Ice road truckers

In Britain there used to be a "winter grade" diesel which didn't wax up until much lower temperatures were reached. Presumably something similar is available in very cold climates?

Use "winter" diesel that includes an 'anti-freeze' additive, just as they use in this country during the winter months - along with heated tanks, pumps and filter housings to keep things moving and probably a bit of pipe lagging (to keep the subject On Topic)!

Recirculating pumps.

Most (all?) petrol FI cars circulate fuel continually between the engine and tank, the same approach is used in big trucks with heaters so basically if it is running it stays running (they do not shut off big construction kit in the coldest parts of the world and big trucks are no different).

There still is in the UK. In fact, as you suggest, there are several grades for different climates.

Thanks, I can relate to that with working on military jets and their engines. I just didn't relate that to diesels and such cold climates.

Many thanks

Dave

Add petrol to it - 10 to 20% as I recall. American trucks do not have very sophisticated engines.

In message , Peter Parry writes

I've decided that I don't want sophisticated any more. I prefer reliable.

I recall seeing additives that would prevent this happening.

The message from "The Medway Handyman" contains these words:

Correct. Though locally-supplied fuel is likely to be formulated for the local needs. If the engine's allowed to stop, and the whole vehicle gets cold it's likely to be a case of having to use a blowtorch on the fuel tank and fuel lines in order to get going again.

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Dave saying something like:

Lots of anti-waxing additive and particular attention paid to low water content of the fuel. In extremis it isn't unusual to have heated tanks and lines.

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Appin saying something like:

And the sump, if it gets cold enough.

Thanks.

They even deliver them on the trucks while they are running, as you can see sometimes on ice road truckers.

The engine oil is the problem, it gets so thick it won't circulate. Starting an engine that cold will b^&&*r it. I don't think anyone makes oil that will work over that temp range, well not one they can a££ord. I would have though a couple of tanks of different oils and some valves would work though.

ah you need an old Petter PH1 air cooled single cylinder diesel, runs for weeks on a gallon of the cruddiest disel you can imagine - mind you 0-60mph might be a while coming up tho....

JimK

a) They search back a week in this ng., for a thread on oil boiler burners.

b) It doesn't. Diesel doesn't "go solid" and what it does do is a problem for the tiny clearances in some parts of diesel engines, not for the "tanks and pipes" scale of plumbing.

Besides which, it's colder at altitude and diesel aircraft successfully addressed these issues in the 1930s.

In message , JimK writes

Ah a psychic at work. Had an air cooled single cyl Petter in the boat, followed by a water cooled one. Super little mend it yourself engines, all parts available, the water cooled one used standard plumbing parts. In the search for more power, tracked down and spoke to the Petter's designer, lovely, very helpful man, disgruntled that the legacy and market had been thrown away in the Lister (Hawker Siddeley?) takeover.

Sadly, we are now on a 2-cyl Mitsubishi.

Who needs speed?

I think my old customers at Detroit Diesel Corporation might object to that comment.

Emmissions standards in the US are usually tougher than in Europe, and the engine manufactures have to go to /enormous/ lengths to meet them.

On the OPs question, DDC discovered that a reasonably common technique for starting a cold truck is to light a small bonfire underneath it. They made this discovery after they fitted plastic oil-sumps (lighter, cheaper) to their engines and then got a lot of warranty claims :-)

On Wed, 20 Jan 2010 05:37:56 -0800, Martin Bonner wibbled:

I thought everyone knew truckers did that in cold climes?