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Well, I took the beast up the hill to Dad's for Thanksgiving, came up the road just fine on Wednesday evening, and this morning it was 19°F when I went out to crank up to leave. It was a bit harder than usual to start (even allowing for cold), and put out a significant smoke cloud, but did start. I let it idle about 30 mins while getting stuff packed in, etc. then took off.
Got 50 yards down the road from the driveway, came to the stop sign, and there she shut down. It re-started ONCE when I gave it some of the ol' foot-feed, but shut down again when attempting to idle. Checked, had fuel spurt out of the bleeder port when I let it loose, and got fuel squirts when I pumped the primer lever. So, I pretty much thought I had water / gel issues.
Called CrewCab59, discussed, and his thoughts were gel/water issues, too.
I've been using additive with every fill-up at the recommended dosage, but I'd noticed the last two times I started it at sub 40°F temps it was NOT starting like the first time I tried those temps. About 5 full revolutions of the engine before it hit.
So, I got MORE diesel anti-gel, put one quart in the 1/2 full tank, the other filled the new filter I always carry with me, primed, primed, primed, cranked, cranked, primed, cranked, primed... You get the idea.
I think after about 10 mins of prime prime crank it finally gave me hope in the form of one *chuff*, so I cracked an injector (you DO have a 17mm line wrench in your tool kit that STAYS IN THE VEHICLE, right?), cranked some more, and BINGO.. Ran home without a hitch. (Well, we won't go into the fact that now the alternator seems to be less than happy, but that's another post..)
So, lessons learned (really, re-learned). Always carry a spare fuel filter, in cold weather, always carry a couple of quarts of good anti-gel as part of the "oh, crap" kit, double up on the dosing of your fuel, and keep the right tools on hand. I had access to all of the above, so I got home.
And let's not understate how nice it is to have resources like CrewCab59 to run things around the ol' noggin with!
Got 50 yards down the road from the driveway, came to the stop sign, and there she shut down. It re-started ONCE when I gave it some of the ol' foot-feed, but shut down again when attempting to idle. Checked, had fuel spurt out of the bleeder port when I let it loose, and got fuel squirts when I pumped the primer lever. So, I pretty much thought I had water / gel issues.
Called CrewCab59, discussed, and his thoughts were gel/water issues, too.
I've been using additive with every fill-up at the recommended dosage, but I'd noticed the last two times I started it at sub 40°F temps it was NOT starting like the first time I tried those temps. About 5 full revolutions of the engine before it hit.
So, I got MORE diesel anti-gel, put one quart in the 1/2 full tank, the other filled the new filter I always carry with me, primed, primed, primed, cranked, cranked, primed, cranked, primed... You get the idea.
I think after about 10 mins of prime prime crank it finally gave me hope in the form of one *chuff*, so I cracked an injector (you DO have a 17mm line wrench in your tool kit that STAYS IN THE VEHICLE, right?), cranked some more, and BINGO.. Ran home without a hitch. (Well, we won't go into the fact that now the alternator seems to be less than happy, but that's another post..)
So, lessons learned (really, re-learned). Always carry a spare fuel filter, in cold weather, always carry a couple of quarts of good anti-gel as part of the "oh, crap" kit, double up on the dosing of your fuel, and keep the right tools on hand. I had access to all of the above, so I got home.
And let's not understate how nice it is to have resources like CrewCab59 to run things around the ol' noggin with!