Adding super cold fuel to my tank.. oops!

[Dreamer]

Yesterday morning I had one of those OOPS moments... it was -4 or so, I had added a double dose of fuel treatment on my last fill up but since it was so cold, and the roads in Indiana were crappy, I decided to pull off and top off only about 7 or 8 gallons down (Sprinter) . just for insurance. I topped off at the Flying J just outside of Ft Wayne.. just a quick 5 minute stopped and hit the road again.....and within minutes of starting out.. the van stuttered and stalled. I started back up and started on down the road, and just a couple minutes later it stalled again. Restarted.. let it run a bit.. and no more problem..

After thinking a while, it hit me.. I basically just added super cold fuel to my tank, thinking the well treated fuel would compensate.. which normally it would IF.. big IF it had time to mix.. but when that super cold fuel went in, I'm betting it sank right to the bottom, and if Flying J didn't treat enough.. it gelled quick, and sucked right up to the intake and shut me down. I added another double dose of Diesel treat, and it ran fine since.... but definitely something to keep in mind in these cold temps.


No matter how much is in there, I will remember to add another dose of treat first.. so it will mix in, and give it a few minutes!


Dale

 

[xiggi]

Wouldn't fuel from an underground tank be warmer than fuel in your above ground van tank? I don't know the answer just wondering.

sent from my Fisher Price - ABC123

 

[tknight]

Anything I'm the ground below the freeze line would be warmer than your tank for sure.

 

[Dreamer]

Anything I'm the ground below the freeze line would be warmer than your tank for sure.

I would have thought so, but other than that, or dirt, it's the only reason I could think of... condensation?? I don't know.. but it's ran fine ever since then. I've had it happen with gas a couple times over the years, running crappy from one station..

Many years ago, back when I first started.. I had a truck gel up while sleeping (before I knew how to treat) Since then, I've been a nut about treat... safe than sorry.. etc...
I've always heard the old wife's (trucker's?) tale.. don't fill up when the fuel truck is there, but I didn't check that.. I only know it shut me down cold. My reason for thinking that was that the diesel treat seemed to take care of the problem.



Dale

 

[SHARP327]

If the truck that fueled just before you, did it when the tanker was filling the tanks...you could get a real bad mixture of algae, water and debris delivered to your tanks just by what was remaining in the lines to the pump you're using.

It happened to me after fueling at the Flying J in Fargo then heading towards St. Paul...it took two times of flushing the tank and filters plus a ride on the hook @-24 degrees to get things up and running....Flying J bailed on helping me out even though I sent samples of their fuel to them...from what I learned they add a certain chemical to their product to act as a type of a fingerprint as they called it.

This happened a few years back.

 

[paullud]

It could be that the additive you were using wasn't fully mixed/couldn't handle the cold and it was actually the fuel already in your lines that started to gel because you stopped.

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[Steady Eddie]

I think if one inground tank is being filled another tank is online for pumping. Then the newly filled tank is allowed to settle until needed, when the other tank runs low and needs filling.

 

[LDB]

I guess that might be easy enough to figure out. If there are only 3-4 fill covers that's one for each grade of gasoline and maybe plus diesel so it's all mixing in. If there are 6-8 fill covers then they may alternate as you say or they may run half the pumps out of each set.

 

[zorry]

I'd go with LDB on this one.

 

[SHARP327]

My Fuel didn't gell....the filters froze up due to water and the rock screen was full of debris.

 

[Turtle]

In-ground fuel tanks are basically a big Thermos bottle, so whatever temperature the delivery point is, that's pretty much what you're gonna get out of the ground. Even in extreme weather the temperature of the fuel out of the delivery truck isn't much different than what it was at the refinery, which is usually pretty warm.

Fuel tanks in the ground all have filters on the intake pumps, and the pumps at the fuel island all have filters, as well. So, it's unlikely that you'll get sludge, debris or algae from there if the delivery truck is just finishing up. Water will get through, though, which can be stirred up at a delivery. And since the fuel is relative warm in the ground on cold days, that makes for prime condensation conditions right there in the metal nozzle at the pump, so you can get water from there, too.

 

[OntarioVanMan]

never since 2005 has anything like this happened to me...and I've filled many different ways...and I don't use any treatment whatsoever.....other then the grey bottle of power service which is more of a cetane bump up....

 

[Steady Eddie]

I guess that might be easy enough to figure out. If there are only 3-4 fill covers that's one for each grade of gasoline and maybe plus diesel so it's all mixing in. If there are 6-8 fill covers then they may alternate as you say or they may run half the pumps out of each set.

If they run the diesel from the back, and not from the front, Instead of adding tanks out front for auto diesel only, would be costly. I have filled up front and with all pumps in the back pumping, mine was very slow.

 

[xiggi]

I just had a conversation this week with a pilot mgr. That location had separate diesel tanks for the front and back pumps. I do not know where they were located.

I have also seen front pumps with bio fuel while the back pumps were not suggesting separate tanks.

sent from my Fisher Price - ABC123

 

[KickStarter6]

Is it bad to mix bio and regular diesel together? I know I've filled up with regular and then topped off the tank and couple of hundred miles down the road with bio because I needed to take a lit stop myself. Would/does this create any issues in a sprinter?

 

[Turtle]

Is it bad to mix bio and regular diesel together? I know I've filled up with regular and then topped off the tank and couple of hundred miles down the road with bio because I needed to take a lit stop myself. Would/does this create any issues in a sprinter?

Generally speaking, it's not bad to mix biodiesel and diesel. If you have B20 biodiesel and add regular diesel, it just reduces the percentage of biodiesel in the tank.

For Sprinters, the 5 cylinder engines can handle B5 (actually they can handle B20, but the manual says 5). The newer Sprinters, says right there on the filler door NO BIODIESEL. In my 05, when I fill up with B20, I also add a healthy dose of Howes Meaner Power Cleaner to prevent the injectors from getting mucked up. If I had a new Sprinter I wouldn't use biodiesel at all, but in cases where it's nearly impossible to find regular diesel, I'd double up on the Howes dosage, and then make several fuel stops to top off and dilute the biodiesel in the tank with regular diesel.

 

[xiggi]

012 says max b5 not sure about previous years.

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[Turtle]

012 says max b5 not sure about previous years.

08 says none. That's the only one I know for sure about.

I just assumed.

 

[KickStarter6]

I hope the guy driving the sprinter is smart enough to know this. I say he probably does because he's had several diesel trucks and before he started working for my dad he owned a property maintenance company so he knows the importance of proper care of equipment.

 

[SHARP327]

Well when my truck went down due to Algae, Water and Debris it only had around 5k on it and before I started running it I pulled the drain plugs on both tanks and drained about 2 gallons from both tanks to remove any H2o that built up from condensation while sitting in storage.