Thread: The Gasman's Winter time hints.

This brings to mind when I bought my wife a diesel jeep. Not long after it started running rough and we got it to the dealer.

My wife or kid accidentally put in some gasoline. I forget now but the bill would have been outrageous including hazardous waste fees to get rid of the mixed fuels.

I brought it home and bought 6 or so 5 gallons cans and dropped the tank and emptied it. I carried a can in the back of my truck which was a diesel and every time I filled it I added half a can or so. It took a while but I used all that hazardous waste and gained!

I made this sticker and put it on the Jeep and have had no issues since.

I used to drain the fuel in both my lawn mower and snow blower but now just a fuel stabilizer for storage. I switched because I had trouble with the snow blower. Turned out everything I the carb dried out. Never had a problem with either after that for 20 years.

In winter I never let my gas tank drop below half and as a result haven't had a frozen gas line in decades, touch wood.

Had a 1985 Ford diesel pickup truck that was nothing but a pain in the rear wit fuel problems in winter even with fuel conditioners and winter grade diesel. Put me off diesel for good.

Bob

Tim I would get hard money they put more tHan a gallon in. More than likely filled it up cause they forgot it was Diesel. We get that with new guys every now and then, but a gallon to 20-25 will not hurt, thins the mix instead of gelling which is the problem.
Ask me how I know? 2 years drilling outside of Deadhorse. 10,000 gallon tank I'd put 300 gas in it sometimes more.

And Bob some of the diesels that ford had in the 80,s had issues, mostly its when the stations done get the winter mix n and if your injectors are problematic. Nowadays the diesels hav much better fuel systems plus gas stations are under more scrutiny, diesel used to be really dirty so tanks got more crap in them. Winter or summer all my trucks start first try and they are diesels. Tc

Tc, Yes it was more than 10 years ago so I have forgotten the details but it was 50% or more I am sure. I found the receipt!

2.5 gallons of 50/50 in a tank would not be bad and now that you bring it up I remember using a tank or two of straight diesel in between to clear the additive volume of filling at a 1/4 tank minimum.

If you would keep adding at 1/4 tank the percentage would keep rising......

Originally Posted by tcrideshd

And Bob some of the diesels that ford had in the 80,s had issues, mostly its when the stations done get the winter mix n and if your injectors are problematic. Nowadays the diesels hav much better fuel systems plus gas stations are under more scrutiny, diesel used to be really dirty so tanks got more crap in them. Winter or summer all my trucks start first try and they are diesels. Tc

They have always been pretty good up here with making sure they sold #1 grade diesel. You'd had to look hard to find #2 diesel fuel even in summer. Don't know what it is like now. I'll say two thing for that 85 Ford diesel I had and that was it was not fast enough to get out of it's own way and would have trouble pulling a sick hooker off a pee pot.

In 30 years I have no doubt they have improved diesels but I am not in the market for a pick up truck now and diesel is more expensive than gasoline in a lot of cases. Speaking of prices, I believe we are paying around $4.00 US for a US gal. for regular gas.

Bob

I didnt think it would be long before someone said to put gas in the diesel. I too have done this. Mainly in older farm equipment but i never tried it in the new diesel engines with all the electronics and sensors. The way i was taught was 5% gas, 95% diesel. Sure worked to keep the diesel from gelling. And the engines ran a little hotter. Little more horse power in the old equipment was a blessing.

As far as finding rodents and such in your vehicle when storing, i agree 100 percent. This is why i always closed off the intake and exhaust on my bike when storing over the real cold months. I did find a nest on the motor between the carbs one year and i was thankfull i had sealed off the carbs.

I had a friend that was pissed at me because he said when his diesel truck was running bad he took it to a shop. They said it was gas in the diesel that caused the issue. I explained to him that i didnt deliver to the store he gets his fuel at plus it would have to be a lot of gas mixed in and not just a little to cause his issue.

He tried to sue the store and got nowhere. I told him that the shop had just screwed him but he still blamed the fuel trucks. I had told him at one time that i dont have a special compartment in my trailer that only gets diesel put in it. That triggered his rage and it all came to a head.

Oh well. Cost him a lot of money and who know what the real issue was.

BTW, Nice sticker. They should put that as an option for trucks. Ha.

Good pointers Jerry, thanks for the thread.
Just like others for the mower I've put the stabilizer for winter and for my bike I always fill it up with high octane gas(race gas). To this day I've never experienced any issues.

I quit looking at the price of fuel because im in and out of so many stations and in so many different areas. Its never the same. But at a guess i thinks its around 2.30 a gallon for regular in Colorado. We have pretty lows prices when you compare other states. But like i said, i could be off on my guess some.

Yes you can believe they have improved. I in 85 the piece of crapmford diesel had around 210 hp and 375 #of tongue. My new one has 450 hp and almost 1000# of torque, it,ll burn tires thru 2 gears and will pull the mountain if you can hook it, plus gets 20 mpg. Sp ya they fixed that sue but they were doing pretty good after 96 also. ..

Now as to gas prices guys, I,m on the other end of the argument, I love t when they are up!. I get a big raise if it goes up. Don't hate me, y'all like to make more money too. Tc

No problem here TC with you making more money. I wish my pay would change with the price of fuel. Sense the company i worked for for years sold out at the beggining of the year to a major corporation, all ive seen is less ans less. Every month they seem to take more away from us. But thats another story.