Pajero Owners Club of South Africa

As you all know 50ppm diesel is not available in many places here in SA. Vehicle manufacturers have played the problem down but our imported diesel engines are made to european specs which now require 15ppm fuel which is not available here at all. Pajero have been quiet but the new R1m+ Landcruiser V8 diesel runs on low sulphur fuel ONLY - which means you can never leave our borders. Damage to new engines can be extensive and we don't know the impact on engine life expectancy.
My dealer says "use low sulphur whenever possible" but I farm in Somerset East and it is not available here. I use Mitsubishi diesel additive from the agents every 10,000 km. Its supposed to clean the fuel system but will not stop damage to the catalytic converter/emmision control system. Ignition TV is doing a program on our diesel this weekend (4-5 Jun).

The question is.....

I don't think the high sulphur is bad for any advanced engine (besides the emissions part - and higher sulphur content demand shorter oil change intervals). The high sulphur is usually indicative of diesel with larger "dirt" particles than european standards.

Hence "dirty" diesel does not refer to the sulphur content being the culprit of dirt but merely relating to more dirt found in higher sulphur content diesel due to lack of refinement processes to make it clean.

Provided the "dirt" is removed from 500ppm and the emissions is bypassed (egr, cat converter etc), I'm sure the advanced engines will run happily on 500ppm. (and remember that oil change intervals will be shortened as sulphur makes the engine oil acidic and breaks down the anti-wear additives)

Check out
http://www.focusontransport.co.za/featu ... ja-content
More info on effects on engine, etc.