Diesel Fuel Grades - Which Do you Use/Prefer ? (1 Viewer)

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There must be a diesel shortage (at least here in oz) since petrol prices went down, but diesel has gone up.
 
There must be a diesel shortage (at least here in oz) since petrol prices went down, but diesel has gone up.

Northern hemisphere heating oil distorts the worldwide diesel market.

Russian diesel is cheap right now. You just need some way to get it delivered.
 
What a clusterfuck! Dont you know that pist off thousands of skiers
 
Interesting talking about heaters for the motor in the Dark Iron Diesel video - for a cpl of years I did live in a part of Australia where in winter it can get to -10 C or a bit colder, and the 1hz never gave a problem starting - all I did with wait until I could hear the glowplug relay switch off then it was good to go.

I had more issues with ice forming on the brakes, but that's a different thing.
 
Interesting talking about heaters for the motor in the Dark Iron Diesel video - for a cpl of years I did live in a part of Australia where in winter it can get to -10 C or a bit colder, and the 1hz never gave a problem starting - all I did with wait until I could hear the glowplug relay switch off then it was good to go.

I had more issues with ice forming on the brakes, but that's a different thing.
-10C is not cold, at least not from my perspective. I usually plug in only if overnight lows get below -20C and that's just to be gentler on the motor, below -30C is when it can really start to be a problem starting a vehicle that hasn't been plugged in.
 
Spent a bunch of time reading these great diesel posts and history. I have learned a lot. Back in 1980 my wife and I had an Oldsmobile station wagon with a GM diesel. We were on the Vermont/Canada border at my inlaws. Back then in the base mountain ski town the temps were -45F and that diesel was stuck for 4 days. Of course it mattered not because even in our NJ local, the damn thing would get stuck in 60F as well. But when you guys mentioned gel, it brought back some 43 year old memories. That wagon had 4 different engines before the Targetmaster diesel found its way into the wagon.. sold it eventually and bought a Chevy pickup
today, I paid $3.55/gallon at Shell for diesel fuel
 
I have had a diesel since 1995 and live in Wyoming where the climate is similar to Fairbanks, AK. Main thing is keep up with your maintenance and use the glow plugs or grid heater.

The 7.3 IDI I had I started changing the glow plugs annually and sometimes the glow plug module would fail once a year because that motor needed the glow plugs year round. This truck was the only one I had that failed to start one time in the winter but I plugged in the block heater and an hour later it started right up I don't remember temp but the chill factor was -75F . Then when I tried to leave town I got the low fuel suction light but just pulled into a gas station and got some fuel additive and made it to Farmington, NM over 5 mountain passes in a blizzard.

I have had two 5.9s and two 6.7s and the grid heaters are automatic and come on when it sensed a low temp and they fired right up.
The first 5.9 I had bought used and they had replaced one battery that was failing and when it finally went bad I had to use my charger on boost to get it to start in warm weather. New pair of batteries when in.

In the northern states they switch to a winter blend and truckers don't get stranded as often but if they tanks have non winter blend from southern states in the tanks and hit cold temps there tanks will gel up.

When my FJ40 was a daily driver I did not have a block heater on the 2F but since the oil sump was so deep I found a magnetic heater that I slapped on the side and worked great.
 
I used a magnetic pad heater on my FJ40 when we lived in Vermont. In the 1970’s, -40F was a routine and one week in 1976 -54F was the coldest spot in the nation beating out Gunnison Colorado and International Falls, Minnesota. Before the heater, I could not shift the transmission. Changed the oil on a snowbank in front of our house. I’m too old for those shenanigans now.
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Once I got the motor running and eased out the clutch with it dying I would have the transfer case in N and the transmission in gear to get it warmed up.
 
Once I got the motor running and eased out the clutch with it dying I would have the transfer case in N and the transmission in gear to get it warmed up.

On other thing that gets overlooked is axle oil. EP90 hates the cold. Running 75W90 is a huge improvement.
Transfer box too.
 
I always ran the same weight oil the whole time I was driving it. Now I will put in a synthetic oils in the gear boxes and that will help for cold winter driving.

Once the motor transmission and TC were warmed up I didn't notice the axles other then without power steering the knuckles were stiff with the grease in them.
 

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