On the subject of Gelling

[ragkar]

You guys hit my problem right on the head today. Temperature is 32 degrees and there's four inches of fresh snow and sleet and freezing rain and it's raining.
Fat dumb and happy I plowed down my 600 foot driveway, turned around in the street and then the engine died. And I couldn't restart it with the tractor halfway out on the roadway.
On the eighth try I managed to start and move two feet before it died again. This pattern was repeated more times until I was fifty feet up the drive. Then I managed to inch my way back at idle and drop the ballast in preparation for a dealer pickup. An hour later it was starting and running at full power with no repairs.
Symptoms were very low power, frequent stalls, hard starting, and recovery after an hour downtime.
The dealer mechanic diagnosed filter gelling and recommended additive, filter replacement and warming the fuel system if those didn't work.
I used additive and four gallons of new diesel (in a six gallon tank). It has worked fine now for 50 minutes.

 

[DieselPower]

What's the warmest temp. someone has actually had gel problem here? A few weeks back I saw minus 2. No gelling here with no treatment added.

I have had customers that had their ULSD and Biodiesel blends gel above +32 deg F. It really depends on the exact fuel, mainly what crude it was refined from and how it was refined.

 

[LBrown59]

I have had customers that had their ULSD and Biodiesel blends gel above +32 deg F.
* It really depends on the exact fuel, mainly what crude it was refined from and how it was refined.

So Then! Why are they using that crude and refining it that way when it causes gelling?

 

[RalphVa]

What they've done to produce ULSD is to remove sulfur, but it also destroys aromatic or branched compounds. The outcome is the fuel is much more paraffinic. Wax is a paraffin. They probably actually create more wax. Still, there's a could point spec that they have to meet for winter diesel. Wonder if they're meeting that spec (usually about +5 F)?

Ralph

 

[RFB]

I added this Diesel Fuel Improver to my tanked supply (it is a 300 gallon tank with ball valve shut-off, gravity-fed to a Goldenrod filter with water separation (transparent with drain-cock) to an automotive style squeeze trigger nozzle (manual trigger only, cannot be locked "on")

I selected the product based upon this Lubricity Additive Study Results - Diesel Place

I have seen -20F this winter with zero issues, not even a hint of cloudiness in the fuel through the transparent filter bowl, and perfect starting and running.

 

[DieselPower]

What they've done to produce ULSD is to remove sulfur, but it also destroys aromatic or branched compounds. The outcome is the fuel is much more paraffinic. Wax is a paraffin. They probably actually create more wax. Still, there's a could point spec that they have to meet for winter diesel. Wonder if they're meeting that spec (usually about +5 F)?

Ralph

Interesting you bring up the cloud point spec. I recently had a customer ask at what point he needed to start adding anti-gel additive. I told him it depends on the fuel. Since he buys about 3,000 gallons of diesel a week from his supplier he had no problem getting them to fax over a copy of their fuel spec's which he forwarded to me. According to the standards he sent me the independent fuel supplier is actually getting their fuel from Shell since the spec sheet was from Shell. It listed the cloud point for the following pipelines:

Colonial: winter +15F. summer +20F.
Explorer: winter +15F. summer +20F.
Olympic: winter +14F. summer +24F.
Plantation: winter +15F summer +20F.
Texas Eastern (TEPPCO): winter +15F. summer +15F.

I thought that was rather interesting since he had problems around +25F. last year. I to wounder if their meeting spec and actually testing it at all.

 

[POC]

My tractor has been doing what apparently is gelling of the fuel does. Low power, dying, hard or no starting.
I guess I'll go to Walmart and see what they have to put in the diesel to "repair" it, and "treat" it to prevent it from happening again.
It has been in the teens and twenties here the last few days, and the tractor lives outside.
Would a block heater help this?

 

[dirtworksequip]

A block heater will help starts in cold weather,but isn't going to help keep it runing if you are having fuel gelling problems. You need to treat your fuel with an anti gell additive. For faster results add 15% kerosene.

Sincerely, Dirt

 

[smfcpacfp]

Today I was adding diesel to my tractor (#1 and treated Opti-Lube XPD). It was about 10F. I use a funnel which has a fine screen at the bottom. The diesel was pouring nicely from the can but the funnel was filing up a bit. When I was done there was a very fine layer of wax on the screen.

With #1 diesel having a cloud point of -40F, it was strange to see any wax in the diesel. Still the tractor runs fine, but I was a little puzzled.

 

[rfmr]

Sorry to change the subject a bit but I'm having trouble finding something I saw on another site about a product that removes water from the diesel. I don't believe it is a PS product (I use the white bottle) but whatever it is apparently vaporizes the water instantly. Was told truckers use it and I might find it at a truckstop. Didn't see anything at a local TA.