nelsona19 Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 I thought I'd take a poll of what everybody does for gelled fuel. I personally change fuel filters and shove diesel 911 in it and that usually take care of them. I'm not sure if this is right or correct but it's what I've always done. Doesn't happen very often but If they come back gelled again i drain the tank and refill with new and with ford anti gell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Browning Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 Typically I just push them inside and leave them overnight in a heated shop. Add the proper amount of fuel conditioner, road test and park it. A short discussion with the customer about his fuel source and how to use the rest of the additive I just sold him. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Warman Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 Here's a "neener neener" - sort of. Across northern Alberta, they have drawn an imaginary line. After the beginning of November, south of the line you get fuel with a wax point of -30 C. North of the line, you get fuel with a wax point of -40 C. It's been a long, long time since I've seen a waxed off fuel system. "Back in the day" (pre HEUI injectors) in a dire emergency, Some operators might "cut" their fuel with kerosene. One must remember that kerosene is drier than diesel fuel - adding some sort of lube to the fuel was popular..... at least we rarely saw premature pump failures. (I had a 325 Maxidyne V8 in an R700 that I couldn't keep valve inserts in - no pump problems, though). For a newer truck, I would probably just try a couple of jugs of PM23a. HTH. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lmorris Posted January 6, 2014 Share Posted January 6, 2014 On a side note about kerosene, a few years back I found out my grandad used to work in the English dock yards after WW2 as a "Diesel fitter". He used to modify diesel engines to run on kerosene due to the shortage of diesel fuel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Saunoras Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 I dumped some PM-23-A in my truck today at fill up. I've never tried the stuff before but we're experiencing record low sub zero temps right now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fredsvt Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 Maybe off topic, a question regarding fuel type. A customer of ours, a military contractor building drone control comm trucks, has built and sent over at least a half dozen or more 4.5 and 6.4 (de-emissioned) workhorse chassis trucks. They run them on straight JP-8 jet fuel from the bases they operate out of. We get them on about 1/4 tank of perfectly clear fuel, which leads me to believe it's JP-8 What will happen to the fuel systems, if anything on the 6.4 or 4.5 running this fuel. I've wondered. Only thing I've noticed is they are VERY loud, and smell, well, odd. We've put in auxillary fuel systems (tapped into the factory tank) for large gensets (50 to 70 kW) that are in the back of these trucks to power all the electronics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blown99 Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 I had my own personal truck gell up on me the other day. It was -12 (f), had about a half a tank from my normal fuel station. I had dumped one entire bottle of the stanadyne winter anti gel addative into it a few days before. Truck started right up in the cold temp. Drove about 5 miles to the interstate. Made it 2 miles down the interstate and it jsut shut off, no indication of low power etc. Keyed it on and off a few times, could hear the fuel pump cavitating. I did not have any 911, but I did have a quart of PS (white bottle) Dumped that in. Rocked the heck out of the bed/truck to stir it a bit. Got it to start. It would run for 3mins then stall again under load. Got it off the interstate and to a gas station. Topped it off with fresh warm fuel and all was good from that point on. I was pretty dissapointed in the standayne addative. First and last time I will be using it. I have always used power service with good results. Truck is an 08, superduty 6.4l. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Browning Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 Been seeing a lot of P0087 and P008a codes with reduced power warnings and check engine lights. Some, just dirty filters at around 10,000 miles. A few rusted fuel tanks, same low mileage. Today I had one that was gelled up @ 0-degrees running ULSD. Here is the filter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaron Posted January 7, 2014 Share Posted January 7, 2014 THATS BRISK BABY! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YukonTyler Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 I once got stuck with my 6.9 around Watson Lake, Yukon ...... it was in the neighbourhood of 50 below. my truck didn't die, but i was running down on fuel and needed to fill up. unfortunately, the diesel pumps had frozen. i wound up waiting out the night parked inside a government garage waiting for the outside to thaw up a little. the next day a truck came in with fresh #1 on a slip tank and I got enough off of him to get home. following that i promptly went out and got myself a tidy tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Browning Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 This topic was somewhat timely for me. Today alone 4 trucks towed in. One tow truck driver commented that was all he was doing today - recovering trucks that stopped running presumable due to fuel gelling issues. so at this point I have two questions to raise for discussion: Is "winter blended" fuel different in on one geographical region than another? In other words, is the winter blend fuel in NJ different than the winter fuel that is supplied in Alberta for example? I have always wondered this and suspected that there is a difference and I know that the answer is yes but as I read I see that there are even different ways of blending fuels for use in different locations and to varying specifications. Does the "wind chill effect" have any affect on