When should I worry about fuel gelling? Any stories?

[dieselbegreat]

Well, the ol' Burban fired up okay and ran pretty good at 3 degrees F and it will be below zero in the morning. I usually don't touch the accelerator unless it doesn't catch within a few seconds, then I slowly push it down until about half way if it's really cold. Smokes a lot for about 15 seconds then clears up and smooths out. I'm not using any additives at all and haven't had any problems yet. When should I worry about my fuel gelling? Anybody have any stories to tell about REALLY cold weather driving with a Chevy diesel?

[NH2112]

Gelling really shouldn't be much of a problem if your fuel stop is running winter blended fuel. Right now it's dropping to around -20 at night here in south-central NH, and I'm running a 2 micron Racor filter with no heater and haven't had a problem yet.

[C.K. Piquup]

Answer:When it Gels.When it does,it will for diesels in general.It`s a good idea when temps drop to low teens to use the juice and keep tank as close to"topped-of"as possible.When it gels,you either need to wait for a hand from Mother Nature or look for a heated garage.

[arveetek]

Here in Missouri they don't offer blended or winter fuel. So if we get any cold snaps, it's up to us to use additives.

Mine gelled up on me two years ago when I forgot to put some additives in the tank. It started up okay, then died, then started again. I pulled out of the driveway and got 1/4 mile down the road before it quit for good. Had to push it back home and put it in the shop to let it warm up.

I've been pretty good about remembering the additives now!

I read on another board a NJ Duramax owner who had his truck gel up on him. I would suggest you use additives anyway, because you never know how good the fuel is you're getting.

BTW...it was only around 10 degrees IIRC when my truck gelled up.

Casey

[JG62]

My suburban shut down on me the other day at about 2 degrees.I may not have had enough additive and I don't think the fuel here is a winter blend.I believe the sock filter in the tank gelled and the fuel was being drawn through the bypass valve on the pickup tube. When the fuel went below 1/4 of a tank,the level was below the bypass valve and then no more fuel.I added five gallons of diesel and it started right up.Then I topped it off with 5 gal. of kerosene ,stanadyne blue bottle,and the rest diesel.No problems last night after 0 deg. and 100 mile ride.
Anyway ,thats what I get for not being prepared.

[mirage]

I had mine gel on me at a lot higher temp than that. I was running a super Phoenix hot weather blend and headed up to Flagstaff after a month of not driving it much. Did fine getting there but gelled up that night. I added a bottle of Anti Gel, put a space heater under the hood aimed at the filters and let it sit for a couple hours. Started fine after that. The temperature only got a little below freezing.

[C.K. Piquup]

Mirage,I don`t think that was gelling.Lets not forget wind-chill going down the road.If diesel gelled at just above freezing,we wouldn`t be driving diesels.You might have had alot of water in your fuel or it was some coincidence.How`s AZ?I used to live in Mountainaire,between Flag and Sedona.

[NH2112]

Somewhere I read that wax crystals begin to form in standard diesel fuel at +26F, so it could very well have begun to gel at slightly below freezing.

[dieselbegreat]

Well I guess it's all up to the fuel itself. As long as the Stanadyne fuel heater is working and I have a fullish tank of fresh proven local winterized fuel (I like Hess) I will not worry about it anymore! I heard way up north, like Alberta or Alaska, the trucks have fuel line heaters and the trucks are left idling all the time.

[DmaxMaverick]

Wind chill is not a factor in the equation. Wind chill is only a human (or animal) inturpretation of what it "feels like". The tempurature that effects fuel is whatever the ambient is, plus or minus any other source of heat, or lack of, such as radiation from sunlight, near objects or other heat source. Moving air can carry away heat more rapidly than still air but no more than the actual temp.

[dieselcrawler]

Ok, so it looks like I should use some sort of anti-gel fuel additive in my truck... but what I want to know is this: Will it hurt to add too much? If the bottle says it will treat 35 gal, and you put it in a 20 gal tank, what will it hurt, if anything? I added some to my fuel yesterday, what seemed like the right ammount for the tank, but I was just wondering if it would hurt to just dump in the whole bottle? Hurt performance? ...mileage? ...what? Any favorite brands? So far I have had no problems, but want to keep it that way! And compaired to some of you from up north, we don't have "real" cold weather down here in West Virginia! **grin**

Greg

[mirage]

Originally posted by C.K. Piquup:
Mirage,I don`t think that was gelling.Lets not forget wind-chill going down the road.If diesel gelled at just above freezing,we wouldn`t be driving diesels.You might have had alot of water in your fuel or it was some coincidence.How`s AZ?I used to live in Mountainaire,between Flag and Sedona. I'm still betting it was gelling. I didn't have any problems driving into Flagstaff, just overnight, wouldn't start early the next morning. By a little below freezing, I'm meaning around 28 degrees, so that may affect it some :).
With regards to wind chill, it effects evaporating fluids.

It's also possible I had a lot of water in the fuel, I had some cheap gas in there.

Arizona is great, at least this time of year in Mesa. I grew up in flagstaff and miss the trees and cooler weather, but am down here going to school. On an up note, the weather is nice enough today that I was able to replace throttle shaft seals in my injection pump, replace glow plugs and clean up my turbo lines :).

[big swifty]

A couple of days ago when it was brutally cold here in northern Vt. I had two bottles of additives; one power Service and one Standyne Blue both outside in my shed. The standyne was frozen solid but the PS ws still liquid! I was shocked. Has anyone noted this before? I always thought I was skimping a bit when I put the PS in instead of the standyne. Maybe this was one substandard bottle.