First time diesel owner winter tips

Here is what some of these fuels with and without additives look like after a night in -17 below weather. This was given to me by the #1 guy from Bobcat regarding loader testing and development. His brother also owns a construction/trucking company that gets fuel delivered each week, one delivery being #1 and the other a blended fuel, 70/30 I believe. Unfortunately we all don’t have the luxury of getting our fuel delivered from a reliable source and are left with poke and hope filling up at our favorite or most convenient station. Here were the terms of his test –

Fuel and additives were mixed at +65F in the shop.
Then set outside overnight with temperature of -17F when photo was taken.
[/url]post a pic[/url]

These blends were thoroughly mixed in the shop before being put outside every night. Look at the separation on some of these with additives, especially the highly revered Howes. Your fuel tank draws its fuel from the bottom where that sludge is. Yeah driving around might slosh that around enough to help mix it back up a bit but imagine yourself parked out on the pond overnight and trying to start and warm up with that! It appears of the three additives shown here (the Bobcat additive which could be the same as Howes has been replaced with something else)

Power Service

is the only one I would consider. Also keep in mind the blended fuel is from a highly reliable source. Your local fuel stop probably doesn’t have blended fuel like this on it’s best day.

The other factor working against everyone now on newer trucks/engines (for the past 5-8 years) are in order to meet the tier 4 emissions fuel filters have gone from 12-15 microns in the good ole days to 2 microns. At 2 microns your fuel does not need to “gel” to be problematic, it only needs to start clouding.

What was mentioned earlier about not letting these newer tier 4 engines idle too much, so true. These engines are designed to be worked and run hot! Why? Most all have a DPF (Diesel Particulate Filter) on them. When your engine burns the fuel fuel, the unburnt particulates are sent out through the exhaust. The lower the engine RPM/temp, the higher ppm of particulates. These particulates are captured in the DPF filter so the lower the temp, the more particulates are captured thereby filling up that filter faster. Once that filter senses it is getting full it goes into a regeneration mode. At that time the engine goes to a high RPM to create heat and injects diesel fuel into the DPF filter to get it even hotter and burn out those unburnt diesel particulates. Once the regen cycle is complete (avg 15-20 minutes more or less) it goes back to normal operation. So, idling that truck for extended periods of time will increase the frequency of regen cycles thereby shortening the life of that DPF filter which down the road is very expensive to replace ($3k+) or have it R&R’d and have it cooked at a specialized shop.

Granted most of my experience is with construction equipment but the semantics are the same. Get the best fuel you can, be very selective and do your research about additives and run that engine properly.

Or move south.

Oh and whatever you do, don’t exceed the supplements recommended amount of additive just mecause you think more will be better. The guy in the additive video (which barring this was great) should have made a disclaimer to never add more than the instructions say like he did with the 911. I’ve seen NEW engines smoked by this exact product adding more than instructed. That’s a $10,000 + lesson that warranty won’t cover.

Duramax. Since 01. Dont do anything different other than put a fresh fuel filter in. Turn key always starts. Never have any of the 4 I’ve owned not start

Good info @BoatsHateMe! Learned a lot from that post. Thanks @B-man! You must’ve misunderstood. I believe my block heater is 1100 watts. I have a Yamaha 2400 generator.

MNdrifter wrote:

Good info @boatshateme! Learned a lot from that post. Thanks @B-man! You must’ve misunderstood. I believe my block heater is 1100 watts. I have a Yamaha 2400 generator.

10-4

Have you tried plugging it in yet? Does it really bump the throttle up much?

Not sure what wattage my block heater is, but the generator barely knows it.

Well on the way home tonight from hunting lost power on my 2006 cummings 5.9. I’ve had it for 5 years now and never an issue. Had oil change and fuel filter done about 600 miles ago. I put 14 gallons of fuel in friday at a station I’ve never filled up before at. Convenience for me. Drove it for around 100 miles and then no power.

Pulled filter tonight. Filter looks like it’s got particles and dirty. I’ll slap a new filter in tomorrow. Also there is a check engine so I’ll get someone here and get the code.

