diesel4life

Somehow I missed this...BEAUTIFUL PICTURES Jag! Thank you for sharing.

How about a shot of the truck? Interested in the stance. Thanks!

Power Service makes pretty good "hot" formulas for clearing gelled lines/filters. A friend used a partial bottle on his outdoor heating oil tank last winter when we were seeing record low temps and it was no where near the dose they recommended. None of their products add much for lubricity even though they are alcohol free so in that respect there are better products out there, but they do work as advertised.

The few places I've seen a #1/#2 blend it was advertised at the pump, just the same as it's advertised if they sell bio and what % they sell. Maybe it is not a requirement but I thougt it was. ThE link below is the place I get my fuel and gasoline from, the owner of the fuel stations also owns a large scale excavation/construction company and the man takes his fuels seriously! The place I work at buys off road fuel from them for our cranes and in all the nasty weather last year never had any gel issues and they never add anything to their fuels. It was a pretty good testament to their quality of winter blend but I still dose mine when the weather is forecasted to fall much below zero. Big difference between being out on the road and a stationary piece of equipment! http://www.opoil.calls.net/fuels.php

Most areas of the country have #2 with anti gel additives blended at the fuel rack before it even gets delivered to the fuel station. Even at my families in Wyoming I've never seen #1or even a blend advertised at the fuel stations it's just a winterized #2. For the most part you really shouldn't need to add a specific anti gel unless your expecting unseasonably cold temps. I run an additive that provides added protection in the event of a cold snap, but the main reason I use it is for the added lubricity and anti corrosion inhibitors. For the most part fuel is pretty well winterized for the climate it is delivered in.

This is the reason why all the OEM's have put so much R&D into antigel products. 2 cycle oil is good as a lubricant but does very little to prevent any of the moisture or algae problems associated with ULSD. The above article is several years old now and fuel suppliers have gotten much better with their winter blended fuels but if you happen to get caught in a cold snap with a tank of summer blended fuel or drive from a warmer region to a colder region and don't have the proper blend or a good anti gel 2 cycle oil is not going to do much for you. This happened to me 2 winters ago and is the reason I now run Schaeffers Diesel Treat 2000 in the colder months. It was around this time of year and I made a run to upstate NY for an oil seperator for a friend who owns ar roustabout buisiness. Filled up locally (65 gallons between my fuel tank and auxullary) and headed up. The temp difference between here and there was quite substantial (40+ degrees) and the filter on my AirDog plugged solid. I was very fortunate to be in the vicinity of a rest stop with a full service station so I was able to source another filter and some PS 911 and was back on the road within a few hours. Still, not a fun experience and it really woke me up!. I now carry spare filters for my AD in the winter and add a dose of Schaeffers at each fillup.

A good read from Wellworth products Dissolved water is affected by the temperature of the fuel. ULSD at 30°F can only hold approximately 35% of the water it can at 75°F. As fuel cools it loses its ability to hold dissolved water. The water is actually pushed out of the fuel into tiny droplets. These droplets explain why you can look at fuel in a tank and see no water and yet a fuel separator or filter can constantly be accumulating water. Furthermore at temperatures below 32°F those water droplets turn to ice crystals. These ice crystals will quickly plug a fuel filter with a white ice that looks remarkably like wax to the uninformed. We regularly hear from people who believe their fuel is gelling at temperatures of 32°F or just below it. This icing was a major problem last winter and is already causing problems this season. To add to the problems caused by this high water content, bacteria and fungi can and do actually grow in fuels with little or no visible free water in the tank. The size and shape of the paraffin wax seed crystals have changed dramatically in ULSD as compared to previous fuels. In ULSD these crystals are larger and regularly shaped than in the LSD and HSD fuels. These larger crystals cause a series of problems for users of ULSD. First ULSD will “gel” several degrees sooner (warmer) than the previous fuels. The larger crystals are harder to “treat” to prevent gelling. Next, there is a new cold weather operability problem that was previously unknown and until recently undefined. This is “Wax Dropout”, an occurrence that happens when ULSD is subjected to a “Cold Soak” period of approximately 48 to 72 hours. When the fuel is continuously at or below a given temperature for an extended period of time (Cold Soak); the larger heavier wax crystals agglomerate and drop to the bottom of the storage container. This paraffin wax has the further problem that it is not readily reabsorbed by the fuel as the temperature rises. On Monday February 5th in the Northeast we had had a weekend where the temperature dropped to approximately 8°F and stayed there all weekend. On that Monday morning after approximately 72 hours of 8°F or colder we saw a massive region-wide problem with WDO. We have now tested for and seen this problem happen at temperatures between 12°F and 0°F. The temperature where this WDO phenomenon occurs does not appear to directly correlate to any of the commonly used cold weather operability measures such as Cloud Point (CP), Cold Filter Plug Point (CFPP), Low Temperature Flow Test (LTFT), and Pour Point (PP) traditionally used to discuss and rate diesel fuels. The traditional method for improving cold weather operability for diesel and heating fuels was to blend with Kerosene (#1 Fuel) or Jet A. Depending on ambient temperature, cost, and availability, blends of 10%, 20%, 30%, 40%, 50%, and even higher have been used to lower the CP, CFPP, PP of fuels. Due to a combination of factors including EPA regulations, Catalytic Cracking, and Severe Hydrotreating ULSD has a lower aromatic content and less solvency. The EPA regulations requiring the fuel to be delivered to the vehicle with a Sulfur content of 15 ppm or less have eliminated High Sulfur Kerosene and Jet A as blending agents. This situation has theoretically forced refiners to create an ULSD #1 (Ultra-Low Sulfur Kerosene) for blending purposes. There are however a number of significant problems with using ULSD #1 for winter blending. For one thing, the major refiners don’t want to produce this product. There are several reasons including but not limited to; limited demand, the need for segregated storage, the inability to use ULSD #1 for other uses, and high cost of production. In short, the biggest problems are nobody wants to make ULSD #1, nobody has any place to store it, it is much more expensive than regular Kerosene, and last but not least, it doesn’t work anywhere near as well as the old high sulfur Kerosene. The old industry “Rule of Thumb” for winter blending HSD and LSD was that for every 10% Kerosene or Jet A that you blended in you would improve (lower) the CP, CFPP, and PP by 5°F. An example would be if you had LSD with CFPP of 10°F and you blended in 50% Kerosene you could expect to lower the CFPP to approximately -15°F. This standard has been used since before World War II. Today using ULSD and ULSD #1 for blending the new “Rule of Thumb” is that for every 10% ULSD #1 you blend into ULSD you only improve CFPP by 2°F or less. An example today would be starting with ULSD with CFPP of 10°F and you blended in 50% ULSD #1 you might lower the CFPP to approximately 0°F. We say might because we have seen a high number of instances where 10% ULSD #1 provides a 1°F or less improvement. In order to successfully operate using ULSD an Anti-Gel product formulated to work with ULSD must be used. Many if not most of the old-line anti-gel products that have been on the market for 10, 20, even 30 years do not work effectively on Catalytically Cracked fuels including ULSD. To successfully treat ULSD requires new formulations that include an Anti-Gel additive with “Seed Crystal Wax Modifiers”, Cold Flow Improvers, Wax Anti-Settling Agents, and Anti-Icing agents that have been modified to work with this new fuel.

