Frozen Diesel?

[Budd]

Well the temps have been about -8F to 3F (ambient)the last few days and my truck won't start. My truck usually starts when it gets this cold but the other day it wouldn't. I plug it in religously. I just had the flywheel and starter replaced last month under warranty, and I'm stumped as to why it won't start. :( My best guess would be that my fuel froze since i had less than a quarter tank in it, and I didn't put in any additive like i usually do on the last fill up. When i goto start it up she just cranks over and over with no starting. I have no way to warm her up so i guess i have to wait till it warms up next week. Any other suggestions would be great.

[James Schaack]

BUDD,

i would guess you are right about the fuel being gelled up. being in cold temps like that be sure to buy quality fuel and use additives. my suggestion would be to put additive into your fuel to help with any gelling. at least in my experience, if you put anti-gel in after the fact and be patient(2-3 hours?) the fuel will re-liquify. also, you will probably want to change your fuel filter. i've been in the same situation and i feel for you, good luck! :D

James

[GARY PAGE]

We have a lot of room in TN wish you were here! We hope it warms up in for the Colts, New England game this weekend to even the playing field after the Titans loss in the unfair trundra conditions last week. Just kidding hope you get her started soon, take care, GO COLTS!!!

[cblanche]

There is an additive that you can place in your tank that actually thaws the fuel when frozen.

I do not use the anti-gel alone. There are additives that serve as both conditioners and anti-gelling agents.

A specialty auto parts store usually carries the "melting" agent. If you try a nation-wide chain, you'll never find it.

[HANK1948]

that additive is called 911 its in a red bottle and made by power service and you use it when your fuel line freezes it takes about 15 to 20 min. it works my buddies PSD ford froze up and put that in and 20 minutes later it started up.

[Kollin Syverson]

Keep in mind it wont work for the fuel that has gelled in the fuel lines, pump or filter.

[DmaxMaverick]

I feel your pain. Been there. Done that.

Being in CA, We don't see any temps like they have in the Midwest-East Coast, and rarely 0 or below. I got caught with my pants down (not literaly) once on a high country search and rescue. I was without any chemical (additive) assistance.

If you have access to electricity at the truck, you could try a blow drier. All you need to do is heat the filter and lines up enough to get the fuel to flow. You could use a heat gun if you are very careful not to melt hoses and wiring.

Another option is a coleman stove (the method I used when I got caught). I placed the stove under the engine compartment and in about 45 minutes it started like it was a warm summer morning. I did place pans on the burners to be sure the heat was more even and the flame wasn't going to ignite or burn anything anything.

I have heard of the PS 911 stuff from friends and they reported results like Hank posted. 20 minutes and back in business.

Good luck.

[Barry Nave]

My 2c, During cold temp's I'd never let my tank go below half a tank of fuel :eek:

[panhead9]

Do not let you tank run down to 1/4 tank in this weather there is a valve on the supply line in the tank that opens if the fuel is thickened up and this is located at the 1/4 tank mark. Also I run some kerosene along with rotella conditioner to keep fuel thin

[Budd]

Well......I went out got the PS 911, 4 gallons of fresh diesel, and a 250 IR heat lamp. Dumped in the 911, some FPPF Total Power, and the fresh diesel. Had my block heater plugged in all day, and it turns out that my block heater is crap. So i tried to heat the fuel lines and filter, but with cold oil, it just wouldn't turn over fast enough. So i put the heat lamp under the oil pan for two hours, went out to start it and nothing. This really sucks! I bought an oil pan heater a month ago, but i procrastinated and never put it on. Serves me right I guess :rolleyes: The ambient air temperature right now is -12F, but it is supposed to warm to 25F by tuesday....hopefully. Thanks to everyone with their help, I guess that I'll just chalk this one up to another lesson learned the hard way. Again thanks to all,
Budd

[Barry Nave]

A big help now would be to put a auto charger on the batterys and I bet it will spin fast enough to fire along with the other heat your doing.

[JG62]

I would have expected it to start after getting the fuel level above 1/4 tank (above the bypass opening).This just happened to me last week.I would unplug the injector pump,disconnect the fuel line at the filter, turn it over and see if you are getting fuel.Also maybe your injector lines are air locked.If you get fuel at the fuel filter looosen two injector nuts ,and reconnect the IP and se if it will turn over ,If it starts then tighten two nuts.
I guess you could also drain the oil,and then bring some warm oil from inside to pour in and then try to start .Good luck

[tswartos]

when I lived in South Dakota and the wind chill was in the -30 below range we would not only use the block heater but use a magnetic oil pan heater. As to the fuel level, always keep it above qtr tank in any weather...winter - gel problems; summer - IP coolant

Your best best right now is find a heated shop and get it in there over night, start it up and let run for a couple hours. if no access to shop, find forced air heater that burns kerosene or lp and throw a tarp over the hood and bottom of truck to trap in as much heat as possible and run for a couple hours.

