Oh No, forgot to replace fuel cap. Now what?

[jyoutz]

Not a bad precaution but he probably has no need to do so.

I had an old tractor that got condensation in the fuel. I was plowing snow a half mile from the house and the engine quit. I had to walk back, get tools and a container and fresh fuel to do exactly what I described. Not at all fun in the winter. That’s why I would be extra cautious about the situation.

 

[Superduper]

Well, I sure hope that doesn't happen to me, because I dread working in the cold. This is a subcompact and not a big tractor that is easy to crawl under. When the weather is freezing, its even worse due to my arthritis. If the tractor won't start or if it quits, it's staying right there until weather turns fair again.

But I'm hoping maybe I lucked out. I went outside, started it up and ran it at med-high rpm (estimating about 2200) for about 10 minutes until temperature gauge went up to 1/3. No skipping, ho stumbling, no hiccups. Ran smooth the whole time. I presume I'm going to be OK until I get the chance to swap out the filters again, and rig up a water separation device, which Kubota should've done from the factory. The filters (2 of them) are these tiny things you'd expect to find on a home depot lawn mower. You know the ones, clear with orangish pleat material and molded nipples. One filter is underneath (not easy to get to) and is behind the lift pump, which itself looks like a metal body fuel filter. The 2nd one is installed on the engine in front of the injection pump. That's it. I tarped up the tractor so I won't have to sit on snow covered seats and foot rests and will hope for the best for Friday morning. Thanks for all the advice. Crossing my fingers and will report back in a couple of days if there's anything worth reporting, that is.

 

[jyoutz]

Well, I sure hope that doesn't happen to me, because I dread working in the cold. This is a subcompact and not a big tractor that is easy to crawl under. When the weather is freezing, its even worse due to my arthritis. If the tractor won't start or if it quits, it's staying right there until weather turns fair again.

But I'm hoping maybe I lucked out. I went outside, started it up and ran it at med-high rpm (estimating about 2200) for about 10 minutes until temperature gauge went up to 1/3. No skipping, ho stumbling, no hiccups. Ran smooth the whole time. I presume I'm going to be OK until I get the chance to swap out the filters again, and rig up a water separation device, which Kubota should've done from the factory. The filters (2 of them) are these tiny things you'd expect to find on a home depot lawn mower. You know the ones, clear with orangish pleat material and molded nipples. One filter is underneath (not easy to get to) and is behind the lift pump, which itself looks like a metal body fuel filter. The 2nd one is installed on the engine in front of the injection pump. That's it. I tarped up the tractor so I won't have to sit on snow covered seats and foot rests and will hope for the best for Friday morning. Thanks for all the advice. Crossing my fingers and will report back in a couple of days if there's anything worth reporting, that is.

Sounds like your tractor will be fine. Also I recommend that for $25 you buy a Mr. Funnel for fueling. It filters the fuel and supposedly separates any water before you add it to your tank. Just google Mr Funnel.

 

[Jerry/MT]

So about 2-3 weeks ago, we had a huge snowstorm. After 2 days of being snowed in, I decided to try and clear my 300' driveway with my BX. Unfortunately, I could not get it to run for more than about 2-3 seconds. I figured that it was due to fuel gelling up or something. A week later, temperatures warmed up and I was able to start it and clear the driveway. Not wanting to have the fuel gel up again, I added some anti-gelling additive. We are expecting another snowstorm tonight/tomorrow so I just went out to move the tractor into the driveway in preparation. While I was moving it, I smelled diesel, so I looked at the fuel filler and noticed NO CAP! Oh No! I put the additive in over a week ago and we've already had 2-4" of snow between when I put in the additive and today. No doubt, some snow has found it's way into the filler opening. What do I do now? The tractor seems to run fine at the moment. Of course tomorrow evening after the storm, temperature is supposed to drop to -4*. Any suggestions? Just leave it and hope any moisture eventually works it's way out of the system?

It goes without saying, you need to cover the filler until you can get a new cap or find the old one.
Drain your filter and/or water separator daily. Most fuel treatment has a substance that cause water to accrete on filters and then drop to the bottom to be drained off. Collect the drainage in a clear glass jar and let it stand for a while and if you have water in the fuel you will see the water drop to the bottom.
Continue to do this until you don't see any water droplets. Try to keep your fuel tank as full as possible to minimize condensation in the tank. Try to set up regular checks to drain the filter/water separator.
As far as below freezing temperatures, use something like Power Service White to treat your fuel and hope for the best. My guess is that any water you have in the tank will end up at the bottom of the filter(s) where it can be drained off and not cause any difficulty.

 

[Wagtail]

The anti-gel additive that you used specifically says it has a water dispersing agent in it. That's good and, if it works properly, will 'break-up' the water into a small enough micron to pass through your fuel filters to be burnt up in the engine.

To be safe, later on this (your) Spring, I would once again replace the fuel filters (IOW purchase twice the number that you're going to so that you have them on hand) AND then add a diesel biocide treatment.

 

[tshep]

Snow to water ratio starts at 10 to 1 and gets better with lower temps - so not 3 inches of water, maybe 5/16s?

 

[RjCorazza]

Well, I sure hope that doesn't happen to me, because I dread working in the cold. This is a subcompact and not a big tractor that is easy to crawl under. When the weather is freezing, its even worse due to my arthritis. If the tractor won't start or if it quits, it's staying right there until weather turns fair again.

But I'm hoping maybe I lucked out. I went outside, started it up and ran it at med-high rpm (estimating about 2200) for about 10 minutes until temperature gauge went up to 1/3. No skipping, ho stumbling, no hiccups. Ran smooth the whole time. I presume I'm going to be OK until I get the chance to swap out the filters again, and rig up a water separation device, which Kubota should've done from the factory. The filters (2 of them) are these tiny things you'd expect to find on a home depot lawn mower. You know the ones, clear with orangish pleat material and molded nipples. One filter is underneath (not easy to get to) and is behind the lift pump, which itself looks like a metal body fuel filter. The 2nd one is installed on the engine in front of the injection pump. That's it. I tarped up the tractor so I won't have to sit on snow covered seats and foot rests and will hope for the best for Friday morning. Thanks for all the advice. Crossing my fingers and will report back in a couple of days if there's anything worth reporting, that is.

When you get around to fixing Kubota's poor fuel filter design be sure to search around here for numerous topics on upgrading the BX fuel delivery. There are also several commercially available mods with some nice designs.

 

[RalphVa]

For those of you dealing with a lot of snow, especially if snow blowing, I'd stuff a small towel around the fuel filler cap and then put some plastic above the towel, stuffed in around the hood.

Think the air breather for the cap is underneath. So, it can still "breathe" air through or underneath the towel.

 

[SandburRanch]

Just pulled out from filling my Tundra and at the nearby red light a cute girl in the left lane honks, so i thought possibly she was hitting on me . Then she tells me my gas cap is off .

 

[ovrszd]

If it were mine, I would remove the fuel line where it enters the fuel filter and drain the tank dry. Then refill with fresh fuel. Use the old fuel for brush burning.

Very few fuel tanks are set up to drain them dry. Almost all have a screen inside that is up off the bottom a little. So his water is going to stay in the tank below that inlet. It will come out of the tank in increments over time as it's sloshed around during use.