[Vwdiesel] Low Sulfer Diesel Blamed for School Closings

[James Hansen]

Well, while you can't give the news much credence these days, they may 
be on to something here.
I've had failure to start twice now, solely from gelled fuel.
I live in the deep freeze lately, and the thermostat has been 
exceptionally low the last few weeks, off and on.  Morning starts are 
-38C, still not as cold as it has been in the past, but cold enough to 
feel Mr Winter crawling through your woolies when you stand outside 
futzing with fuel filters.

I received a delivery of winter fuel at the start of winter... I only 
asked if they had winter fuel.  Was told yes.  So I had 500 gal dropped 
on top of maybe no more than 50 gallons that was left in a 1000 gal tank 
of straight summer fuel.    First time the therm hit -30, it was a  no 
start.  Fuel was like snot.  great.  Didn't have stanadyne in that 
particular tank, so get the melt down, kerosene, propane torch, warm 
duds adn get it going.
Happened again on Saturday.  -39 in the morning on my way to work at 
6:00, well, that was the intent anyway.

Discussion with the fuel supplier ensued...

See, I have always filled at the start of winter, with not the most 
winter blend, but with the sort of winter blend.  It's supposed to be 
good to -28 in end of oct, -40 for the rest of winter, but I can't wait 
for the winter blend when the tank is empty...
Shit, I used to run summer fuel all year round wityh stanadyn in it when 
it got colder.  The main difference with the fuel now, is that if it sez 
-20 as a cloud point- that would be it... cloud point means jello.  I 
dipped my diesel genset tank, and it came out stuck to the stick i globs 
like semi-solidified jello.  Really throws a wrench in things on the 
farm, all stuff has summer fuel in it when parked in fall, and if you 
need to get it going, you're screwed. I tried to pump some summer fuel 
out of the slip tank, and no dice- it's jello right now.  I've NEVER 
seen that, ever.  I've seen it snotty thick, but would still pump with a 
big unfiltered pump.  If I had to rely on a diesel thing that had summer 
fuel in it, I would walk right now.  That was not the case with the 
previous sulfurated blend last year.
-james

Scott Kair wrote:
>  	No info on the pour/cloud/clog points of D15, but it was between 5 &
> 10 below 0F here (central IL) Monday morning, roughly close to your temps. 
> 	At work we had 3 failures to start among the Diesel fleet, all
> attributed to a combination of block heaters not being plugged in, low
> compression, and/or weak batteries. Overall, the failure to start rate among
> the gassers was significantly higher, although none have block heaters.
> 	Fuel tank is above ground, but the mechanical staff changed the
> inline filter last week. We haven't run a cetane check since the D15
> deliveries began late last summer. Fuel, this being a local government
> agency, is low bid. 
> 	My assigned 1990 IH 4900 series dump truck with a 466 series 6 cyl.,
> re-sleeved in-frame in summer 05, fired right up, and worked all day, but
> the block heater was plugged in. Fuel filters are of unknown age and
> mileage.
> 	I'd be inclined to view the news reports with some skepticism.
> 	  
> Scott Kair
> "Obama for America '08"
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: vwdiesel-bounces at vwfans.com [mailto:vwdiesel-bounces at vwfans.com] On
> Behalf Of Val Christian
> Sent: Monday, February 05, 2007 9:59 PM
> To: vwdiesel at vwfans.com
> Subject: [Vwdiesel] Low Sulfer Diesel Blamed for School Closings
> 
> It's been in the vicinity of -20C at night in the Rochester NY area.
> At least one district, and one Ambulance company have blamed low sulpher
> diesel for their problems.
> 
> Rush Henrietta school district showed heavily waxed filters, and said they
> didn't know how their fuel was treated, and possibly extra treatment may
> have caused the fuel filter clogging.
> 
> Spencerport Ambulance "borrowed" some diesel from the Spencerport School
> District, who's tanks are underground (and therefore warmer).
> 
> Anyone know what the claimed cloud point is for ULSD?
> 
> Val
> 
> ps: Local News agents reporting:  WROC, WHEC, WHAM, Democrat and Chronicle,
> also, rnews.com (website down)
> 
> 
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