BG Products

BG Products are a world leader in helping fleets restore and maintain full economy and power.

BG’s customers include all the municipal vehicles in the cities of New York and Chicago (circa 40,000 vehicles) as well as marine, rail and standard car and van fleets – such as London Hire in the UK

These organisations use BG because they have seen real, tangible financial benefits in terms of economy and loss of downtime in their fleets. At the end of this profile there are a number of examples of Pre and Post results demonstrating the effectiveness of our treatments.

BG Products arrived in the UK, from USA, in 2000. In the USA they are regarded as specialists in the maintenance of fleet efficiency. Delivering benefits in terms of fuel saving and preventative maintenance. The preventative maintenance is not only allowing expensive vehicles stay on the road much longer but also dramatically reducing expensive component failure such as DPF and EGR.

We at BG pride ourselves in 2 things in particular

First is the level of Research and Development that we put into our products prior to launching

Secondly, we see our goal as being a partner to fleet operators. A partner helping fleets to overcome operational challenges such as extension of oil change intervals, reducing emissions, addressing fuel problems  etc.

Although BG, a company based in Kansas, USA, have collaborated with several OEM’s to find solutions to deposit and lubrication issues such as EGR deposits and oil sludging, BG also believe that, whilst some OEM’s do invite BG to help them address their deposit challenges, the fact is that all engines suffer from carbon deposit issues on critical components such as injectors, piston rings, valves, DPFs, etc.  

These deposits will inhibit performance and economy. Indeed, BG’s research has shown engines losing up to 8% of compression in as little as 11,000 miles, in other tests we have seen power and economy shrink by 4-7% in typically less than 45000 miles.   

BG Products offer a range of pour in products to restore power and economy. However they also provide tool introduced chemistry to decarbonise combustion chambers, injectors, Intake tracts, EGRs and clean DPFs.

As well as cleaning key components BG Products offer a range of fluid exchange systems such as Power Steering, Coolant, Manual Gearbox and ATF exchange systems.  

Diesel Particulate Filter
A major challenge for modern fleets is the burden that emissions control devices can put on the engine

With the advent of modern emissions systems such as EGR valves and Diesel Particulate Filters comes additional deposit problems. Fleet operators know that these deposits not only affect the efficiency of the component in question but also bring shortcomings in power, economy and emissions. Furthermore, a DPF in limp mode causes operational challenges to minimise downtime. There is an irony in the design of many additional emissions control devices in that, when they malfunction, emissions are adversely affected.

The EGR and DPF are well intentioned devices that do an extremely valuable job in lowering Nox and Particulate Matter (soot) emissions….until they get clogged up themselves by the very exhaust borne emissions they are trying to control.

The DPF unit’s job is to reduce the amount of soot that is passed into the atmosphere.  It can reduce soot by as much as 80%. Diesel Particulate filters literally filter the soot that is being passed out of the exhaust.  Eventually that filter will become ‘full’ and will need clearing

The clearing process of a typical DPF occurs in either of 2 ways, Passive Regeneration and Active Regeneration

Passive    
Passive regeneration takes place without the driver being aware. It usually happens when the van/truck is taken on longer runs. This gives the exhaust gases a chance to reach the very high temperatures required to initiate the process of converting the soot into a very fine ash, thus cleaning itself

Active
This happens when passive regeneration has not occurred (usually because of the lack of required driving) and the soot loading reaches a certain level. This is typically about 40-50%. Active regeneration involves the ECU adjusting the fuel injection to increase heat in the combustion chamber, which in turn creates hotter exhaust gases and more heat in the DPF. This additional heat burns off the soot and should allow regeneration to take place through further higher speed driving. If that active regeneration does not take place (perhaps because high rev journeys have not happened for long enough) the particulate matter (soot) will continue to build up to a point that the DPF cannot regenerate itself without some external help.

