Diesel in the cold!

[Lil Bear]

My diesel folks out there, what do yall do about cranking after cold nights and days at camp or elevation?

 

[Boostpowered]

How cold are we talking? I only use howse additives but I live in the south. If its cold enough to cause you trouble cranking you either need a block and or more likely a tank heater if your fuel is gelling. Another possibility is your battery is too weak to crank in that case get a new one and add an auxillary battery.
I'm up in Indianapolis every Christmas and I never have any problem starting up there.

Give us more info on what you are driving and an idea of how cold we're talking.

 

[Lil Bear]

How cold are we talking? I only use howse additives but I live in the south. If its cold enough to cause you trouble cranking you either need a block and or more likely a tank heater if your fuel is gelling. Another possibility is your battery is too weak to crank in that case get a new one and add an auxillary battery.
I'm up in Indianapolis every Christmas and I never have any problem starting up there.

Give us more info on what you are driving and an idea of how cold we're talking.

I drive a 16 nissan titan xd. Im in the south also(GA) so never any issues with the cold lol!! I'm planning on being in some areas this winter that may be snowing or atleast cold enough to snow. I was just trying to foresee what I may need to do or what not once I get into any cold areas. I haven't yet, but I do plan on upgrading my batteries. I am planning a trip that will take me to the Grand canyon in January so that is some of the weather temps im looking at.

 

[Boostpowered]

I drive a 16 nissan titan xd. Im in the south also(GA) so never any issues with the cold lol!! I'm planning on being in some areas this winter that may be snowing or atleast cold enough to snow. I was just trying to foresee what I may need to do or what not once I get into any cold areas. I haven't yet, but I do plan on upgrading my batteries. I am planning a trip that will take me to the Grand canyon in January so that is some of the weather temps im looking at.

You shouldnt have to do anything then unless your planning on negative Temps.

 

[Alanymarce]

In Arctic Canada we used to leave the engines running 24 hours a day from November to March. I've seen truckers light fires under the engine to warm the fuel (not something I would recommend). Diesel sold in the Arctic has additives to keep the viscosity low, and most vehicles in Canada and Alaska have block heaters. I would normally plug in when the temperature will be -17 deg C or lower. Not much use if you're away from power, obviously. You could presumably run a block heater through an inverter with no problems.

 

[Dilldog]

With temps down to around zero you really dont have much to worry about. The only thing to pay attention to would be fuel. Standard diesel fuel from warmer areas and sold during the summer isnt treated with anti gel stuff. But so long as you run your tank nearly empty and top off once you get to where its cold youll be fine. Worst case like Boosted said, carry some anti gell with you and if in doubt throw it in. The fleet I used to work for ran Howes and it seemed to work well and didnt mess with the exhaust after treatment. This brings me to another point, resist the urge to idle for extended periods of time with your rig. Idle time will kill the exhaust after treatment system and cause massive issues and cost lots of money. Another trick in extreme cold is to cycle the engine pre heater a few times before trying to start it. Just turn the key on and once the "wait to start" light goes out, turn the key off then turn it on again and let the "wait to start" light go out again, then start the engine. This will just get a little more warmth into the intake and help a bit. Also NEVER use starting fluid, the engine pre heater has a very good chance of igniting it in the intake with can cause serious damage.
Finally if youre camping and super worried, get a generator and plug your truck in.

Honestly cold temps arent the death sentence to diesels some think they are. Here in Eastern WA we regularly see -5 to -10 over night. My 93 Dodge with a Cummins in it would still fire up no problems on those mornings even when I was unable to plug it in. I also never ran anti gel additives, just fuel from the pump. But like I said in areas where it gets cold, diesel fuel you get from the pumps is pre treated.

 

[Lil Bear]

With temps down to around zero you really dont have much to worry about. The only thing to pay attention to would be fuel. Standard diesel fuel from warmer areas and sold during the summer isnt treated with anti gel stuff. But so long as you run your tank nearly empty and top off once you get to where its cold youll be fine. Worst case like Boosted said, carry some anti gell with you and if in doubt throw it in. The fleet I used to work for ran Howes and it seemed to work well and didnt mess with the exhaust after treatment. This brings me to another point, resist the urge to idle for extended periods of time with your rig. Idle time will kill the exhaust after treatment system and cause massive issues and cost lots of money. Another trick in extreme cold is to cycle the engine pre heater a few times before trying to start it. Just turn the key on and once the "wait to start" light goes out, turn the key off then turn it on again and let the "wait to start" light go out again, then start the engine. This will just get a little more warmth into the intake and help a bit. Also NEVER use starting fluid, the engine pre heater has a very good chance of igniting it in the intake with can cause serious damage.
Finally if youre camping and super worried, get a generator and plug your truck in.

