First winter with bio Diesel

This is the first winter with Casey's only having bio Diesel, it "says" blended to -10, so I added a generous amount of power services. This is what I have always done with the conventional Diesel, and with lower temperatures. My truck sat in the garage the last two days at about 40 degrees. I went out at 8:00 this morning and it was -20, truck sat outside all day, it was -5 when I started it. On the way home I started to hear the fuel pump whine, got louder, it got real loud when I pulled in the drive, low fuel pressure light came on just as I pulled int the garage.

I wonder if the Diesel or the bio was the culprit?

Pull the fuel filter quick while cold and take a look. Cold Bio won't go through the filter well.

Yellowstone park has an older Dodge that has been running on B100 for several years now. Not sure what they add to it. We had a 30 liter on an outside generator test pad that ran B100 with no problem last winter.

This Crappy Bio Diesel is the worst for storage and Cold weather.
But here we forced to buy it as that is all they sell here.

Power service recommends double the dose for Bio.
Read the bottle.
So Double what ever you used before.

Tom

Never trust power service. Blend with #1 fuel at those temps. 30 years owning a semi and driving otr. Thank heavens I don't do it anymore. Bunch of guys in our company never liked power service.

I have heard the fat based bio is the culprit, not the soy based bio but I read it on the net so who knows! I am all for bio based fuels but I don’t yet trust biodiesel in the winter.

Quit using power service, lots of stories about gelling using that stuff. Truckers overwhelmingly use Howes diesel treat.

Hello David G,

Things must have changed. When I worked at Mobil, diesel was blended for the area it was sold at. At one time, Mobil would pay the tow if fuel yelled, and you got stuck. You should NOT buy diesel in Florida and expect to be able to go to Main in the winter time. Fuel Was blended from October to March if I recall correctly.10% kero every month upt to 40% In January,

Guido.

Got in a debate on another board about a similar issue, here is some information I found on the web from Cenex.

Local Casey?s has had out of service bags on the diesel pumps for a couple weeks now. I assume it won?t pump at these temps.




Understanding Cloud Point and CFPP (cold filter plugging point)


Cloud point
All fuels must be blended 5-10 degrees above cloud (fuel temp not air temp)
Significant variation between fuels
Typical #2 cloud pt ? 6 ? 14 degrees F
Use pipeline spec as baseline

CFPP
Usually within a degree or two of cloud point in an unadditized fuel


Winter Fuel Blend Chart
#2 Diesel Fuel, Ruby Fieldmaster? & Cenex Roadmaster XL?

Product CFPP* w/o Cold Flow Additive CFPP* With Cold Flow Additive
100% X or D grade +10?F -3?F
90% X or D + 10% #1 +7?F -6?F
80% X or D + 20% #1 +4?F -9?F
70% X or D + 30% #1 +1?F -12?F
60% X or D + 40% #1 -2?F -15?F
50% X or D + 50% #1 -5?F -18?F
40% X or D + 60% #1 -8?F -21?F
30% X or D + 70% #1 -11?F -24?F
20% X or D + 80% #1 -14?F -27?F


Note: This chart is for guideline purposes only. Diesel fuel low temperature characteristics may vary substantially from one source to another and this chart assumes the product meets typical specifications.
*CFPP (Cold Filter Plugging Point) is the temperature at which wax crystals will plug a fuel filter.

WINTER BLENDING WITH BIODIESEL
? Blending of neat biodiesel (B100) with petroleum diesel should occur when both product are 40 degrees F or above.
? Low blends (B2 or B5) typically have very similar (within 0 to 5 degrees) Cloud Point and CFPP characteristics to conventional diesel products and can be treated in a similar fashion #1 blends, Winter Aid III additives, or both.
? Animal fat or higher level soy blends may increase the CFPP of the fuel as much as 5 degrees for every 10% of B100 used.

Impact of #1 Fuel

#1 fuel typically has a very low cloud point
(-40 to -70F)

#1 blended with #2
reduces the cloud point and CFPP of the blend

?Rule of Thumb?
Adding 10%-#1 will decrease the cloud point by approximately 2 degrees

#1 when blended with 5% or greater with biodiesel will have a negative effect on the cloud point

Use power service but double or triple the dose Howe?s the same thing or you will be gelled up neither one works any better than the other 2 years ago when I was working at a truck shop we had 5 trucks gelled up out of 20 the 5 gelled ones were using the recommendation dose of Howe?s the other 15 that didn?t have problems would dump the whole bottle in each tank every time they fueled . I gelled up the 3020 just the other day running gas station diesel not treated if you don?t mind walking just put your faith in somebody?s else?s hands when it comes to winter diesel

You need to shy away from the stations that use additives when the temps get under 30. It will save you a lot of headaches. I am fortunate to have a station that sells straight #1 and #2 so I can blend myself. I would find a station that sells it that way. Power service is a waste of money in my opinion

Not as cold here just -1, warming to 9. But I put howell's big bottle in 4 rigs with a total of 110 gal. But little JD justs holds 15 gal and I put the most in it. Did it back when was 45 deg But it will start and run, now. When it warms up this coming week I'm going to fill them all.up.and and put that much more in them.