The main factors for fleet operators is downtime and the loss of economy associated with deposit build up – the latter is not always fully appreciated by fleet operators. Most operators do not pay attention to a DPF or EGR valve until they present problems, however, on the journey to getting fully loaded with soot (or ash) the vehicle is, most likely, already suffering a slow decline in economy. So why would this be?

Soot production is a ‘chicken and egg’ scenario.

The soot itself is a natural by-product of the combustion process but what exacerbates the problem of soot is poor combustion and oil evaporation

Poor combustion produces more soot, more soot means the DPF has to work harder, and/or more often, to process that soot.  Already there is an impact on economy if the DPF has to work harder and more often.

Alexander Sappok of Massachusetts Institute of Technology says that during regeneration fuel consumption can increase by 25%.  But of course there is also a loss of economy inherent in the fact that less efficient combustion is causing soot production in the first place (this lack of efficient combustion is very often caused by faulty injector spray patterns – also caused by deposit).  However this is not the only impact of soot on the engine.

Soot when produced gets carried by tiny amounts of fuel down into the oil. Here it gets carried around the engine by the oil (not too healthy for the engine) and it, and the degraded oil it encourages, gets deposited in and around the piston rings. This in turn leads to interference with the ring function and their ability to flex and centre, this leads to a 2 way ‘leak’

Evaporated oil is able to seep past the rings and combust in the combustion chamber. The resultant ash gets deposited onto the substrate of the DPF, lowering its efficiency.  However there is also a leak back the other way as the compression of the engine is compromised and consequently there is a lack of quality combustion, leading to even more soot.

Losses of 3% compression have been translated into a loss of horsepower of 9%.

Furthermore the EGR valve also gets clogged by soot production. The EGR’s tendency to stay open when clogged means that that engine combustion temperature is lowered and soot production is increased again

BG Products believe that cleaning a DPF is not enough as the problem with DPF’s is usually upstream. BG Products says ‘Our research, and that of the OEMs, shows that cleaning or replacing a DPF without restoring engine efficiency is like having a heart transplant without changing your diet. The problem will return’

BG have developed a DPF cleaning system that cleans from the front of the engine to the DPF. The system cleans the intake tract, intake valves, EGR circuit, piston rings, fuel injectors and the DPF.

The system has restored power and economy to fleets such as London Hire and a number of emergency service fleets. These organisations report impressive savings on repair and replacement of EGR valves and DPF’s.  The service also restores power and economy of the fleet vehicles

Some Results of DPF Cleaning

Ford Transit 11722 miles
Pre Treatment Back Pressure 32 Mbar
Post Treatment Back Pressure 0 Mbar

Ford Ranger 17654 Miles
Pre Treatment Soot Loading 300%
Post Treatment Soot Loading 1%

Fuel Economy
Naturally, most of BG’s fleet customers rate fuel economy as critical to their business.

BGs fuel maintenance regime have shown significant fuel savings.

The key to fuel efficiency in a diesel engine is to maintain injector spray patterns and compression. It takes very little deposit to interfere with the spray pattern on modern injectors. The fine spray holes are subject to an extremely harsh environment as they are in direct contact with the high temperature of the combustion chamber and the deposits generated by the combustion process.

Compression rings are very quickly affected in a diesel engine. The oil is impacted by constant washing of soot into the oil. The oil can quickly get behind the piston rings, solidify and then restrict the flexibility of the rings. This causes the compression to be compromised and reduce power and economy.

BG Products’ Engine Performance Restoration flush will quickly restore that vital compression
Results of Injector and Compression Restoration Service

DAF 105  300,000 miles
            
Pre Treatment 8.7 MPG
Post Treatment 9.3 MPG
Increase 6.8%

Solaris Urbino 12 Bus Euro V  148,000 Miles (University Controlled Test)
            
Pre Treatment 3.88 litres per hour (Fuel Consumption at Idle)
Post Treatment 3.5 litres per hour
Reduction of 4.4% fuel consumption

BG Products helping your fleet run better and run longer

www.bgprod.co.uk