ok guys this year i had my truck gel up on me 2 times and today it gelled up on me again so i cracked my injectors and fired till i got fuel then she fired right up...so does it sound like i need a new lift pump and fuel filter?.....and i think now i'm gonna start plugging it in for now on....the first two times it gelled i only had a quater of a tank of fuel so now i have a full tank and it gelled i'm pretty tired of it

 

Just get some diesel treatment and add it to each tank any time you believe it is going to be below 28f or so.

And if you can plug it in, do that too. My truck sounds soo much better when she starts after being plugged up for 3hrs. I have it on a timer, so it turns on at 3am.

 

i've been running the howl's diesel treatment

 

Mine had about a 1/8 of a tank of fuel and started fine in the am, but I had it plugged in all night.

 

just plugged it in...had to use the neighbors garage plug

 

It was -20 below here Sat night and we've a couple nights light that this winter. I run #2 with Power Service additive and haven't even remotely had a problem with it gelling up. It stays plugged in all night since I'm co-owner/operator of a towing business and may need to take off in the middle of the night.

 

Like the others said use a fuel additive, I like Power Service. If it gels you should change the filter as it gets waxy looking stuff in it. I rembmber when the fed made the change to low sulfer diesel and that winter there were a lot of gel problems, it could be that the ultra low sulfer diesel is more prone to gelling too, don't know for sure though.

 

I just put a stick on oil pan heater on mine that I run along with the block heater...it will heat the oil from -30C to +20C in 4 hours.

 

stick meaning?

 

mine fired right up today after not being ran in 3 days. Beings that we live somewhat close i we are experiencing the same temps. From my experience on the farm sometimes we would have problems with the particular loads of fuel got. Sometimes we had no problems other times we had problems. So we just run a fuel additive now like stated above.

 

Stick as in a magnetic heater that sticks to the bottom of the oil pan. Our oil pans are made of metal and magnets stick to them ; )

I think it's time you change your diesel treatment. How could are you getting?

 

I agree with the fuel addative, just make sure it is for winter use as the summer stuff has no antigel. I also use power service in the white bottle for winter. The 911 works well too, good to have a bottle behind the seat for just in case situations.


And I also agree with changing the filter if it gels, even if it is a new filter on there. I got caught with a bit too much biodiesel and kept adding kero thinking I was still gelling, it was just wax buildup in the filter cause after I changed the filter in the parking lot at -8 I was good to go.

As for plugging it in to keep it from gelling.... I dont think that is nessesary. Not that it isnt good to have the truck nice and warm for starting... it just isnt going to do much heating for the fuel, if you have a gelling problem that bad then your fuel source has an issue or there is other problems.

What was your temperature anyways, and was is gelled when you started it, or tried to start it?

also what about the fuel heater?

 

well last night it got down to -3 F i use good fuel and i use howe's diesel treatment trucker approved.......but its weird all i have to do is crack the injectors and prime them right up and she runs fine......so i'm thinking the lift pump should probably be changed since i haven't chaned it since i owned it since 2005 along with the fuel filter

 

Try the filter change and you might have gotten a bad couple of tanks. It also might like being plugged in. I have had about 1.5 tanks without any additive and so far so good. Also I don't think that my lift pump has been changed since my cousin first got the truck in 97 and also don't know if my uncle ever replaced it. Just see how it acts in the morning with it being plugged in. Hey just for poop's and giggles did you make sure that the cord is getting power after you plugged the truck in. I didn't last year and found out that the 15 days I plugged it in I wasn't getting anything due to a bad heater.

 

Since we have a local source of clear, undyed kerosene, I use (in addition to Power Service white bottle) about 4 or 5 gallons of kero in each fill up during the winter. We had -5 last night, (wind chill was about -200). But, (tapping on a small wooden object), I had no problem this morning with gell. I gelled up twice last winter. A school bus driver friend recently reminded me of the not so old practice of mixing kero to your winter fuel to lower gel temps. Fuel companies used to sell a "winter blend" in the pre-ulsd regulations. (Kero doesn't pass ulsd specs - or so I'm told.)
A true gell-up for me requires a filter change, solvent in the tank, ('bout 60 bucks worth of stuff!) for quick recovery. Otherwise it is a wait for spring situation.
Bob