Diesels in cold weather

^For sure, it'll happen occasionally. Last time I saw it was in Denver about 8 years ago. Big cold snap, -25-30 at night. Pretty much every diesel running fuel from around town gelled up. All of our equipment on the job as well.
No 911 to be found anywhere in town. I drove back home to the western slope that morning and bought a couple cases.
The news made it out to be lack of additives for that temp. Only treating fuel down to like -10 or something.
But it is certainly not the norm.

After trucking from Alaska to Miami and all points in between for over 35 years and running in all kinds of weather cold and hot and owning diesel pickups since 1994 and buying hundreds of thousands of dollars of diesel fuel over the years I have seen my share of trucks gelling up in winter. One night a guy I was running with had his truck gel up at -20 and he kept saying as he tried to sleep in the front seat of my Peterbilt as I slept between the sheets of my warm sleeper....WTF... they told me it was winter blend lol. When it hits 0 put some Power Service or FPPF or Howes in your fuel !!!!! As far as a diesel starting in -0 temps no proplem with these newer diesel motors.....at all.

I have a 2009 Duramax (Chev. Silverado) and a 2013 Powerstroke (F550) up here in AK. The fuel outlets sell a winter diesel that avoids gelling. I generally plug the heater in at 0 or below....as much to get cab heat quickly as anything else.

Sometimes a diesel might take a bit longer to get all the way warmed up than a gas engine, but in general there's no real difference in winter use.

Last winter I had occasion to drive both vehicles to / from Fairbanks where the observed low (on a bank sign next to the work location) was -39 one trip and -32 the other. Both vehicles started fine (after being plugged in) but idle doesn't cut it at those temps for heat: it took about 10 minutes under load (relatively slow driving) to get the engine thoroughly warm and putting out noticeable heat to the cab.

Lynnmor wrote:
I snowmobile in Maine and use a 6.7 Ford diesel. Two in our group had older Fords with the 7.3 engines. I always use the remote start in cold weather and let the truck decide the glow plug delay. We all attempted to leave for home at the same time in 7 below temperatures. Mine started like is was July with no block heater. A 7.3 started but complained a lot with a block heater. The 7.3 with no block heater called road service.

The point is that diesels have come a long way in the last 7 or 8 years.

Tbe coldest I fired a 7.3PSD was about 15 below. Cycle tbe glow plugs twice, clutch in, crank...it started, ran funny for maybe 20 seconds, then smoothed out. Over 700,000 miles on the truck, block heater had never been used. (Cord still zip-tied from the factory.)

At a guess: he had either nonfunctional glow plugs, or an engine with low compression.

The issue with our 2001.5 & 2003 Dodge 5.9 diesels is that it takes about 8-10 miles of driving before the heater starts cranking out the BTU's. It is my understanding that this is no longer the case with the new diesels.

Lessmore wrote:

wilber1 wrote:

mike-s wrote:

ScottG wrote:
The only winter related problem I ever had was with a very old diesel and driving down the freeway in near zero temps. The eng didn't make enough heat to heat the cab. I was freezing to death!

Gas engines can have the same problem, which anyone who's drive an air-cooled VW knows.

True but the gas heater would keep the inside warm. Unfortunately it wasn't connected to the defrosters. Keeping ice off the windshield was the biggest problem with my old VW van in Alberta winters.

With my first car, a '61 VW Beetle I eventually put frost shields on the inside of the windshield as it would freeze up, without them. My third car, a '69 VW Beetle had a gas heater and that took care of the heat and frozen windshield problem. I lived in the prairies, both northern Alberta and Manitoba, then. It gets extremely cold there...25 to 35 below, sometimes colder.

We were in Edmonton. The Beetle was better then. My 72 van had the gas heater in the very back in the engine compartment and was just a space heater that wasn't connected to the defrosters.

Diesels work fine in the cold as long as they're working right (just like any other ICE).
If not, they could be a bear compared to starting a gasser when it's real cold.
Not a reason to shy away from them though.

wilber1 wrote:

mike-s wrote:

ScottG wrote:
The only winter related problem I ever had was with a very old diesel and driving down the freeway in near zero temps. The eng didn't make enough heat to heat the cab. I was freezing to death!

Gas engines can have the same problem, which anyone who's drive an air-cooled VW knows.

True but the gas heater would keep the inside warm. Unfortunately it wasn't connected to the defrosters. Keeping ice off the windshield was the biggest problem with my old VW van in Alberta winters.

With my first car, a '61 VW Beetle I eventually put frost shields on the inside of the windshield as it would freeze up, without them. My third car, a '69 VW Beetle had a gas heater and that took care of the heat and frozen windshield problem. I lived in the prairies, both northern Alberta and Manitoba, then. It gets extremely cold there...25 to 35 below, sometimes colder.

Mandalay Parr wrote:
I think there is a winter formula diesel fuel that won't gel.

Unless you fill an auxiliary tank down south and then drive north never using it, gel is a non-issue as all the stations switch to the winter blend.

Lots of diesel trucks operating in the north.

Prior truck was a 1992 7.3. It started fine down to -5F. I'd preemptively turn the key to on and when the "wait to start" light went out quickly turn off and then back on to give the glow plugs a head start. (this was without plugging in the engine block heater as we were living in apartment with a parking structure for the winter)

my last 6.7 has less issues with the cold up here than some of my older gas vehicles from the past 20 years. I think back to how much my 2004 Golf TDI used to struggle with the cold and how great my new truck does its amazing to see how far they have come.

Never had an issue yet with them never starting, even I the extreme cold we get here.