So, for the first time in the nearly 13 years I have owned the truck, I put an additive in the fuel tank other than an anti-gel additive for the winter. Specifically, I went with a red bottle of HEET. Two bottles in fact.

Iso-HEET® Premium Fuel-Line Antifreeze, Water Remover & Injector Cleaner

I have used the black bottles of Heet during the really cold parts of the winter to prevent gelling of the diesel, but was at Walmart the other day looking for something for my car and saw the red bottles of Heet on sale. Thought, that will be good to clean up the fuel system on my truck and get rid of the water.

Filled up on Friday and added the red bottles of Heet to the tank. Drove 300 highway miles overnight and lo and behold, the water in fuel light came on. I am 8,800 miles into this set of fuel filters and usually do not see that light until close to 15,000 miles.

Is this a coincidence, or did I screw up by adding these red bottles of Heet to my fuel tank.

 

I would not use a additive that's supposed to "absorb" water. You want water to never pass that filter, ever. Drain your fuel filter housing on the rail and see if the light comes back.

 

That stuff is 98.5% isopropyl alcohol and is bad news for the fuel system on the 6.0l. Never run a fuel additive that contains alcohol.

 

Thanks guys. I drained a quart or so of diesel from the water separator and drove another 300 miles. The light never came back on. Had a decent amount of debris in the diesel that I drained out, which is somewhat concerning since the water separator is after the first fuel filter. Guessing that garbage is coming from right inside the water separator.

I ended up seeing some of my best mileage numbers ever on that 300 mile drive. At times, I was averaging 21 mpg according to the Edge Insight and the average mpg displayed on the truck's factory console went up to 17.0, which the truck has never seen in its 13 years.

Now, I am sitting here wondering what I should be using during the winter to prevent the diesel from gelling up. When it gets really cold, I use the block warmer, but I don't have electrical outlets in the middle of fields, etc.

 

DK white bottle

 

Any time I get on the freeway and am not loaded (not drink loaded I don't drink).
I tend to get 21 MPG as long as I am not having to speed up and slow down. Nice
steady speed and I see it.

The crud that your seeing coming out of the water separator is most likely algae.
Diesel is one of it's favorite foods. There are two ways to remove a good amount
of it. You can use some spray cleaner into the drain port with the little straw that
comes with the can and work the tip around to flush it out or you can remove the
HFCM and open it and hand clean it. I think most that are cleaning it just use the
spray carb cleaner and then let it air dry. If you disassemble the HFCM you should
have a new cover gasket on hand just in case your is not in that good of shape.

Also if you do find that there is a lot in there it might be a good idea to does the
tank with some diesel algicide and then fill it all the way up and do some stop and
go bumpy driving to really cover the inside of the tank and kill everything.
Be ready to do filters sooner that normal if there is a large amount in the tank.



Sean <BR>

6.0L Tech Folder