Archived Fuel gelling

[Rooster]

My truck quit running when I drove into a valley that was -31 degrees. I was towed home where it is 25 degrees. I haven't tried to start the truck. Is there anything I should do before cranking this big dog up?

 

[Steve Campbell]

If the "Big Dog" has had time to aclimatize to the 25 deg weather, you should just be good to go. If it has not had time to "thaw-out" (yeah right at 25 deg) just give it a couple of hours for the fuel to de-gel. Way cheaper than warm shop/mechanic method.

 

[Rooster]

Thanks Steve, I'll try that. Cache Valley was just to cold. Do you use any additive's?

 

[LSMITH]

Pour some fuel treatment in the tank and some in the filter, Power Service 911 is a good one, it is in a red bottle and is available nearly everywhere. I use treatment in nearly every tank and have not had a gelling problem since even down to -15. I use Power Service Diesel Fuel Supplement, it is in a white bottle and costs me less than a dollar per tank. -31 in that valley is cold enough to die if exposed for long without proper preparations.

 

[Lurch]

Are you sure it's gelled fuel. Even straight #2 shouldn't gell in a warm/running truck.



Lurch

 

[illflem]

EKarr, is right. If your truck had been running for at least an hour in the cold #2 wouldn't gel even if it was -50°. If you bought your fuel in the north it probably was a blend and would be good for even colder. Remember our trucks have a fuel heater and the return passing though the injection pump is heated and returned to the tank. I've never had gelling with straight #2 with the recommended dosage of Howe's even in a rig parked for days in -30° weather. More than likely you have water in your fuel that froze and clogged the filter. Your fuel will have to be heated above 32° to melt the ice, 25° won't cut it. Heat lamp pointed at the fuel tank can take care of that.

 

[LSMITH]

I have gelled once in about -20 with straight #2 after about 2 hours of driving, there was some ice in the filter too. I noticed immediately after filling that the fuel was no good, no power and horrible mileage. Mine did not stop but I lost nearly all power. A good dose of Power Service and a new filter and I was good to go. Just letting you guys know that it can happen with bad fuel.

 

[Extreme1]

The fuel heater might be dead too. That would allow #2 to gell. I ran for a winter without a fuel heater once, bad performance and milage.

 

[Andy Perreault]

I've been pondering the idea of adding a temperature gauge to the fuel line. It might help guys in cold weather to know if their fuel heater is working or not. Besides that, I'm a gauge freak anyway.

Andy

 

[illflem]

Andy, many big rigs have fuel temp gauges to tell them when to turn on their tank heaters. Think HVAC many have one also

 

[Steve Campbell]

So Rooster, what did it take to get that "big dog" running? Yes I run additives. Winter time it is Power Service Artic ... . something-or-other.



Is there any easy method of checking fuel heater operation?

 

[Dbonzi]

Fuel Heater

I would like to know as well how you can tell if the fuel heater is working?

Dennis

 

[illflem]

The thermostat for the fuel heater is internal so there should be power to it if it's running or not. Not sure if an inductive type ampmeter, the type you slip over the outside of the wires works on DC, you could always use a regular ampmeter in series though.



This thread got me a little curious though. After a 120 mile drive today in temps from +16-20°F I shot my infrared temp gun at the fuel tank, the bottom was 76°. I've shot it in the summer before and have seen temps as high as 160°

 

[KB0OU]

-35F

Between Whitehorse and Ft. St. John I saw actual temps on my thermometer of -35deg. F. this is on the AlCan coming back from Anchorage last week. I run on my 90 gallon tank in the back of the truck, never put in additives, never had a problem with gelling. However, I have an electric pump to pump the fuel from the stock tank to the big tank, this did not work for a while, the fuel had to warm up, finally started working in Washington State. Also I had to add some oil, when I drug the gallon container out of the back of the pickup the oil was about the consistency of cool honey, It took a while to get a quart of oil out of the bottle.

John

 

[CJ Johansson]

Originally posted by illflem

The thermostat for the fuel heater is internal so there should be power to it if it's running or not.

Actually, the thermostat is mounted to the top of the fuel heater/strainer, in series with the heating element. It's just a simple bi-metallic switch, when hot enough, it opens and no current flows, cool it off and it closes and the thing turns on.



It would be easy to splice into the wires on either side of this thermo-switch to see if the heater is on. If you read 12V, the switch is open and the heater is off, read 0 and it's on. Alternatively, you could read across the heater element itself. There you'd see 12V when it's on, 0 when off. Of course, this requires splicing wires, which some folks don't like to do...



-cj

 

[LSMITH]

I found a TSB that desribes the wiring and such for a 98 fuel heater. It should give us an idea of where and when we can check some of the functions and wiring. I may have some time in the next few days to check this out, and will report what I find if I do. http://dodgeram.org/tech/tsb/1997/18_37_97.htm is the link to the TSB.



EDIT: I think illflems idea on the low tech side is better after all. It is about 20* here right now, and I parked the truck after about a 20 mile drive an hour ago. My fuel tank is still about 55-60* right now so I think it is safe to assume that my fuel heater is working . If the easy way works I am all for it.

 

[illflem]

LS, or is the return fuel flowing though a hot injection pump that warmed the fuel???

 

[LSMITH]

Bill, I really don't think it is the pump that is warming it as my pump just barely gets warm, I have never felt it hot at all. I will check again when I drive it, but I suspect that the pump only gets to about 75* this time of year in that short of a drive. We don't have hot engine oil warming the pump either, only friction and the fuel. I would think that the fuel would have needed to be well over that to still be at about 60 but I have been wrong before.



Better yet I will fire it up and see how long it takes the return line to get warm when the pump is stone cold.



Anyone else have any ideas?



EDIT: OK, I fired it up and the engine still had some residual heat in it, but the fuel was pretty cold. Feeling the lines on the filter housing the inlet line got quite cold as the fuel moved through, the outlet going to the injection pump did not get as cold. The outlet line was probably 30*degrees warmer (maybe 75*) than the inlet so yes my fuel heater works somewhat at least. The other variable that I had not taken into account in my previous post was that the return from the injectors goes through the cylinder head and that would warm the fuel considerably. I have zero idea how much fuel is returned to the tank from the injector lines though, so the effect of that heat in the tank I cannot even guess at.



I guess the readers digest version is feel the lines into and out of the filter, if there is a decent difference your heater works. If the temps are about the same you should do some troubleshooting.

 

[Rooster]

I started the truck after the outside Temp hit 34 degrees. Took three tries before sputtering, used fuel primer button after every attempt. After second try fule primer felt like it was functioning. Put fuel additive in. Cold starts are still a problem. Cranks for 5 seconds before firing,Low RPM and lots of white smoke. Clears up after 5 minutes. The same thing occurs again the next morning. Haven't changed the filter or checked the heater (can't feel my fingers - back to minus 10 at night).

 

[PUMPERDUDE]

Boy am I glad I live at the end of the MississippiOo. Oo. Oo.