diesel winter problems

[ATaylorRacing]

Here is another problem with diesels in extremely cold weather...the fuel gels up and wont flow as it should. Several years ago I borrowed a diesel PU that had only @ 25 miles on it to jump start my car. Her PU started fine, but acted like the accelerator linkage was not hooked up. I idled it the 2 miles to my car and jumped it with no trouble, then idled the truck back to where it had been sitting. It took her a week for the weather to warm up enough for it to drive normally. I don't know if the winter diesel fuels are now mixed differently than back then. Any one know? The temps that week were in the -30s and being a mail man REALLY sucked back then....one of the days had a constant -30 wind chill and a few gusts recorded -70 for a few minutes. This was in Kokomo, IN in the early 80s and I was a newby without my own route yet.

[lunarhighway]

i know diesel can gell up, but in my case i'm not sure if that's the issue... once you can get the car to start...usually by towing though , it runs remarkably well... anyway temps are slightly above zero today so lets hope that's enough to eliminate the problem.

[some_other_dave]

Originally Posted by TestDrive

3) Check/clean all battery/starter cable connections.

This is the absolute first thing that springs to mind when anyone ever says "slow cranking" under any circumstances! It's easy enough to do (when the weather warms up from -8C, that is!) and doesn't cost a thing. And it can cure all kinds of odd electrical problems.

Unhook the ground connections and take a wire brush to all of them. The connector and the part that it connects to, both. With the battery ground still unplugged, also clean up the (+) connections on the battery and the starter. You might be surprised at the difference. (Then again, I might be surprised at the lack of difference! )

Safety note: Always unhook the battery ground first, and hook it up last! That reduces the risks of "letting the magic smoke out", or (more importantly) of having the battery short directly through your heart, stopping it.

-soD