Fuel Gelling
 

Hey Folks,
newbie to the diesel world....well, i have had my truck for 6 months now, but not in the cold. ANyway, i noticed its getting a little chilly out...oh say 30*f and colder. I know that diesel fuel gells in the cold but how cold does it have to get to gel? I don't drive the truck often and its been sitting for the past few weeks. I have anti-gel addititive but is it too late or am I ok? just curious!

If say worst case scenario the fuel has gelled up, how do I deal with this problem?

Thanks,
Al

Just go ahead and add it to your tank and top it off. You will need to drive it for awhile to ensure that the "treated fuel" gets all through your filters and entire system.

I doubt it has gelled yet, but depending on if the fuel you bought is treated or not, or if their is water or mositure in it... you could be pushing it?

Can even double dose with additive with no ill-effects.

How long has it been since you last filled? If you have run a tank through within the last month, you have the winter blended fuel already most likely.

The fuel suppliers to the area should treat for "gelling". "Gelling" has nothing to do with moisture freezing. When fuel gels the parafin wax, candle wax, solidifies at colder temps. That is where "pour point and cloud point" come into play. You can check the fuel yourself. Take some fuel in a glass jar and put in a deep freeze. Leave it in there for awhile and see what you have. You will see little white specs of wax floating around. That is normal and if the fuel isn't so thick it won't flow then you are fine. As soon as the engine starts the fuel will warm up and the wax will melt. With an engine like a power stroke that moves alot of fuel , it melts quick. Water on the other will freeze. There is emulsified water in all fuel. Water seperator filters will catch it and hold it on the filter media. You can easily have a situation where it is cold enough to freeze the water on the filter media but the fuel is still warm enough not to wax up. If you have a fuel filter that is away from the ambient engine temp, it is a good idea to change it more often in the colder weather.

There is also a common problem with later model engines where the fuel gets to hot. If you have Power stroke for example, when you remove the filter and you may see a black soot in the filter base. That is from excessive fuel temp. Alot of road tractors have fuel coolers on them to help stop this. Even though they have big tanks, alot of guys run low on fuel to cut gross truck weight. I have had guys that are Owner Operators tell me that they put coolers on their pick-ups and are getting better fuel milage during the summer months. They bypass them during the winter.


Marry Xmas

Opps, double post.

here's the scoop. I probably drove the truck 2 weeks ago. Haven't filled it for over a month. Last time I filled it though i put a whole crapload of diesel-kleen in, however diesel kleen alone isn't an anti-gel agent, just a lubrication/cetane booster right? I have the other power services crap for anti-gelling, but i haven't gotten to putting it in the tank. I also have a 1/2 tank and don't really feel the need to fill the truck since I drive it oh...once a month at that? If I put it in, drive the truck around will that be ok? If i have fuel gelling, is it ok to start up? What kind of damages can I cause? I don't want to take the risk if im at that point.

Thanks Again,
Al

It depends which diesel Kleen you use, some is antigel, some is not, but both help. Gelling is exactly that, the fuel becomes a gel, like Jello. It will not flow, so what happens is you essentally run out of fuel. If it has gelled in the fuel lines, the only way to get it to clear is to heat them up. If you are concerned about it gelling while sitting, and causing damage, don't. It will erliquify when the air temp comes back up. It usually isn't a problem until about 10 degrees F. If you don't need to run it while it is really cold, don't, and then when it warms up again, there will be no issues. If you want to run it while it is so cold is when it is an issue.

thank you! thats exactly the answer I wanted to hear. I just didn't want my tank and fuel likes turning into a can of sterno and staying that way until I dropped the tank and somehow cleaned it out. So basically if it "gels" it will ungel on its own....sweet!

Thanks Much!
-Al Conforti

With a 1/2 bottle of DK anti-gel, and a full tank of #2, temps dropped down to -25F overnight and rose to a balmy -20 F during the day. I had no gelling. The anti-gel really did a good job.

Antigel DK is in a white bottle. The grey bottle does not have antigel.

If most of your fuel is less then 2 Mo's old, you have winter fuel & don't need to worry about it. As stated, if it does gel up, just wait till temps get back above 0 and you'll be fine.

dont really need to worry about fuel binding up until it starts getting down around zero F.

Thats a big assumption and I would disagree. That is no way of knowing if fuel is winterized unless a fuel station or truck stop starts to advertise it to attract business?

As well, who knows how well they treated it.. some is a blend of #1D and #2D and my local station actually adds Powerservice to their underground tanks when the tanker truck unloads.

I still add my own as more will not hurt anything and who knows if they added the right amount (if any) of the additive at the refinery or when delivered.

High volume truck stops here in KC have not started to promote "winterized fuel" and when asked...the guy behind the counter did not know.... so I assume it is not.

Making a wrong assumption can cause one to have a gelled system and in need of a tow.... so I trust noone except myself when it comes to adding and using anti-gel in the winter!!!!

They have had it since the beginning of Oct. at the latest. All the refiners had switched over by then to supply the heavy truck market. You can't have trucks buying fuel in FL & gelling up when they get to MN to deliver...

SAd thing is, that does happen still... the mix apparently is not strong enough, done more than a few gell service calls when I was working in South Dakota... drag them into the shop, warm it up, add antigel, and off they go... Now the stations in the colder regions generally start with winter blend mid October. If they didn't it would open them up to unhappy customers, and potentially lawsuits since it isn't like you have the choice of grade... I know in Iowa, it is pretty much a standard to go winter blend mid October, and I doubt that is isolated... It still can gel, unless it is straight #1 though, if it gets cold enough.