On the first I went out to start my 2670 first run in a month. I new is was going to be ruff start. Sluggish start but it did start ran for 5 minutes then stalled. Put tractor on charger ... pulled out wife's hair dryer and warmed filters fuel rail . Started up ran 5 minutes stalled. Picked up some 911 but in 5 oz , ran hair dryer . Fired up ran 30 minutes. Drove it a half mile parked it back in shed. Dealer gave me a Kubota brand conditioner said it was good enough. Obviously it was not. Do I need to add more 911 or something else to get through the winter . After 7 below again last night I'm wondering if it will be jelled up again. Thanks for any help.
An ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure especially at 20 below! A lot of you folks new to diesels find out, belatedly, that diesels are not like SI engines which burn gasoline especially when it comes to cold weather. The first sign of a cold weather-fuel related problem is a failure to start after cranking or a engine run down and a loss of power of a started engine caused by fuel starvation somewhere in the fuel delivery system.
In cold weather it's hard to tell what causes a fuel delivery problem on a diesel. It could be summer fuel "jelling" or it could be ice from water condensed in the fuel freezing at the tank outlet, in the lines or on the filter(s).
Using a blow dryer on a on the tank outlet, fuel lines and a filter that's in a metal canister can melt the ice but if you don't drain the water out, it will just happen again. To minimize condensation (you can't eliminate it) try to keep the tank full. If you duel filter has a drain, drain it regularly into a clear jar and look for water at the bottom. Drain it before every start until you don't find anymore and then maybe once a week until you get the feel for how long it will take to accumulate more than a few drops. Treat the fuel with a good fuel treatment. The treatment makes the water form large globs the slide off the filter.
"Jelling" is really the precipitation of wax, long chain hydrocarbons(LCH) , in the fuel. This LCH provides more energy per unit volume to the fuel in summer months but will cause nothing but misery during diesel engine operations in cold weather. Winter blended fuels are usually composed of mixtures of#2 diesel with lower energy #1 diesel( #2 diesel with LCH removed). If you get caught with a partial tank of summer fuel, fill the remainder of the tank with #1 diesel and treat the fuel with a good winter additive. It's a good time to change the fuel filter is you haven't changed it recently. If you have "jelling" in the fuel, the tank fuel will look cloudy as wax begins to precipitate and the filter element, if visible, will look like it is coated with wax. You can try 911 treatment per the label, bring the tractor into a warm building until the wax "melts", try to use a blow dryer on the filter, put #1 and fuel treatment in the tank, etc but this will all take some time and in the middle of a snow storm you won't be plowing out. Also, it's a good idea to always have a spare fuel filter(s) around. And while you are doing all this anti-jell work, charge your battery because you probably ran it down trying to start when you fuel delivery was blocked.
Prevention is the name of the game. Good fuel housekeeping and using the correct fuel blend for the season will keep you running in cold weather.
Just my $0.02!
