Going up to the Arizona mountains for a few late season fishing trips and we are having a little early "cold" weather, mid 20s area. I use the gray bottle Diesel Kleen normally down in the desert. I bought a bottle of the anti-gel version for this trip. When do you cold country folks start using anti-gel treatments? Is there a recognized temperature threshold for kicking this stuff in? I have also noticed comments on "winter" diesel, I will study up on that.

At what temps do you go to plugging in the block heater?

Thanks for any help on this, from a desert flatlander. Lots of respect for you cold weather folks, I don't know how our North Dakota farm family relatives survive it every year.

 

I run the white bottle year round. no difference in cost and you never know with the global warming when it will snow in Michigan. have had snow as early as Sept and as late as dec. I do not know if there are any other differences besides the antigel in the 2 versions, so from my perspective I just stay consistent and use the white bottle year round.

 

Grey bottle has more cetane booster in it. I would think that the 40's at night would be a good time if your conservative.

 

I've dealt with single digit weather in NE Texas (Plano area) and up in middle TN (Nashville) and I have yet to use anti-gel or even a cetane booster for that matter.

Although in both places I have not experience it going into the negatives, maybe then I might do something.

Never have myself.

 

The white bottle is basically half a grey bottle plus an anti-gel and water dispersant. The water dispersant is the nice part of it, theoretically helps any water past the injectors without killing anything. You don't get as high a cetane number/detergent/lube of the grey bottle, but it's got to be better than straight ULSD. If you actually have a whole filter wax, 911 or Heet is probably the only thing you can do on the side of the road that will open it back up again, I don't think just a white bottle would stop that.

You'll probably never actually need the anti-gel, I would leave my truck parked for over a week in Colorado when the temps stayed below 0* all the time, start it without the block heater, then drive it down the highway at 75mph in subzero temps without a grille blanket, and I've never had an issue with a filter or fuel line waxing. The engine starting hard and running cold will make you wish you had used the plug and blanket, but it does start. Standard winshield washer fluid will freeze into a solid blue chunk before winter diesel waxes, make sure you switch that stuff out pronto. Starting the truck is NBD, but driving through splashback and not being able to clean the windshield makes it a moot point.

I use the block heater on an appliance (20A) timer, set it to run about an hour or so before I'll need the truck, but only if it's going to be below 20*f, and only if I'm going to put the blanket on the front. This is because without the cover, the truck will barely warm up in the short 7-10 mile drives I make from home to work, so it's not a "do I need to" issue, it's a "I want the dam heater to work and not have to wear a carhartt jacket over a suit" deal. Plug it in for an hour, hit the high idle for a few mins while you knock off the ice, and it's good to go.

 

Thanks guys. I got up here and it's not bad, only problem so far is my gray bottle got squished between my boat batteries and leaked out, and the bed of my truck has that distinct Diesel Kleen odor big time. I treated one fillup with the gray as usual, topped off before I got here with 4 oz or so of the white. I am sure I am good to go.