fuel? Particularly in a moving vehicle. I can find discussions on this topic however and the answer is based on common sense if you know what the "wind chill factor" actually is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vloney Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 Had two today with what looked like butter smeared all over the filter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad Clayton Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 I thought I'd take a poll of what everybody does for gelled fuel. We performed a combination of Rescue 911 and or thawing out the truck in the shop. Our shop was kinda limited on space though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Saunoras Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 I've never seen so many gelled up trucks in my life. It was non stop all day. Between people calling me and talking to customers it was nearly impossible to get anything done other than thaw them out. I left a 6.0 ambulance outside last night by accident and that thing was not a happy camper. Keith wind chill does not affect anything but your skin. Once some inanimate object has reached ambient temp it cannot go any lower. I think our fuel is simply not blended for sub-zero temps like it is further north. My truck did not gel up this morning to the point of causing a problem but I did notice a lack of power during some hill climbs. The other guy I work with had his fuel gelled up this morning and wound up being an hour and a half late. He had cetane boost in his fuel but he doesn't run it all the time. PM-22-A does not say anything on the bottle about cold weather. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mchan68 Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 He had cetane boost in his fuel but he doesn't run it all the time. PM-22-A does not say anything on the bottle about cold weather. I run 1/5th of PM-22-B and 1/5th of PM-23-B on every one of my fillups. I find it difficult to believe how such a small quantity of each of those additives can have any effect on such a relatively large quantity of fuel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaron Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 I buy it by the gallon. I saved a whole bunch of the single shot containers the advisor used to sell with injector installs. Fill a bunch of and put them in the box. 2 "shots" per tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brad Clayton Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 Wind chill affects washer fluid. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
exmod110 Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 Wind chill has no effect after the fluid or object has reached the meanial air temp. Just because there is a breeze does not make the actual temp any colder. Wind will strip any heat or warmth from an object or fluid it has quicker then cold still air, but it will not make it any colder then the actual air temp. wind chill is a perseption of living, breathing, feeling beings. I would think there are different blends of winter fuel for the different geographic locations and expected temps in those locations. Just fyi it is -35c here this am with the wind it feels like -46c, a fleet of school bus's, no additives no gelling concerns so far this year or recent years past. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DieselD Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 ah the problems of the north...I can say I have never run into a fuel gelling concern here in AZ but I am interested in the methods to try and prevent it. We do have several trucks that do run in colder climates. I typically recommend a anti gelling additive and that seems to help reduce the phone calls I receive anyway Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Browning Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 Well for us in NJ when the temperature approaches 0*F is when I begin to see problems so it seems very wise to advise customers to use a good fuel additive when the temps are forecast to drop below 10*F or lower. It's not every truck here either so I also assume fuel can differ from supplier to supplier too. Probably the best explanation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Browning Posted January 8, 2014 Share Posted January 8, 2014 And they keep coming in D.O.A. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fabfoes87 Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 Our 315 Cat excavator gelled up today halfway up the mountain. Changed the fuel/water seperator and filled half with fresh diesel and PS 911. Ran for about another 25 min, then died. Finally got fired up and used a shop exhaust hose to run warm exhaust from stack to filter area. Ran all day like that no problems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Saunoras Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 My truck is running quite well on the motorcraft anti-gel and performance improver. I might keep running this stuff and save the stanadyne performance for the summer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Warman Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 Kieth, if you Google "P40 diesel", you'll get several hits. With the switch to P40, the operator will notice both a rise in full consumption as well as a drop in power output. +1 on what Xmod said. If an object has no latent heat to give up, it will reach ambient and stay there. People and critters, however, do have heat to give up and this is where trouble sets in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amailloux Posted January 9, 2014 Share Posted January 9, 2014 I have yet to see a gelled up truck and we had -24 f last week, and were -20 the previous week. I don't reccomendation any aftermarket additives, and the number 2 at the pumps seem to be just fine in our state. We actually have a much bigger problem with low Rvp gas causing no starts, and cold start misfires in the late model lean start cars and suv's. Our state sets the Rvp limits due to seasonal changes, but I am unsure if they set the limits for diesel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.