should I worry about gelling?

[panamacamper1]

Ok, I am in korea for a year. My wife is home with our kids and my truck. I purchased a ram 2500 with the 5.9 cummins a month before I left. I know she will start it and drive it once a week. The thing is we have never owned deisel. What is gelling?
in maryland should I worry about that?

[Engineer9860]

I have a million miles on various diesel powered trucks. I have never used any diesel fuel additives/supplements. Been in many -10 and lower situations without additives. I have only had 1 gelling episode, and that was in single digit conditions. Truck would idle, just wouldn't pull with a load. Easily fixed with Power Service 911.

Buy winter blend fuel and you'll be good to go.

The main reason you would have trouble with gelling would be during the transition months. I don't recommend buying fuel in Florida then driving to North Dakota without adding a gel preventative.

[JustLabs]

If she is going to drive it,make sure she drives it until its good and hot.

A mile around the block will do more harm than good.

[Dave_H_M]

when was it fueled up? it just may have winter fuel in it.

anyhow it will not hurt anything to have the DW throw some antigel in it just for grins.

[The_Mad_Norsky]

carpetguy2 wrote:
My truck ran fine in 8 below and all of sudden this morning stalled 10 times on the road with in 1 mile.
And had recommend dosage for additive

sounds like you had a real good tank of bio fuel. or had just filled at a new place that used bio, which cleaned the gunk out of your tank and plugged the filters.

Additive would not help in that situation.

[carpetguy2]

My truck ran fine in 8 below and all of sudden this morning stalled 10 times on the road with in 1 mile.
And had recommend dosage for additive

[jus2shy]

So to get more technical, Diesel has paraffin wax in it. The paraffin stays in solution until you get to the cloud point. This is the point where gel starts forming. Some of the paraffin falls out of solution and forms a globule. And just like how snowflakes are formed, more paraffin bonds to the floating chunks of paraffin and this makes your gel globules. This is what plugs your filter when your fuel "gels". Typically in colder states (I would think Maryland is one of them), they treat the fuel so that it can withstand colder temps, keeping the paraffin in solution. In extreme cases, they start to blend Kerosene to help keep the paraffin in solution. Think about cooking lard. It's a liquid on the hot pan, but put it in a jar and after a while it turns solid, until you heat it again. Pretty much the same thing.

[The_Mad_Norsky]

Gelling is when the normal, #2 diesel fuel in the vehicle gets so cold it starts to turn from liquid to solid. So the fuel starts getting jelly like, instead of a complete liquid.

These at first, very small solid particles of fuel, plug the filter they have to pass through on the way to injection into the engine.

Usually if your winter time temperatures get no lower than the 20 something degree range the summer #2 fuel will not gell.

However, if you get temps below that for a long period of time, this could present a problem.

Most retailers in the Maryland area and north sell a winter blended diesel fuel for the winter months. Have the wife fill the tank with this blended fuel and you should be fine. Make sure she asks if the diesel is winter blended before filling up. This blended will mix with the regular #2 already in the tank and keep your fuel gell free unless you get temps well below zero.

And, gee, I really don't know how cold you folks in Maryland get. So hope this helps.

Oh and good lord don't put any type of gas in the tank. Power Service diesel additive (white bottle) is available almost any auto parts or Wal Mart store. Put about 4 ounces of this in a 35 gallon tank of diesel and it will not gell at 40 below zero.

Here's a link to Power Service stuff: Power Service winter diesel additive

[camp-n-family]

In very cold temperatures diesel fuel can become gel like and be slow to flow. Some people add a little regular gas to the tank to prevent this.