Honestly cold temps arent the death sentence to diesels some think they are. Here in Eastern WA we regularly see -5 to -10 over night. My 93 Dodge with a Cummins in it would still fire up no problems on those mornings even when I was unable to plug it in. I also never ran anti gel additives, just fuel from the pump. But like I said in areas where it gets cold, diesel fuel you get from the pumps is pre treated.

Thank you! I'll just make sure I get my fuel in a colder region lol and maybe use some additive.

 

[MazeVX]

A modern diesel doesn't care much about cold, be sure your battery is in good condition and like the others said, have winter diesel in the tank or add the additives on your own.
I ran diesels down to -27°C and never had a problem.
This is the Cummins V8 right?

 

[MidOH]

Anywhere south of the great lakes, our diesels seem to start better and warm up quicker than gas trucks. Rapid heaters and intake heaters might be why. That's also why you have dual batteries and alternators. My Cummins Ram doesn't even have a block heater. The Ram cycles it's plugs or grid heater on it's own, there is no option to cycle it again like older trucks. The computer cranks when it's good and ready to, your finger on the push button has no control.

New diesels start well. But expect your DEF consumption to double in the winter.

The engines are fine. The DEF, DPF, Bosche CPturdy4 pumps, and flimsy fuel filter assemblies are the real problems. A failure of any of that costs as much as an entire long block gas engine.

If consumers care about reliability, then I'd assume that there's a race on to develop clean diesels that don't require this junk, but I don't think American consumers care about reliability.

 

[Billiebob]

10 years in the Arctic shipping 7000 truck loads on the ice roads to the diamond mines in 6 weeks where 40 below was a warm night, FUEL is the number one concern, WATER the next concern. Diesels in truly cold environments NEVER get shut down. They run all winter.

In warmer winters, a diesel needs good batteries to run the preheater glow plugs. AND patience waiting for the wait to start light to go off.

 

[Dakota Houligans]

Fuel is your only concern. As long as the batteries are good. When below zero avoid using power from the truck when it isn't running. Run a good anti gel additive when you fill up heading into the colder climate and you'll be fine.

 

[Dilldog]

Oh one thing I forgot to add, keep your fuel tank as full as possible, especially over night. During the winter I try to keep all my fuel tanks above 1/2 (gas and diesel), this reduces the amount of condensation inside the fuel tank and ensures that theres always enough fuel to "handle" any water that might end up there.

 

[Billiebob]

Oh one thing I forgot to add, keep your fuel tank as full as possible, especially over night. During the winter I try to keep all my fuel tanks above 1/2 (gas and diesel), this reduces the amount of condensation inside the fuel tank and ensures that theres always enough fuel to "handle" any water that might end up there.

Best advice ^^^, for gasoline too. And never park in a heated garage.

 

[Dilldog]

I have never really worried about the heated garage thing, but with a heat cool cycle you get condensation so it could cause problems.

 

[Rpratt]

I think everyone ahead of me has covered just about everything. But I’ll drive it home with my personal experience. I drive a 2005 Ford Excursion 6.0 and my last truck was a 2006 Dodge 3500 (5.9 cummins). I’m not super familiar with the new diesels so not sure exactly how much of my exp applies to your rig. I live in NC were it doesn’t really get cold but do travel all over the country and find myself up towards the Canada border usually between Dec-Mar a couple times a year.

I run “Hot Shot” additive every fill up. Every time I start my truck I wait for the glow plug light to go off and also the electric fuel pump to cut off (to make sure Maximum pressure it available to the injectors). Every year I pull both batteries and take them to my local auto parts store and have them test the CCA (I don’t wait for them to start having problems before I replace them). I do have a block heater in my truck and use it if a plug is available but I don’t stress when a plug is not available. I have had my compressor fridge run to the auto cutoff point and still have never had an issue with starting.

I hope this helps a bit.

 

[leeloo]

And of course if you come from warmer climate check the bloody glow plugs, make sure they work. If you are in warm climate they almost never start and if the vehicle is older most likely they were never checked in the last 10 years and probably dead... hence the guy posting earlier that he has issues in colder mornings... Fuel additives you need at really low temps only...

 

[Dilldog]

Good advice on checking glow plugs or the intake heater, but not something to really worry about on a newer diesel. If the intake heater or glow plugs were malfunctioning a check engine light would be on, also it typically only takes a coolant temperature and or intake temperature reading of about 50*F to kick in the pre heater system. Thats a temp that basically every where in North America sees once in a while.