[Dvldog 8793]

Howdy
I deal with some of the same temps as you. I also have a block heater, an oil pan heater and a battery charger all wired together. In the past I've had to get some frozen rigs going out in the woods and had to use the propane haeter and tarp method, a real pain :mad: but it does work. I have a friend that has used a cake pan full of charcoal under the truck with tarps. I've never been real fond of having a coal fire under my truck but to each his own! :rolleyes:
Hope you get her going....
GET THAT PAN HEATER ON!
L8r
Conley

[charliepeterson]

We just went through the same cold weather your having now and we found out that we hadn't switched over to winter blend fuel yet. Air temps -15*F. for three days. We had all kinds of frozen fuel and air tanks.
The PS 911 works well but if the fuel level gets low or you have summer fuel in the tank then the only way to thaw out the fuel tank is to dump straight Kerosene in it.
This will thin out the fuel that's in the tank and fuel lines.

[Budd]

Well, after I had tried the PS911, heat lamp, and fresh diesel it still wouldn't start. My battery just couldn't get enough juice to crank over. I hooked up my wife's Escort to try and jump it, but it would only crank for about 7 seconds before it totally ran out of juice ( Maybe cause it's a Ford?) :D . So my uncle came over and we hooked up his Cummins to the other battery and still no luck. The only suggestion that I didn't try was cracking the injector line and checking for an air lock, it was just too cold for that! :( It doesn't suprise me that I still couldn't start based on the fact that it hadn't started in about ten days of straight sub zero weather, where the coldest was -27F to a high of 1F! Well, After the failed jumpstart I hooked up a battery charger to her, threw the heat lamp back under the oil pan, and a tarp over the hood and wheel wells and gave up for the night. Combining that with the fact that temp jumped up thirty degrees to a hot 24F this morning, she turned over right before work. She really ran like hell for the first few minutes, it felt like I was inside a washing machine! While at work today I was talking to a few other guys with diesels, (2 '02 Cummins, 2 7.3 Powerjokes) I was happy to find out that I wasn't the only with trouble ( I seem to catch alot of heat for driving a GM diesel :mad: ). The only one that didn't haveto crank it more than 3 times when they went to start it was the guy whose truck started every hour via remote start. These cold temps have me thinking about an Espar heater.....or a bigger garage! Once again thanks to every one for their help, it is much appreciated. And yeah, the oil pan heater is going on tomorrow, I won't make this mistake agian.
Thanks,
Budd

[tswartos]

one more bit of advice - battery

it may have frozen or partially frozen in that tempurature; it may behove u to install a quick release setup on the battery and bring it inside (hey, where I grew it it wasnt uncommon for it to be -60 below just looked and its ~36 below in South Dakota and u had to or the simpler approach is to throw the battery charger on trickle and leave it on overnight. Sometimes the truck will start but the battery's power is sapped from the cold. So having the trickle charge on will keep the batery warm enough to give u some decent glow time and turnover strength. After dealing with this, our standard procedure would be to replace both batteries now as they're both probably shot now.

I gotta tell ya those remote starts with the temp setting work great, too.

So at the minimum invest on a magnetic oil pan heater and plug in a trickle charger...80% of the time you're good to go.

if u have an auto tranny remember to put it in neutral so that the fluid is circulating while the engine is warming up...it keeps it from slipping in the mega cold.

[TurboDiverArt]

Something I have wondered about. Why doesn't someone make a fuel tank heat pad? I'd think that a heat pad that only gets maybe 120-140 degrees would do wonders for the jelling problem and would be safe. I'd think it would start easier and warmer fuel would probably lubricate better than half jelled fuel. In most cases, raising the tank temp 20 degrees or so would probably do wonders in really cold conditions.

Just a thought.

Thanks,
Art.

[kowsoc]

I also suggest changing batteries or at least putting fresh fully charged batteries. I think that's the reason you only get 7 seconds of boosted cranking. The truck needs good power not only for cranking speed but for proper operation of the electronic injection pump.

[CareyWeber]

Cover it with a tarp and shove a space heater under it for say 2hrs and it will start its cold soaked.

NOTE BECAREFUL DOING THIS SO YOU DON"T START A FIRE!!

The tarp and the heat lamp mite work too, but will take longer.

Remember heat rises.

[autocrosser]

Heat pads that should work on the fuel tank are available thru the RV dealers. They are for the holding tanks on the trailers. I have two new ones that I would sell at a reduced price from what I paid for them. they work on 120v AC or 12v DC. I bought them for when I lived in my travel trailer during the perion my house was being built. I got by with just putting a skirt around the bottom of the trailer so I didn't use them.