I've heard of people doing the tappet cover without removing the VP but I would think it would be much easier to get it out of the way. The whole job (tappet cover) is simple, it's just a little time consuming. Heres some instructions on removing the VP, once you read through it once or twice I think you'll see there really isn't anything to it. http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CB0QFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bluechipdiesel.com%2Fvp44_install.html&rct=j&q=blue%20chip%20VP44%20installation%20instructions&ei=tS5eVMT6MNGNyATiqYCACA&usg=AFQjCNGY_vo793Y3gZXLYim0qen99qhnYQ&sig2=Ri9vg5AMVzrLinBw9BfoVw&bvm=bv.79189006,d.aWw

Would love to see some pictures. Not that I don't believe you, because I do, but is it possible you were smelling the damp soil that was growing the lush green grass? There are several different soil types here locally due to the glaciers pushing through that once occupied the Great Lakes regions and there is one type in particular up close to the lake that has a very pungeont smell to it. The smell is only noticable in areas where the soil is always moist like low lying areas or deep in the woods where there is a lot of tree cover and very little sunlight. I once left my ATV sitting in the garage for a week without washing it after travelling through such an area and when I walked into the garage that had been closed up for several days the odor was overwhelming. It also stained certain parts of the machine which tells me the PH of that soil is probably way out of wack (and maybe explains the smell?) not a soil expert so I'm only speculating.

An interesting tid bit I copied from a website I stumbled across a few weeks ago. I always assumed the prices of diesel fuel were related to the demand or amount consumed, meaning we consumed as much or more diesel fuel than gasoline. If you think about it, diesel fuel is the back bone of the infrastructure of this country, it fuels the construction, agriculture, mining, trucking, railroad, and marine industry and a large part of the military and emergency service vehicles. These are just a few indutries off the top of my head, I'm sure I'm forgetting as much as I've mentioned. Not to mention heating oil during the winter months. These are mostly large engines under heavy loads consuming mass amounts of fuel compared to the average gasoline powered passenger vehicle that is much more fuel efficient. Boy was I wrong. Here it is. "Total vehicle fuel consumption by state in 2009 varies from a low of 0.1 billion gallons in the District of Columbia and 0.4 billion gallons in Vermont to a high of 18 billion gallons in California. Total gasoline consumption ranges from a low of 0.1 billion gallons in the District of Columbia and 0.3 billion gallons in Alaska to a high of 15 billion gallons in California, while total diesel consumption ranges from a low of 0.02 billion gallons in the District of Columbia and 0.05 billion gallons in Hawaii to a high of 3.8 billion gallons in Texas. The five largest states by total fuel consumption – California, Florida, New York, Pennsylvania, and Texas – consume 56 billion gallons of fuel, which is 33 percent of total vehicle fuel consumption nationwide. The five states consuming the most diesel fuel – California, Illinois, New York, Pennsylvania, and Texas – consume 11 billion gallons of diesel fuel, which is 30 percent of diesel vehicle fuel consumption nationwide. The ratio of diesel consumption to gasoline consumption by state ranges from 1:1.1 in Alaska, where similar quantities of diesel fuel and gasoline are consumed, to 1:9 in Hawaii, which consumes one gallon of diesel fuel for every 9 gallons of gasoline. 80% of crude oil was refined into gasoline in the United States in 2009, while the remaining 20% was refined into specialty fuels like diesel and jet fuel."

