Can our (NA) NCV3s burn EURO4 diesel (50ppm sulfur content)?

I got some questions for you knowledgeable guys and they are:

1. Can our (NA) NCV3s burn EURO4 diesel (50ppm sulfur content)?
I remembered that someone in this forum said that our NCV3s for now have no difference from those European ones except those emission-control bolt-ons, so what are these bolt-ons? Does anyone get a list of them?

2. What's the impact to the vehicle if our NCV3s burn EURO4 diesel (50ppm v. 15ppm (NA-ULSD) sulfur content)? Will this incur the premature failure of some components, such as catalytic converters, EGR, injectors, and DPF? If so, will diesel additive help? will code-free DPF delete kit, if any help?

3. At last, do you guys know that is there any powertrain difference between Canadian and US NCV3s?

Answers,

1) you can use 50 ppm diesel, but your DPF will foul very quickly and will require replacing (sulfur contamination can't be cleaned out).

2) The only harm will be to the DPF, and as of yet, nobody that I know of makes a delete kit. You also risk a substantial fine if using your Sprinter in NA without the factory emission system. Diesel additive will not help if you use higher sulfur fuel.

3) Canada and US Sprinter powertrains are identical.

Hope that helps.

Where are you going that you will be using euro 4 diesel if you don't mind me asking? South America somewhere?

piper1 said:

Answers,

1) you can use 50 ppm diesel, but your DPF will foul very quickly and will require replacing (sulfur contamination can't be cleaned out).

Hope that helps.

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Yes, it does.

Piper1:
Does that mean the sulfur particulates accumulated in the DPF cannot be burned up during its regen cycle?

Tribunius said:

Where are you going that you will be using euro 4 diesel if you don't mind me asking? South America somewhere?

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I have no specific destination(s) for this moment. It's just based on what I found so far, excpet NAFTA, most of the other countries follow the euro emission standards and euro iv diesel is the most widely available diesel in cities for now even though euro v diesel should be provided in some counries from 2009.

u6006 said:

Yes, it does.

Piper1:
Does that mean the sulfur particulates accumulated in the DPF cannot be burned up during its regen cycle?

Click to expand...

Yes it does. The only thing that gets burned out during a regen is soot from combustion. Soot from motor oil (yep a little tiny bit gets in the exhaust no matter what) does not get burned up, hence the need for the special oil. The sulfur in the fuel will actually coat the walls of the passageways inside the DPF and weld itself (so to speak) there. This will result in a fairly quick increase in back pressure (which will signal a regen) and the whole mess just goes into a downward spiral from there. The end result is a DPF replacement, and very likely, a core charge as your old DPF can't be remanufactured and re-sold.

Right now, NA is actually ahead of Europe as far as emission reduction for particulates and NOx, we have higher EGR rates than Europe which creates more soot and further stresses the DPF. This I believe is the root of the problems with driveability that the NA Sprinters have. They thought they could make this emission control package work yet it is (IMHO) woefully undersized for the NA market demands and conditions.

u6006 said:

I have no specific destination(s) for this moment. It's just based on what I found so far, excpet NAFTA, most of the other countries follow the euro emission standards and euro iv diesel is the most widely available diesel in cities for now even though euro v diesel should be provided in some counries from 2009.

Click to expand...

Well thats not quite true. While the euro 4 standard is not a stringent as the NAFTA regulations however that doesn't translate over to the sulphur content of the diesel that is avaliable. Euro 4 does state 50ppm but thats not whats sold for the most part.

In western europe all diesel has 10ppm or less (since late last year). In fact many countries have even less sweden is between 2 & 5ppm. In fact they even have 1ppm diesel avaliable there. See the link below.

Edit: However other countries outside of the EU that use Euro 4 may very well be different.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra-low_sulfur_diesel