Fuel Additives

[tonkadoctor]

You might have still had some fppf in there when you iced up, but you wouldn't have iced up if you'd been running howes regularly.
I staked my life on that stuff in arctic conditions for years and never gelled up even in less than -80 deg f .

I spent quite s few years running a big truck in the great white north and
I've had fuel with fppf leave me TU at +20 ( polar power my @&$$ and it was double dosed) and every other additive on the market has gelled one me at one time or another except for howes . After a while that was all I'd use. It's a little hard to find here in the south now though.

Nope, FPPF melt is what it took to cure it. I usually run Power Service w/ straight #2 or #2 premium diesel, not winterized fuel or blend. Howe's didn't take care of a little water that froze in the 5/16" line to the check valve from my aux tank, fuel itself didn't gel. No problems running in -40F temps with straight #2 and power service.... Each to their own but I'm done with Howe's

 

[RLDSL]

As I said, if you had been using Howes regularly, you wouldn't have had a problem. If you read their no gel or we pay the tow gauerntee, you have to be using their stuff long enough to get rid of all the junk that all the other additives don't . It does a hard fast cleanout of water and other stuff and forces it straight to the bottom of the tank where it will get sucked up and go straight to the water seperator section of your filter to be drained off. I Learned on that stuff to catch them in the fall and I'd be draining water seperator valves every stop and all kinds of nasties and water would be finding their way out that wouldn't normally be., then once it ran it's course, the beast was truly ready for winter.

On pickups and cars it's usually not so dramatic with the small tanks unless they've been neglected. I had one car tank that was pretty cruddy that went through a hand ful of filters.

 

[tonkadoctor]

As I said, if you had been using Howes regularly, you wouldn't have had a problem. If you read their no gel or we pay the tow gauerntee, you have to be using their stuff long enough to get rid of all the junk that all the other additives don't . It does a hard fast cleanout of water and other stuff and forces it straight to the bottom of the tank where it will get sucked up and go straight to the water seperator section of your filter to be drained off. I Learned on that stuff to catch them in the fall and I'd be draining water seperator valves every stop and all kinds of nasties and water would be finding their way out that wouldn't normally be., then once it ran it's course, the beast was truly ready for winter.

On pickups and cars it's usually not so dramatic with the small tanks unless they've been neglected. I had one car tank that was pretty cruddy that went through a hand ful of filters.

The tank was brand spanking new on its second tank of fuel. Aux tank gravity feeds into the main tank. That said I guess Howe's did it's job the way it was made to work then, unfortunatly it moved the water right into the 5/16" check valve and line where it froze .... never made it to the main tank to be pumped into the filter. Like I said earlier the fuel didn't gel so it did it's job there. Even when I had to put my truck in the shop for frozen batteries, my fuel wasn't gelled like the other 20 - 30 trucks that got towed in right after mine.... Sure glad I got in the shop first that day.

I need a product that gets rid of the water not just redistributes it. I use the products as I feel I need them, not every tank. If I know I'm getting into sub zero weather I treat the fuel, If I'm not sure of the fuel stop I'm buying at I treat the fuel( I usually run the same areas and know where I'm buying fuel), about once or twice a month I treat as PM to clean the injectors.

Using a bottle of Howe's or Power Service every tank full would cost me about $150 - $200 month (that's $1800 - $2000 per year) as I run about 10,000 - 12,000 miles a month.... IMHO an un necessary expense.

BTW, I honestly have a hard time reading all that tiny blurb of print on the yellow lable... or any lable anymore, eyes and concentration just ain't what they used to be.

 

[RLDSL]

Yikes, that sucks.

Whats funny is power service causes a different jam up for southern vehicles headed north every winter that haven't been regularly treated with it. All the southern trucks that have run all year on untreated fuel and head north all the sudden find themselves in Montana and it's -30 and they throw a double shot of Power service in and it takes all the wax and embedded crud off the tank walls and jams their filters up and leaves them on the side of the road scratching their heads ( and back when I was out there, half the time it was those poor company guys where the company wouldn't pay for them to carry spare filters, they were supposed to call the company shop....yea right....right after they freeze to death ( this was before cell phones and satellites folks , when we got stuck in a blizzard, we were stuck sometimes a week at a shot sometimes longer and nobody knew where)I carried spare filters for every make I couldn't believe those cut rate outfits sending those people into those conditions unprepared , it was insane.