He's dead Jim

[Maxter]

A few minutes after replying in the "How cold...started" topyc, I had to go in town for some supplies.

It was -18 celcius, so I started the truck manualy with the day light trick as always. The truck started fine and after 1-2 minute he was idling happily.

After a few kilometers, I started noticing that the engine was strugling to get pass 2000 rpm and I was stalling more and more often. I seemed worse when going up a hill. So much that I had to back down in neutral to get to a level area to start it again.

The local GM Dealer was open until 21h00 for service. I barely made it there, my batteries were almost gone because of all the stalling and restarting. I stalled about 20 feet from the garage door wich was opening for me. The door closed with me watching it. Just like in a movie.

I was due for a fuel filter change so he did it in 20 minutes without removing the plastic inside the fender. He went directly from the top. There was no ice and no water in the old one. He installed a WIX.

The truck refused to idle for more than 1 minute. The codes on the Tech II were "Low fuel rail pressure" or something like that. Finaly, I had to let go and let the truck stay for the night at the garage. They are going to call me to let me know what's happening.

The truck was running fine this morning.

I'll let you know what's happening.

JF.

[FirstDiesel]

Sounds like water in the fuel or fuel gelling to me. Sitting in the garage overnight warmed it. You running any fuel additives to help with the cold weather??

BTW, what is the daylight trick??

[Maxter]

You US guys don't have that problem because you can turn off your day lights at will with the dome overide button but for us Canadians, the only way to do it is to put the parking brake on before starting the truck.

By turning them off, you put less strain on the batteries and it helps in very cold weather starts.

The fuel filter was clean as a whistle and no traces of water were found. However, I did take a load of fuel from somewhere I didn't used to go a few days ago. We'll see the verdict in the morning.

JF.

[Kennedy]

Hope it's just restriction related, but I've heard of injection pumps failing this way...

[Plasticfantastic]

A similar occurance for my Bat Chief just a few days ago (temps in the low 20's) left him with no Dmax for several days and the stompin' red rear at the dealer.
On his way home it started losing power and then stalled. After waitng 20mins or so it would start back up and go another 100yds and stall again. Had to get towed in. The dealer/desk person told him he had been purchasing the improper grade of diesel and he couldn't run "that cheap stuff". (he buys all his fuel at the truck stop across the river,#2 diesel). They never gave him a definate diagnosis, just said they were doing him a big favor! and repaired it under warranty also threatening to flag his file. If it was gelled fuel then it is on him no doubt, but the way he described how he was talked to at the counter by a non-mechanic paper clerk would have caused me to respond in a manner not be-fitting a grown adult.
He said the whole deal seriously soured him on the bowtie and said he might consider the oval next time.
:(

[MaxACL]

Does the book not say "no addatives"? How do we keep the fuel from gelling?

Mike

[mackin]

It's a catch 22.....

If they OK fuel additives and the unsuspecting JOE buys an alcohol content additive and fries his Bosch pump GM doesn't want anything to do with it.....

They have no control over the consumer purchasing additives so in their book NO additives is the ONLY policy.....

So if you get a water or gel or any other issue all they can respond with is buy better fuel.....

This is the way I see it.....


MAC

[Maxter]

Good news,

It was a restriction in the fuel line because the truck spent the night in the dealer's garage and this morning it was fine.

The problem was probably before the fuel filter, my filter was squeaky clean after 41kkm. I was due for a change anyway.

Removing the juice outside at -42 celcius with the wind factor was the hardest part!!!

Thanks for your inputs.

JF.

[mdrag]

Maxter,

Was the filter cut open for inspection?

[Maxter]

Mackin:

I'm not sure about that, they took it out and went away with it. They came back 10-15 minutes after and said they found no traces of ice and/or water and that the filter looked brand new.

I never changed it since I got the truck... I know, I was due :eek:

[Duramaxdiesel]

Glad you got your truck back and running.

One other thing. I noticed that you're from Quebec,Canada too. Where did you buy your Juice box from?

[Maxter]

Duramax Diesel:

Got it from 2D Performance last November.

I've found that most vendors I talked to regarding this box are very nice and they know what they're talking about.

JF.

[hapaschold]

i had same problems today,overnite 12 f, mid morning 15 f, low power, stall, restart, stall, opened hood to reprime, no fuel coming out of vent, called buddy, pulled me back to work, couldnt get any fuel from primer vent, figured frozen line, got kerosene power heater, built cardboard skirt around truck to help keep heatuner truck, 5 hours later, back up and running. strange part is , drove to work , hour plus, then problems showed when going for breakfast run at morning break ,

what kind of fuel conditioners/dryers are ok for use on the dmax??? i noticed the tubing within the fuel cooling radiator looks really small. maybe that the freeze point if even a small amount of water is present.???

thanks for the help,

[Maxter]

That's something I forgot to mention earlier. When they changed the fuel filter, the priming pump was really hard to operate and woud come back up very slowly. It took 10 minutes just to prime it.

It didn't work either after that. The truck needed a good, hot night of sleep.

I run and additive that is suposed to take care of the water and indeed, no trace of water where found in the filter.

Here's the additive, don't know if it's available in the states. It cost about 12$CAN for a liter (a bit more than 1 pint).

http://www.sintoracing.com/WWW-E/produits/cetae_booster.html

[HDLD]

I've had many cold starts and can't plug in at work but no problems to date and then this morning at -12

[HDLD]

It was significantly warmer by noon so tried again but same thing. Died after a minute or so with increasingly shorter periods before it wouldn't start at all.

Continued to keep it plugged in and just went out and tried again - it's now 10

[Duramaxdiesel]

With all this stuff about cold starting problems, has anyone found out what the problem really is. What's freezing??

[Maxter]

The same thing as the original message in this thread happened to me again today. I knew what was going on so I was able to be gentle and make my way into a hot garage.

I can now see a similarity between now and the previous time. It happened about 50km after I fueled up at a low rolling station. Both times I didn't want to take the chance to go further in fear of running out of fuel.

More planning is what is needed...

[crafty]

We've had overnight temps of -30 to -35 C the last few nights and my truck sits outside. I do plug it in but only for 2 to 3 hours (on a timer)and I've never had starting troubles. On a few days even the day time high was -20 C and after 8 hours at work with no plug-ins it still started okay. Also I've never used additives of any kind. Not sure what I'm doing right. :D :D :D

[kerry witherspoon]

Well i live in calgary and never plug my truck in i use cetaine improver,but not antigell and have run truck in minus 45 celcius and use only petrocan diesel from truckstop and never had a problem but have had with other diesels using fuel from service stations/.I set up cardlock acount can get fuel almost anywhere i need it it is also a few cents less might be worth looking into,if this helps.

[hapaschold]

is the small fuel radiator by the fuel tank in the return line or the supply line ? thanks

[jbplock]

I'm fairly certain it's in the return line ... It cools the excess fuel coming back from the injectors that has become heated from being compressed to 20-30kpsi.

[Idle_Chatter]

jpblock, it takes out the heat of compression and also cools the fuel after it's heated by cooling the electronic packages on the valve covers. This is one reason that it is not recommended to run your tank below 1/8 too often, the volume of cool fuel for the injection electronics goes down and what's being recirculated is removing less heat.

[jbplock]

Tom,
Thanks for the clarification on the heated fuel. I've also been in the habit of not letting my fuel level get to low for the reasons you cited (a carry over from keeping my 6.5 pump and FSD cool). As a rule I try to fill up when the tank is half full. (It also helps to limit water condensation).
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