Q: What can I do when diesel fuel gels?
A: Cold temperatures present quite a few issues for diesel owners. As temperatures start to drop, the paraffins in your diesel fuel start to coagulate and settle to the bottom of the tank. The water that is present in your diesel fuel will also begin to fall out of suspension and freeze.
This gelled wax and ice in your fuel system and can clog fuel pumps, filters, lines, and injectors. Adding a winter anti-gel product will help with most of your winter issues. Winter operability is cured by a special wax modifier that changes the temperature and the method that the wax crystals are formed.
Precipitated wax particulates occur at lower temperatures than untreated diesel fuel with much smaller crystals forming. A wax anti-settling agent keeps the wax dispersed once the cloud point is reached and a deicer is used to keep moisture from freezing and plugging up fuel filters.
Due to the wax modification chemistry, the anti-gel product must be added before the cloud point of the fuel to be effective. But what if you forgot to add an anti-gel product in time and you have gelled fuel? Emergency winter products are available for just this reason. Most emergency products work by increasing the solubility of the fuel, which puts waxes back into suspension and keeps them from forming. A de-icer melts the ice in the tank and lowers the freezing point of the free water which keeps it from freezing in the future.
- To de-ice frozen fuel-filters: If fuel is liquid in fuel tanks but the engine won’t start, then remove fuel-filters and fill with 50 percent diesel winter rescue and 50 percent diesel fuel. Next, reinstall the fuel-filters, and start the engine.
- To re-liquify gelled fuel: Add entire contents (32 ounces) of diesel winter rescue to every 40 gallons of fuel in the tank(s). Remove fuel-filters and fill with 50 percent diesel winter rescue and 50 percent diesel fuel. Next, reinstall the fuel-filters, and start the engine. Let the engine idle to warm up the fuel system.
Information provided by Lubrication Specialties, Inc.
