I'm curious if anyone uses one and cuts the diesel with something else. Kerocene or oil. I have read of Lister slow diesels running on peanut oil. Also, years ago, a fella told me of mixing in a small amount of gasoline with diesel to make it work better in the mountains. I have only run straight diesel with fuel additives for jelling in serious winter conditions.
call and talk to these people >>> Bolton Power Equipment 978-779-6492 . Be Prepared - they are the Listeroid engine experts in the US ... Personally I've cut truck diesel with 1/3rd tank of kerosene in the reallly really cold temps
I run mine on a mix of diesel and kerosene. But I'm going for maximum reliability through clean burning fuel. You shouldn't really have to worry about fuel gelling. Gelling plugs paper fuel filters with wax like material that starts forming when the fuel hits cloud point. These diesel fueled heaters usually don't run or need a paper fuel filter. Typically they run a trash screen. Cloudy fuel gos straight through trash screen fuel filters. I have found fuel additives nearly useless when it comes to fuel clouding. I would say use better fuel, wait till about end of October first November and get that winter diesel, buy some kerosene. Kerosene is kinda expensive so probably don't want to run it all the time. Use different technology entirely like propane for ludicrous cold and as a backup.
my dodge cummins is down. gelled fuel,,,again. i need to order filters, 30$ local 7$ online. i might try the kerosene thing.
@kissmybrass Are you not treating your diesel? I would have thought given your location this was standard operating procedure, no? I had both my 60Kw generators gel up on me overseas because they didn't use any treatment or winter diesel and what a damn mess that was. I even treat my diesel here (North Idaho) that I use for the tractor.
i dunno. august,,i had gelled fuel and figured out if i plug in the block heater it would start. went moose hunting in sept. 1,000 miles round trip. in camp it started without plugging in,, yay. once temp went below freezing it wont start, plugged in or not. yeah antigel stuff every tank. could be injector seals. once it starts it runs fine. good power. will start again the rest of the day. bought the last fuel from a new 3 bears, just opened. too cold to mess with right now. just annoying.
,,,,,,off topic, but they sold a 850kw genset alt for 750$ on guv auction. would need a cat motor to power it. imagian what you could power with that. 60kw would run,,,,alot. i have a 3.5 kw.
Get one of those diesel fried heaters and direct it at the fuel filter. When I've got engines that won't start I usually get them to fire off with a battery charger and a forced air heater. The ones I use are good up to 400,000 btu per hour. The small ones would work too it would just take hours. If using a small one I would say put the air on the fuel filter and aim the exhaust at the engine block where there's coolant jacket and no seales. Or disable the intake heater and use starting fluid.
One thing we did is we wrapped heater wire around the filter. it doesn't put out a lot of heat, very low current, just enough to ensure stuff doesn't freeze. I suppose it's not too smart to do so since it's flammable, but it did help, wouldn't try it will gas though...
I live in Arizona where it doesn't get that cold and have a (yeah, I love it) diesel pickup truck. So no problems with that. But educate me here. Isn't #1 diesel used in colder climates to prevent problems like gelling? I read on here a few years ago when BT was still with us that Jet A fuel could be used as a diesel substitute in cold weather. Also, when I worked in the mines in northern Nevada where temps regularly dropped well below zero the mine stocked a diesel fuel additive that was supposed to deal with the fuel-gel problem, if I remember correctly. At one point they were having problems finding it and were just about pulling their hair out. They used it by the thousands of gallons.
diesel 911 red seems to be the most popular/best. iv tried a few. yeah the fuel has a winter mix. a heat gun would thaw it enough to change filters. 7$ online, 30 at no auto parts available. its cold. van runs soooo.
@Altoidfishfins Yeah, they do sell #1 diesel which definitely helps but think if it gets too cold you still need additives. The problem is 'when' they start selling it sometimes - meaning - sometimes they don't start selling it soon enough or you got a full tank of diesel and before you can use enough to warrant putting more winterized diesel in you get a drop in temperature and get caught. This is what happened to me overseas as we weren't expecting a drop in temperature so sudden and both my tanks (200 gallons each) were full and turned to jelly. The fuel guys, who provided the fuel and maintenance for the generators, really got caught with their pants down. Anyway, since then, I always use an additive in my diesel, even the stuff I purchase during the warmer months for the tractor just in case it has to set there for a while before use. I use PRI-D and it seems okay... EDIT: Now that I think about it, I think those guys put some JP-8 (similar to commercial Jet A-1, both are kerosene-based) in the tanks to keep us from gelling up until they could get some additive and winterized diesel. This was in Central Asia so it wasn't like you could just go down to the corner shop.
The air force runs everything from single cylinder yanmar to Cummins 6.7l and bigger on jet A all year. Jet A will start to cloud around freezing but not very bad. Summer diesel can be terrible. I've put a mason jar in the refrigerator as a test and it can start clouding before it cools down to refrigerator temperature and it will turn into pudding if you put it in the freezer.
yes. yes it does. good idea though. i have 2-5gl jugs i pumped out of said truck i can pull samples from. i put a clear inline filter in front of the pump so i can see if the pumps working,, its paper , maybe that one froze. il change both. next june. gonna warm up to 26 today.
