diesel additives

[terry274]

Winter is approaching here in Tennessee. My tractor will spend the winter in an unheated shed, it will not be used much in the next few months. Should I add any type of fuel additive to keep the fuel from becoming stale? Is there anything I should add to aid starting her during the cold weather? Cold weather is still about a month or more away but I wanted to get some opinions on what is best for a diesel engine, as this is my first experience with one. The temperature will go down to around 20 degrees Fahrenheit (-4 Celsius).
Terry

[aldo]

Winter is approaching here in Tennessee. My tractor will spend the winter in an unheated shed, it will not be used much in the next few months. Should I add any type of fuel additive to keep the fuel from becoming stale? Is there anything I should add to aid starting her during the cold weather? Cold weather is still about a month or more away but I wanted to get some opinions on what is best for a diesel engine, as this is my first experience with one. The temperature will go down to around 20 degrees Fahrenheit (-4 Celsius).
Terry

Terry, my understanding is that diesel doesn't go stale. Petrol/gasoline has volatile components that quickly evaporate off. Diesel does not, so it lasts a very long time. As for cold weather starting, the only thing you need is the heater plug and its fuel supply -if its good enough for European conditions, then -4C in Tennessee would be no problem.

[Dunggatherer]

Hi Terry,here in Europe we have something called "winterdiesel".
Because in very cold environments certain components in diesel,for instance paraffine,can precipitate,an "anti-freeze" is added.
The precipitation of the paraffine can lead to clogged fuel filters,and dry-running injectionpumps.Expensive!
An old trick is to add some petrol to the diesel already in the tank,of course it's better to switch to winterdiesel in October,but you don't always have a choice.
Not too much petrol,then you will dilute the diesel too much,that will ruin the pump too.
There's also additives that we can buy at the gas-station.
That's the original stuff the oilcompanies use.
Not as cheap as petrol,but it also prevents the little amount of water that may be in your tank from forming ice-cubes.

Good luck.
Rob.

And guess what,i still have som leftover from last winter.
Wynn's ice proof for diesel it's called.
http://www.wynns.be/product.aspx?nav=1& ... 90708&l=EN

[Paul]

I used to work on an oil rig in Central Australia ( land based) and Aussie crude oil being a light type of crude ( actually orange in colour as opposed to Texas T being black ) we used to put the crude through a dewaxing station and then run it in the Cat motors that ran the rig (3208 V8 Cat engines). Step Dad in Yorkshire used to have to boil up the kettle a few times and pour the hot water over the fuel lines on his Lorrie ( truck for the non yorkshiremen) to get the diesel back to flowing through the lines so he could head of on a run during the cold winters.
I would simply make sure the diesel tank is full to ensure there is no room for condensation as well as adding the Wynns product mentioned above. The other issue would be making sure the anti-freeze in the cooling system is of an appropriate concentration as I've seen guys on here talk about cooling systems freezing up and cracking blocks or heads,,, !!! Don't really have those sorts of problems here in Queensland Australia.
Good luck for the coming months. Rug up and stay well. All the best.
Cheers,

Paul