BoatsHateMe wrote:

Here is what some of these fuels with and without additives look like after a night in -17 below weather. This was given to me by the #1 guy from Bobcat regarding loader testing and development. His brother also owns a construction/trucking company that gets fuel delivered each week, one delivery being #1 and the other a blended fuel, 70/30 I believe. Unfortunately we all don’t have the luxury of getting our fuel delivered from a reliable source and are left with poke and hope filling up at our favorite or most convenient station. Here were the terms of his test –

Fuel and additives were mixed at +65F in the shop.
Then set outside overnight with temperature of -17F when photo was taken.
[/url]post a pic[/url]

These blends were thoroughly mixed in the shop before being put outside every night. Look at the separation on some of these with additives, especially the highly revered Howes. Your fuel tank draws its fuel from the bottom where that sludge is. Yeah driving around might slosh that around enough to help mix it back up a bit but imagine yourself parked out on the pond overnight and trying to start and warm up with that! It appears of the three additives shown here (the Bobcat additive which could be the same as Howes has been replaced with something else)

Power Service

is the only one I would consider. Also keep in mind the blended fuel is from a highly reliable source. Your local fuel stop probably doesn’t have blended fuel like this on it’s best day.

The other factor working against everyone now on newer trucks/engines (for the past 5-8 years) are in order to meet the tier 4 emissions fuel filters have gone from 12-15 microns in the good ole days to 2 microns. At 2 microns your fuel does not need to “gel” to be problematic, it only needs to start clouding.

What was mentioned earlier about not letting these newer tier 4 engines idle too much, so true. These engines are designed to be worked and run hot! Why? Most all have a DPF (Diesel Particulate Filter) on them. When your engine burns the fuel fuel, the unburnt particulates are sent out through the exhaust. The lower the engine RPM/temp, the higher ppm of particulates. These particulates are captured in the DPF filter so the lower the temp, the more particulates are captured thereby filling up that filter faster. Once that filter senses it is getting full it goes into a regeneration mode. At that time the engine goes to a high RPM to create heat and injects diesel fuel into the DPF filter to get it even hotter and burn out those unburnt diesel particulates. Once the regen cycle is complete (avg 15-20 minutes more or less) it goes back to normal operation. So, idling that truck for extended periods of time will increase the frequency of regen cycles thereby shortening the life of that DPF filter which down the road is very expensive to replace ($3k+) or have it R&R’d and have it cooked at a specialized shop.

Granted most of my experience is with construction equipment but the semantics are the same. Get the best fuel you can, be very selective and do your research about additives and run that engine properly.

Or move south.

So from what I see in your photo it looks like Howes & the others are snake oil? And from your reputable source does he just use a winterblend without any additives as from the photo it looks better than any additives.

When you guys say mix 70/30 are you saying 70%#1 and 30%#2?

Very helpful info!!

Geez, this website ‘replies’ feature bites as it doesn’t take ones submit event only ‘once’ and if you click submit multiple times it outputs the same message redundantly. Not very intuitive at all. It would be nice if the software dev would fix this issue. Moderators are you listening?

.

When you guys say mix 70/30 are you saying 70%#1 and 30%#2?

Very helpful info!!
[/quote]

70% #2 with 30% #1

mxskeeter wrote:

When you guys say mix 70/30 are you saying 70%#1 and 30%#2?

Very helpful info!!

70% #2 with 30% #1
[/quote]

Yes,

To be honest I run Holiday diesel in my LML Dmax and haven’t had a problem. They just switched over to a -40 blend 2 days ago according to all station signs I have seen. I see no need to mix #2 and #1.

I agree Chris, blending is a pain in the azz……I don’t do it unless I have to….but if you ever find yourself at a station with straight #2 and #1 you have to blend it yourself.

There’s a Holiday right next to my jobsite in Sioux Falls…..no winter blend at it….just #1 and #2

#2 is $2.8x a gallon at that station…..no signs above the pump

A mile away at a different Holiday it’s $2.99 with the signs up.

All depends on how the station is set up and how many tanks they have….not the brand or age of the station. For the record, I like Holiday fuel, not bashing them at all.

Buyer beware

…….

On a related note, we had a delivery come up from Indianapolis last week. He gelled up 75 miles from the jobsite. It wasn’t even very cold out (single digits)

To add insult to injury, he was limping along the shoulder at 10mph (as fast as the truck would go) to the ramp and was side-swiped by another truck. It bent the bumper, broke a hinge, bent a corner, peeled open the box, scraped along the entire side, and disintegrated the driver side mirrors…..and made the driver #1 and #2 in his pants

I never saw what the offending truck looked like for damage.

