Posted by Todd in Kansas [162.158.69.18] on Tuesday, December 27, 2016 at 10:44:31 :
In Reply to: diesel winter operation posted by David N. Lundstrom [108.162.246.20] on Tuesday, December 27, 2016 at 09:09:37 :
You need to find a good place to get fuel for your loader. I get diesel from a local fuel company here in my town. They have a lot of diesel trucks go there for fuel as well as a lot of construction and farm people and their own trucks use their fuel so they keep it in good shape for the weather. They are finding suppliers and check the cloud point on the fuel before they buy it. Then they do add and additive and will put some anti gel in if it gets cold enough.
My thoughts on your problem are that its not gelling that is going on but water in the fuel and its freezing. Diesel should not gel up fast below freezing. It should be good to about 15 before the gelling should start to happen. Since you said you rarely run it when it isn't cold I bet you simply have water in your diesel from it sitting a lot during warm weather. Does it have a water separator on the fuel system you can drain or replace? Hows the fuel filter doing? As for power loss my experience is theres very little to no loss but your mpg will go down some in the cold months.
A complete servicing of the fuel system will probably do you a lot of good.
Todd
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