Fuel gelling and icing: What causes it, the myths, and how to prevent it

i don't normally worry much about fuel issues till it drops below 0, then i idle at night witch keeps me and the fuel warm. -20 i blend #1 or treat my fuel. anything sub 0 if i am going to be shutting the truck off at home i treat the fuel or blend #1

iv had more problems with fuel icing than i ever have jelling. normally after letting a truck sit for a while with less than full tanks



picture from yesterday.

 

reading that article, i'm going to guess that it's basically useless asking a clerk what the freeze temp of the fuel they are selling is.

even if they knew, that information would change with every tanker of fuel rolling in to fill up their tanks. every 2 hours.

truckstops sell a LOT of fuel per hour.

 

Here's what I use; and have for many years. Good stuff.


http://www.schaefferoil.com/arctic-shield.html

 

Years ago there was a mom and pop place that I use to frequent, when it got cold out they would have two glass jars of fuel sitting on a ledge near the door, one was number 2 and the other straight number 1, they did this so that you knew at what temp the fuel they sold started to cloud up.

 

My rule of thumb has been: Once temps go below -10, no fuel additive will necessarily work. I ALWAYS idle. The few gallons of fuel used to idle is much cheaper than ungelling an engine.

 

-22* F in Laramie last Thursday morning when I stopped at the Petro to fuel up. Dumped 2 bottles of anti-gel in each tank, topped off (was about 1/2 full on the fuel guage) and still had problems. Started throwing codes 5-10 miles down the road. Started cutting out, lurching and hesitating and losing power.

 

if you can run Kerosene through a diesel engine, would Jet A work too?

 

You used too much antigel I think.

 

Would be helpful to know what brand you used and ... did you got somewhere cold, put in conditioner, topped off, then pulled around shut down for the night? That's not going to work. The key is to get your fuel conditioned and run all through the system before ever shutting down (as in run down the road a minimum of 10 miles to get the conditioner mixed in well and to flush the filters of "bad stuff" they me be holding)

Not knowing what brand you used and what size bottles you used, we can't determine what you may have did right or wrong.