What does diesel gelling look like?

[Don87]

If you think your fuel is gelled shine a light into the tank the first sign is little snowflake like rascals floating around. If it has progressed to a more serious stage you will have globs of snotty stuff floating around. the best approach at this time is to steal your wife's broom and appropraite some kerosene or #1 diesel (same thing) . Take the wifey's broom and stir the disgusting mess around until it starts to break up. You will hear people tell you to use gasoline, powersteering fluid, and all other sorts of stuff. The problem with these is they do not have the lubricational properties it takes to keep the pump, and Injector plungers from galling. It does not take a lot of # 1 to do the job. I have used 15 gallons of # 1 in the gallon tanks of a semi to het it running after I had replaced the fuel filter. That is vital before you do anything replace that filter. All gelling is is the parifin seperating out of the fuel and those wax crystals will NOT go through the filter and you are dead in the water.

I added extra Power Service(just grabbed the bottle and dumped some in), then grabbed the ROPS, and shook the tractor so hard I lifted the rear tire off the ground( I was a little peeved). Then I applied heat............tractor ran for over 2 hours, so I guess I'm ok.

EDIT: Tractor idled at 1500rpm's for 30 minutes, then I worked it at 2,000 rpm's for 1 1/2 hours.

 

[LBrown59]

I added extra Power Service(just grabbed the bottle and dumped some in), then grabbed the ROPS, and shook the tractor so hard I lifted the rear tire off the ground( I was a little peeved). Then I applied heat............tractor ran for over 2 hours, so I guess I'm ok.

EDIT: Tractor idled at 1500rpm's for 30 minutes, then I worked it at 2,000 rpm's for 1 1/2 hours.

Glad you got it going.

 

[First one]

Just yesterday we had the same problem .Where I work we have a 500gal tank of Diesel that just slowed down to a trickle out of the pump. There had been 8 Power Service bottles put in the tank the last time they had it filled. Took off the filter and found the same looking whitish yellow wax (parifin seperating out of the fuel) covering the filter . Replaced with new filter and was able to get fuel out but started to slow down again before I got the skid steer filled.

Now as the temps start to warm up at least in the mid 20's tomorrow ,should this be warm enough to dissolve the parifin back into the fuel or what?

 

[Reg]

We had an unusually cold night Sunday and I made a point of filling the Duramax with a 20/80 mix of gasoline/diesel fuel.
That was the mix average, allowing for the straight diesel fuel that was already in there.

I've only done a little over 400 miles so far, but it works well, VERY WELL in fact.
Today I diluted that down with straight diesel fuel, it is close to 15% now.
I will keep a spread sheet on this so I can figure how much gas I can add at each fill up.
Once the weather warms I will just let it dilute out to near zero.

 

[EdC]

First One

The jelled diesel on my fuel filter did not "unjell" even when the temp went up to the mid 30s or above for several days. Finally I just tossed the filter.

 

[Gizmo2]

I thought the wax paraffin is in the fuel to protect our tractor engines and we are throwing it out. Last time I had the problem I bet I discarded about a cup full.

 

[Dmace]

Now as the temps start to warm up at least in the mid 20's tomorrow ,should this be warm enough to dissolve the parifin back into the fuel or what?

Since there is already gelled fuel, I would put a little Power Service 911 in the tank to dissolve the gel. I am surprised it gelled if there was the correct amount of Power Service in it but it has been crazy cold up here in New England. I saw -20 and I'm sure you did too up in ME.

 

[First one]

You were right ,it was still gelled this morning after the filter sat in the shop at 55 deg. all night . I'll pour some 911 into the bowl that the filter is in and see how long it takes to break it down. Tomorrow I'll see if anyone has put any 911(RED Bottle) in the big tank yet. One of the guys took the filter out and filled the backhoe up , but then added Power Service 911
to it. It ran fine all day.

 

[Dmace]

You were right ,it was still gelled this morning after the filter sat in the shop at 55 deg. all night . I'll pour some 911 into the bowl that the filter is in and see how long it takes to break it down. Tomorrow I'll see if anyone has put any 911(RED Bottle) in the big tank yet. One of the guys took the filter out and filled the backhoe up , but then added Power Service 911
to it. It ran fine all day.

It only took 15-20 mins for the 911 to de-gel the diesel in my old f350.

 

[ragkar]

first one, dmace I'm glad that you shared that information with us.
I got ten inches of snow last night so I started plowing this morning. 600 feet down the driveway and on the way back the tractor slowed and stalled out. I checked and the glass fuel filter bowl showed no signs of gelling or paraffin precipitation. So I guess it might have been icing.
After sitting a couple minutes I started up and got another fifty feet before it stalled again. I repeated this another eight times. I was real worried about blocking the driveway access.
I got the tractor to the garage and added two ounces of power service 911 to the 3.5 gallons in the tank and let it idle for twenty minutes. then I resumed plowing and it ran for nearly an hour.
I topped off the tank with diesel to prevent condensation. Of course the diesel had additive this time.