No Gelling - Fuel Heater
 

I don't know about you guys, but I'm sick of gelling fuel... If I'm spending all this money on winter additives to keep my truck running that destroy the lubricity of the fuel, and none of the oil companies are bothering to do anything to fix the issues, why don't I just invest in a fuel tank heater?

I came across these guys, has anyone had any experience with their products?

In-Tank Fuel Warming
http://www.wolverineheater.com/fuel-...er/index.shtml

With my titan tank, I'm thinking I might be able to fit something decent in it to warm the fuel, but I haven't seen much in the way of aftermarket heaters for diesel pickup trucks...maybe that's something I should look into designing myself...
Anyways, if anyone has and leads on where to find one and how much they cost, post away!

Our military trucks have a so called "winterization kit", it is made by Webasto. It contains
a fuel tank heater, which is heated by a so called blue heater (very common in Europe). it also heats up the engine, the coolant and the inside of the cab. Usually its switchéd on a half hour before you leave and with a power of 5000Watts(!!) your truck is pretty warm and ready to fly.Coolant has operating temperature. It búrns diesel and has a seperate fuel line from the tank. The only disadvantage is the consumption of current. as a rule of a thumb: heating time= driving time. That means if you heat half an hour you have to drive about half an hour to recharge the battery. or you have to put a charger on your truck.
I love my blue heater, because no more cold starts, warm cab and a good start to work.
Usually you don't need to heat the tank. The fuel filter is the problem. Parafinecristallization in the filter plugs it. An electric filter heater(made by Bosch) prevents it.

Hope this helps
Greetings Michael

You might try looking on Avalanche Engineering's website. I read an article about Steve Rumore's biodiesel setup, and he said he made a filter heater for about 10-15 bucks that circulates coolant around the filter. From what I could gather, he tapped into the coolant lines, and ran a coil of tubing around the fuel filter. Might be something worth looking into.

Avalanche Engineering - (970)884-7716 - Extreme 4-wheeling parts and accessories to complete turn key vehicless

The coolant has to be warmed up before it helps to prevent clogging the fuel filter, right?
This can be done by a electric heater or a block heater. The block heater power is usually about 500 to 700 Watt. Thats not very much to heat an engine block and the coolant...
This is a fine solution if the engine is already running. A lot of veggie oil burner do this over here to keep the oil thin enough to pass the fuel filter easier.

Renault has done this a couple of years. Now they have switched to the eletric fuel heater.
What about a combination of both? Electric and coolant?

Thanks for the tips guys!

I might try a home made remedy.

It wont be cheap but you could use an ESPAR heater and use a coolant/fuel heat exchanger (with everything plumbed into the engines cooling system) to warm the fuel pre-filter.

Should work nicely by warming the fuel in the line before fireup plus the added bonus of the entire cooling system being warmed up also! Then, when the truck is running the coolant continues to warm the fuel. But you will have to keep an eye on fuel temperature, if the fuel starts getting too hot you will need to find a way to regulate it

but they are pricey little units...

I just talked with both GM here and Eskimo Refrigeration...Both refused to do an install of a fuel line heater. :humm: Same principle as that - coolant warmed.

For now I'm going to stick with a winter front...hopefully that will work when it's -25F. If my fuel still gels up I'm going to say screw the dealership and install a fuel line heater myself. It looks like a real pain in the ass to install though. Either that or a fuel filter heater...

I have not had any trouble with gelling fuel (at least none that I know about). I am picky where I buy fuel from.

So are you looking for something that runs on 12V or 120V AC? Are you talking about an inbed tank?



This is a longshot but this could be as simple as installing some home heat trace like they use on water lines:

http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/brows...g%2BCables.jsp

http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/brows...ng%2BCable.jsp

I dont suspect youd have to heat it very much to prevent gelling.

I could always use an inverter in the cab of the truck, and run a line out.
Thanks Dr.
:U:
I'm hoping I have better luck this year...planning to drive down to TX again in December.

I thought you were concerned about fuel gelling with the truck just sitting in the driveway.

There may be some heat traace that would run on 12V if thats what youre looking for.

Yeah, I'm not worried about when the truck is sitting, I'm more concerned about with highway driving in extreme cold.
The guy at the dealership said my mass air flow sensor probably froze up and that's what caused my truck to stall. It was -25F and I was driving 70mph into wind... He said that probably did it, and I didn't have a winter front on... Hindsight is 20/20 :argh:

I don't understand how you gelled your fuel in Texas? This 'global warming' :moon: must be worse than I thought! . . . . LOL

Seriously, I made my winter front for free.... It is out of a plastic bag. Goes on and comes right back off in about as long as it takes to read this sentence.... (I'll gladly post pics / design ideas if you want!) (Oh course, now I see that you have one of those 'other' brands . . . . It still might give you an idea. I'd gladly try to help if you want!)

I don't understand their reason for not installing that heater for you. What would be wrong with the coolant heating your fuel? Only problem I could see is if it does get it too hot. Our transmission coolers have a thermostatic valve on them so they don't cool too much during the winter; so why would it be that hard to keep the fuel from getting too hot?

Driving in -25F would be enough to gel your fuel I would think! I have never experienced it and I hope to avoid it! I added a 2 micron fuel filter back by the tank. I had worried about it for a few winters, but driving in as low as -10F didn't cause any troubles so far. But I do know of one difference between our trucks: Doesn't yours have a fuel 'cooler' just in front of the fuel tank (If it is still there after your fuel tank upgrade)? I wonder if that is thermostatically controlled to not cool the fuel in the winter? If that were to malfunction in such low temps . . . . :argh:
Along this line, I would assume your truck has a heated OEM filter. That could have also stopped working and caused this problem.
I had opportunity last winter to pour diesel from a 5 gal can into a gallon container. It was around -5F out and I could not believe how thick that fuel was. Reminded me of syrup or something thick like that . . . . I can now understand what causes it to stop flowing in a filter. Especially if there is any moisture at all to freeze and help the paraffin crystals to form a 'plug'! My bro gelled up a few of winters ago. He had just asked himself: "Why are all these 'new' Duramax and PowerStrokes setting beside the freeway" when his started slowing down and loosing power. He started to wonder if he was going to get home that night when it sat inside the heated shop all day and still didn't start until about 3:30PM.

Yeah, gelling should just be out-lawed!! :tttt:

Sorry,to hear that. Install of an Espar or Webasto coolant heater is pretty simple, but time consuming, if you want a neat install. I did it twice and it is pretty forward to do.
You don't have to worry about heating up fuel lines- fuel heaters shut off at 80°C and cycle back on at 71°C . Self ignition temperature of Diesel is 120°C. At least you have a 40°C safety margin.

It's done here very often and much better than a block heater.
Michael