We are doing some major modification to our water purification plant at work, so we have a temporary system rented from GE. We built tent structures over the trailers and heat traced the hoses. Large electric heaters blow into the tents, but with the impending cold weather, we brought in two backup diesel powered and burning heaters, one million BTUs each. Yes, badass!

I was assigned elsewhere on Monday, but when I went outside I smelled the burning diesel and thought it smelled like bio- to me it just has a sweeter, popcorn-like odor than normal fuel. I commented to a coworker how that bio gave me fits years ago in the winter, probably because I didn't know what I was doing with it. Sure enough, late Wednesday they gelled the fuel line to one of the heaters. I told them to go get a couple bottles of the Red 911- they were using heat guns on the lines. I also suggested new filters, or a bypass. Seems they got it fired back up by end of day shift according to the temps inside the tents, around 70F with -14F outside.

David I have used Bio diesel for years. I never use it after Oct. In cold weather it will cause problems regardless of what kind and brand of treatment you use. Much under 15 degree is the low limit I have found to using bio-diesel trouble free.

Also I have found Casey's fuel to be in general lower quality. I have had trouble with their gas in vehicles and mileage differences in the semis.

So my recommendation is to buy a better quality fuel that is not bio-diesel for cold weather driving.

One time laying along the road in sub zero weather changing fuel filters will quickly educate you on fuel and treatments.

I ended up with summer diesel in my tractors this fall, didn?t quite go as planned.

In Minnesota we run 20% bio in summer, 5% in winter.

I was getting it used up and cleared out with Power Service, but then this cold snap hit. Waiting for the heat wave of this weekend to get the 2tractors running again....

The furnace is oil furnace, I was running low and don?t want to call the fleas out in below zero and snowing weather, so I get a few gallons from the fuel tank. It has winter formulation and a light amount of PS in it. It came out gloppy, really something to see that stuff in its gelled form. Had to set the can in the basement a few hours before I could pour it.

Got some diesel from the Holiday service station to have another 5 gallons around, it flowed good. The next day I saw they had bags on the diesel pumps, got too cold for them.

Really need a good blend of #1 for these types of temps. No getting around it. It was flirting with minus 30 here a couple days.

Paul

It really doesn't matter if you Power Service, Howe's or what ever. Just use what your comfortable with and Known to you to work, But use something.

Some of us are not as fortunate to find/buy #1 Diesel.
And when I do it's sold as Kerosene at three times the price of #2

I've used power service for over 45 yrs and been through some tough winters.

Yes I had a few instances but they were the result of self inflicted problems. ie; poor filter maintaince, not draining off moisture etc.
Once I learned to do a better job of PM work, no problem.

Howe's was not readily available here until several years ago.
So for me changing to something new to me, from something Trusted is a Non Starter.

The only other additive I believe in, which is also a anti-gel,
Is Stanadyne fuel treatment that I use during the summer.

Tom

I have used power service for the last several years, after seeing some of the ads, i just ordered a bottle of FPPF Fuel additive, we will see, it is supposed to be much better and not seperate....

The last 3 years I've had some bio left in the barrel after harvest, it's been enough to get me thru the winter and will this year. I only use the 4430 in the winter to move snow and clean trees in waterways and terraces. Today it's 30 here and I have about 3 times more Howes than labeled for below 0. The glass screen on the side of the injection pump clouded up right away. I was only doing some light work around the yard so didn't need to rev it up. So got along fine. Last year on a day like today I headed to another farm to do some tree work and it started gelling about 1/2 mile from home. I sat on the road with it barely running until enough warm fuel from the pump got back to the tank then all was fine. Had plenty of Howes in then also. From now onI'm going to make sure my last fill in the fall is straight no.2.

It's not likely a gelling problem at that temp. More likely to be a water issue.

I'm with Guido. The fuel is blended for the location it is used in. I run semi all over the country even up into the northen states like MT,ND,ID. I even went to bed one night at Montpelier ID shut truck off about midnight started it again about 8or 9 am Was -28 F in the morning when I started it. No ether heaters or any of that. I don't bother with treating fuel in that time either. I was however particular about where I bought fuel. If I had not had trouble in the past I bought from them in subsequent years.

Put some gas it and try to get non bio. In our area Hucks was the bad stuff. Went to Bloomington from Farmer City on I74 and saw a lot of trucks setting at -8 at noon.