The performance/limited keys were first developed by Can Am several years ago. They've been offering it on their side by sides and ATV's for 5 or 6 years that I know of.

I can see it now, everyone will be in line to trade their Prius for a 3 ton gas monger, and once the auto industry has made their billions again they'll have us all by the balls and drive the prices right back up to $4+ a gallon.

Yep, lots of failed intake gaskets and water pumps on the early Vortec engines

I'm really not sure why they would be experiencing those kind of problems if they are flushing at scheduled service intervals. By 2002 GM should have ironed out the issues with the gasket material and pump seals and such. Are they thoroughly flushing or just draining the radiator and refilling? The only issues I've seen with Dexcool in systems that are designed for Dexcool are more from lack of servicing than anything. Dexcool is silica based and is susceptible to fallout if left in for too long or mixed with another coolant with different chemistry which will plug passages in extreme circumstances.

Dexcool is GM's antifreeze. They were the first American manufacture to use an OAT based coolant. They were shooting for extended service intervals and although it was the most advanced coolant at the time early model GM's suffered many failures from the 2EHA based inhibitors. 2EHA is a known plasticizer and will soften certain plastics and rubbers so if a cooling system is not desinged for those inhibitors you are running a huge risk by running it. I believe OEM's learned from GM's mistakes and are using compatible components because 2EHA is a cheap and effective corrosion inhibitor. I don't know if Chrysler's older cooling systems are compatible or not but I would not run any OAT based coolant with 2EHA inhibitors.

You've been busy!

Never knew you had an 05 LOL. Do you still have your 98?

True, drivers do play a large role in the wear of a tire on any surface, but it doesn't matter what brand of tire you own running near max GVW on poor secondary dirt roads day in and day out is going to wear tires much faster than if your running on pavement all the time. Even Elmer's personal truck (my nickname for my buddy) wears em out fast, and he is the only one that drives that particular truck and he does not have a heavy foot. Ryan when did you buy a dually?

Unfortunately no E rated tire will last very long on a gravel road especially if your doing any amount of towing. I have a friend who owns an oil field maintenance company and he has a handful of F350's and has been through the tire gauntlet for the same reason. His trucks see a high percentage of dirt roads/un maintained lease roads often towing a heavy load and he does not get good mileage out of his tires. He eventually quit buying the expensive name brand and started buying whatever cheap tire had the best sale or rebate at the time and changes em out about once a year.

How often do you flush your coolant with that filter? Isn't there specific test strips for your set up to determine the concentration/PH level?

Yep, Datsun/Nissan 280z. Or it could be an earlier 260z, hard to tell by the angle of the picture. Small block conversions were very popular in those cars but it really upset the handling compared to the factory inline fuel injected 6 cylinder. I had a first gen 78 280z, loaded with power windows and t tops. I installed a bigger cam along with an injector upgrade and a performance header and sourced a turbo out of a second gen 280z and an intercooler from a Talon out of a salvage yard. That car was insane fast. Off the line a muscle car would get me by a few lengths but where that car really shined was mid and top end. Red lined at 7k rpm and it would hit it right now once the turbo lit. I took that car down to Nelsons Ledges where they have a closed course road coarse on the weekends and had a lot of fun with that car.I've owned a few Z28 Camaros and a 69 Chevelle, I loved each of those cars and regret ever letting them go but never had as much fun inanything as I did with that 280z.

We bought a cheapo Samsung WB150F a few years back while on vacation to replace our Cannon that went in the drink. The original intent was to just pass it on down to the kids but we have liked it so much we decided to just keep it and use it. It was a third of what we paid for the previous camera and IMO puts out every bit the same quality, although in fairness the Cannon was somewhat dated. Also has built in wifi which is a nice bonus. We bought a shock proof/water proof case and it is ideal to take along on camping/hiking trips and when we go fourwheeling. It's no professional camera but for the price it can't be beat. http://www.photographyblog.com/reviews/samsung_wb150f_review/

What's the deal with the car jacked up on it's side in the second picture? That's interesting! Is the white car in front of the overhead door in the second picture a 280Z?

That's exactly the reason I made the switch away from traditional ethylene glycol. The short service intervals are mainly due to the silicates/corrosion inhibiters expiring/falling out of suspension. For literally 1dollar more than the price of a gallon of the green stuff I am able to purchase the Peak Global which is silicate free. I have effectively doubled my service interval and that is being very conservative considering their "Lifetime" claims. If I can get 4-5 years out of the stuff and still have a neutral PH, I'll consider it a success.