This could be a little long, but I want opinions on what is going on.
I have had the truck 3 years now and have used several fuel additives (Lucas, Diesel clean, ATF, etc.) off and on. Never really paid attention before, but I hadn’t used one in about 5 tanks and the truck seemed to be starting hard when cold (rattled bad, fast idle didn’t work, hard to start cold, smoked badly when cold). It started fine when even a little warm, just not when it had sat for a few hours or more.
Then one time I didn’t keep cranking until it started and it wouldn’t start at all. It cranked and cranked (plenty fast, just didn’t seem to want to fire). I disconnected the glow plugs and used a little starting fluid and it started and ran decent. Still had the starting issues, but as long as I cranked it until it caught, it would do the usual problems until it warmed up. It had done this once before a few years back when a friend had borrowed it for 5 weeks when I was recovering from surgery, never figured out why as it worked good from then on until I got the truck back.
I remembered that I had not added anything to the fuel for awhile and put a quart of ATF in on the next fill up. After driving it a couple of times the truck has started well ever since. It rattles a little occasionally when cold, very little smoke sometimes until it warms up, the fast idle is working almost all of the time it should now. The friend hadn’t been using additives either.
I am wondering if it is just the ultra low sulfur fuel drying everything out and the ATF lubing it back up or is it something else. Needless to say I am going to keep up the ATF regime unless I have a good reason not to. It seems to work better than anything else I have tried.
Again, sorry for the long post, I just needed to get the whole story out there. Any ideas or did I get pretty close on my diagnosis? Thanks ahead of time for your input.
I have had the truck 3 years now and have used several fuel additives (Lucas, Diesel clean, ATF, etc.) off and on. Never really paid attention before, but I hadn’t used one in about 5 tanks and the truck seemed to be starting hard when cold (rattled bad, fast idle didn’t work, hard to start cold, smoked badly when cold). It started fine when even a little warm, just not when it had sat for a few hours or more.
Then one time I didn’t keep cranking until it started and it wouldn’t start at all. It cranked and cranked (plenty fast, just didn’t seem to want to fire). I disconnected the glow plugs and used a little starting fluid and it started and ran decent. Still had the starting issues, but as long as I cranked it until it caught, it would do the usual problems until it warmed up. It had done this once before a few years back when a friend had borrowed it for 5 weeks when I was recovering from surgery, never figured out why as it worked good from then on until I got the truck back.
I remembered that I had not added anything to the fuel for awhile and put a quart of ATF in on the next fill up. After driving it a couple of times the truck has started well ever since. It rattles a little occasionally when cold, very little smoke sometimes until it warms up, the fast idle is working almost all of the time it should now. The friend hadn’t been using additives either.
I am wondering if it is just the ultra low sulfur fuel drying everything out and the ATF lubing it back up or is it something else. Needless to say I am going to keep up the ATF regime unless I have a good reason not to. It seems to work better than anything else I have tried.
Again, sorry for the long post, I just needed to get the whole story out there. Any ideas or did I get pretty close on my diagnosis? Thanks ahead of time for your input.