What Happens to Diesel Fuel in Cold Weather?

What Happens to Diesel Fuel in Cold Weather?

Transcript
0:00
If you’ve got a diesel engine, you need Power Service Diesel Fuel Supplement plus Cetane Boost to keep you running through the coldest winters.
0:09
High-pressure common rail engines are very sophisticated with extremely high pressures and tight tolerances, but when it’s not cold out, diesel fuel flows freely from the tank, through the fuel-filter, to the common rail, to the injectors, to the combustion chamber.
0:23
Our fuels today are ultra-low sulfur diesel fuel or ULSD which has a max of 15 parts per million sulfur and burns cleaner than the older diesel fuels. Unlike gasoline, diesel fuel contains wax and in warm weather the wax exists in liquid form but as the temperatures drop that wax begins to thicken and crystallize, giving the fuel a cloudy appearance.
0:44
At this point the fuel has reached its Cloud Point, typically between 32 and 10 degrees Fahrenheit but these tiny crystals are too small to cause any problems, at least for now. The diesel fuel continues to flow from the tank, through the filter providing power to the engine but as winter weather continues, the wax crystals and untreated diesel fuel will develop into large flat surfaces that accumulate on the fuel-filter stacking on top of each other until the diesel fuel can no longer pass through.
1:10
When the fuel-filter is plugged up like a wax candle, the fuel can’t reach the engine. This means the diesel fuel has reached its cold filter plugging point, or CFPP and has gelled.
1:20
To prevent this from happening let’s rewind this scenario Power Service Diesel Fuel Supplement is an anti-gel with a powerful wax Crystal modifier that prevents fuel gelling and fuel filter plugging in cold weather diesel fuel supplement must be added to the diesel before wax crystals begin to form and the appearance of the fuel becomes cloudy before the fuel reaches its Cloud Point so the best time to start treating your diesel when temperatures first drop down to 32 degrees. No guesswork. No hassle.
1:47
Diesel Fuel Supplement doesn’t prevent wax crystals from forming, that’s not how antigels work. Instead, it works by modifying the shape and size of the wax crystals as they form so when the weather gets cold instead of large, flat sheets of wax blocking the filter and treated fuel the crystals form as small needle-like shapes. They still accumulate on the fuel filter but in a way that allows the diesel fuel to flow past the crystal accumulation at much lower temperatures.
2:12
Visually the filter of the treated fuel may appear more clogged and coated in waxed than the filter in the untreated fuel, but in fact the haystack-like buildup of the needle-shaped crystals in the treated fuel is more porous. The wax crystal modifier has done its job, allowing the treated to continue to flow at temperatures much lower than the untreated fuel.
2:29
Make sure you have a trouble-free winter, add Diesel Fuel Supplement to every tank of diesel fuel to prevent fuel gelling and fuel-filter plugging. And it’s the only anti-gel endorsed by Cummins
2:40
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