Loss of Power in cold conditions

[David T]

I think I messed up filling the BX23S with summer diesel that I had. After I filled it up, I was clearing snow and the tractor smoked and bogged down when I tried to increase the RPM. I immediately brought the machine back to the shed while still running at a lower RPM. Any insight or advice? I'm guessing that I need anti-gelling additive. The temperature has been consistently -10º C for a while now.

 

[MapleLeafFarmer]

gelled fuel is super easy to spot. Take a sample from the tank, fuel filter, water seperator or wherever your machine will allows. take a gander and you will know.

If only slightly gelled you could:
- wait till winter ends
- when it warms up to point of gelling stops and you think its going to get cold again add anti gell agitate and circulate through your machine by running it for awhile
- bring it into a warm shop (or tarp it and add heat) to de-gel the fuel, add anti gel and run to agitate and circulate through whole machine
- Try diesel 911, it often works on moderate to slight diesel gelling then agitate and run machine
- drain as much fuel out of tank / filters as possible and add winter treated diesel and run if gelling is not to the point of bringing your machine to its knees.

 

[nbryan]

Were you clearing cold dusty snow with a front snow blower with snow and ice crystals billowing around the tractor front?
Check inside the air filter housing for snow blockage.
This happened to me the first winter with my blower. The filter was so packed full I could barely remove the filter to clean out the housing. Turns out the air intake tube runs to the front top of the rad and sucks snowdust coming in through the grill.
I pushed the nozzle to rest inside the engine compartment and the issue has never recurred.

Normal summer position, and note 2 air inlet flaps I cut in for winter position:

Winter position to avoid sucking snow dust: