JimR
Elite Member
The other morning it was 10 degrees out up in the NE. Up until now I haven't had any issues starting my tractor when it is cold. This time however it was blowing clouds of blue smoke. My wife even said something about smoking out the neighborhood. I had the throttle set at 1200 rpm's. After 3 minutes of smoking away like crazy I cranked the throttle up to 2K. The smoke started to clear up. After another minute I wide opened the throttle. The smoke finally cleared up and stayed that way for the next 3 hours that I used my tractor chipping brush and moving wood around. Yesterday is was 14 degrees out and I had no issues with the tractor smoking. My fuel comes from a gas station that has lots of trucks in it buying diesel. I don't think this is a bad fuel issue. I also noticed in the owners manual that it says "Do not use any type of engine oil additive or fuel additive". I know if you do not use a fuel additive that the fuel will gel in the filter. I had that happen to me a month ago on another very cold morning. I removed the filter, drained the old fuel out and poured it half full of Power Service 911. I shook it up real good, drained that out and refilled it with diesel. The tractor fired right up and has been fine ever since. I do use Power Service anti-gel in my tractor since the fuel filter gelled up. This morning it was 20 degrees out when I fired up my tractor to do a smoke test on it. There was very little "grey" smoke to speak of and it cleared up within a minute of running the tractor. Does anyone have any ideas as to what may have caused this issue when it was really cold out?
Last edited: