fuels. They are commonly called diesel fuel, MDO diesel, furnace oil, gas oil or kerosene (for cold weather operation).Experience has proven that distillate fuels meeting the following basic specifications results in optimum engine performance and durability.Caterpillar strongly encourages the use of fuels that meet the Preferred Fuels specification.The permissible fuels are crude oils or blended fuels. Use of these fuels can result in higher maintenance costs and reduced engine service life.Crude oil is used to describe oils/fuels that are not refined and are in the original state as when pumped from the ground. Certain types of crude oils can be burned in Caterpillar Engines, but are not recommended for on-highway trucks.Refer to Diesel Fuels and Your Engine, SEBD0717, or SAE J313 Diesel Fuel Specifications for information about fuel properties, such as ignition quality, gravity/density, viscosity, cloud point, sulfur content, etc. Fuel Cetane Requirement
The minimum fuel cetane number recommended for the direct injection engine is 40. The fuel cetane value affects the startability and acceleration of an engine.Fuel Sulfur Content
The percentage of sulfur in the fuel affects the engine oil recommendations. Fuel sulfur is chemically changed during combustion to form both sulfurous and sulfuric acid. These acids chemically attack metal surfaces and cause corrosive wear.Certain additives used in lubricating oils contain alkaline compounds that are formulated to neutralize these acids. The measure of this reserve alkalinity in a lubricating oil is known as its Total Base Number (TBN). TBN is essential to neutralize the acids from combustion gases and to minimize corrosive wear.Any API classification performance oil should have sufficient TBN for fuels with less than 0.5 percent sulfur. For fuels with 0.5 to 1.5 percent sulfur by weight, engine oil must have a TBN of 20 times the percentage of fuel sulfur as measured by the ASTM (American Society of Testing Materials) D-2896 method. (ASTM D-2896 can normally be found at your local technological society, library or college.)Caterpillar recommends infrared analysis (in conjunction with wear metal analysis) of used oil in determining the effectiveness of oil TBN and acid neutralization.For fuel with