Time (money) was of the essence, so we had the truck towed to the jobsite to unload (since it was still gelled up and illegal to drive with no mirrors). Once onsite a tech came to replace filters and replace the mirrors. I have no idea what all that cost, but I’m sure it was a pretty penny itself.

The delay alone cost us several thousand dollars because the driver didn’t treat his non-winterized fuel.

All over something so easy to prevent. Proper fuel or $7 worth of treatment would have saved an incredible amount of time and money.

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If your driver wasn’t familiar with winter he wouldn’t know about treating the fuel.

Some drivers are so new to driving they barely can get the brakes set & released on the trailer.

Sheesh, diesel sounds like a major PITA! I know there are those of you that have the need for diesel trucks, but I wouldn’t want to deal with the hassle if it weren’t a necessity for me.

You guys are talking about big boy trucks that need bra’s?

just yanking your chains.

Ralph Wiggum wrote:

Sheesh, diesel sounds like a major PITA! I know there are those of you that have the need for diesel trucks, but I wouldn’t want to deal with the hassle if it weren’t a necessity for me.

It’s really not a big deal at all, you just need to know what you are putting in your tank.

No different than somebody putting E-85 in a car not made to run on it.

B-man wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Ralph Wiggum wrote:</div>
Sheesh, diesel sounds like a major PITA! I know there are those of you that have the need for diesel trucks, but I wouldn’t want to deal with the hassle if it weren’t a necessity for me.

It’s really not a big deal at all, you just need to know what you are putting in your tank.

No different than somebody putting E-85 in a car not made to run on it.

Exactly, not that big of a deal at all. Of course everyone has their own opinion on fuel treatment, warm up time, etc. but it really isn’t as much work as it seems to own and run a diesel. Just a little different than a gasser, so it’s intimidating at first.

I’ve been running a Ram with a Cummins for 6 years now, never had an issue with fuel or def.
I also make sure I have all filters changed when suggested.

FYI – Rarely do I ever plug it in and I haven’t installed a bra either.

Jeff Gilberg wrote:

You guys are talking about big boy trucks that need bra’s?

just yanking your chains.

But it makes them look soooo sexy Jeff

Dutchboy wrote:

If your driver wasn’t familiar with winter he wouldn’t know about treating the fuel.

Some drivers are so new to driving they barely can get the brakes set & released on the trailer.

A lot of mostly southern drivers get bit by gelled fuel.One driver that delivered material from down south told us that we must have rocks in our head to live here.He got stranded outside of Hammond Indiana with a”hot”load for the company.

B-man wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Jeff Gilberg wrote:</div>
You guys are talking about big boy trucks that need bra’s?

just yanking your chains.

But it makes them look soooo sexy Jeff

Something from moparia’s secret!
my f150 has louvers that open and close

yes in sever cold you do need some kind of blended fuel. Some pumps at truck stops will have a scale of what they blend at what temps. At 0 degrees its going to different than at -20. And yes it’s pretty much a crap shoot on if some is good but is more better?? I would think 70% #2-30% #1 is about as thin as you want to go just remember that those are oil burners they need the lubrication and with todays Ultra low sulfur fuels there VERY dry.
That’s why some if not all makers suggest to use cetane additives.
Food for thought #1 has more BTU but burns hotter than #2.
You could do damage to engine with to much #1.
If you find yourself in a spot you can’t find #1 to blend you could use gas in very limited quantities to get by. But you didn’t here that from me.
I know I’m going to get beat-up pretty good let the beating begin

While your advice might be different and personally I wouldn’t just mix in gas I don’t think you will get beat on.

Of course if it’s found out you have never owned a diesel and are just repeating stuff you sisters boyfriends cousins wife read online and then said, maybe you will.

Todays diesel motors are not what they were back for our dads. Emissions are different, fuel requirements are different. I had heard years ago that when testing the new motors in semi tractors in LA that the exhaust air coming out was cleaner then the air going in. Don’t know if that was true, but in any event diesel motors have come a long ways in my 64 years of life.