Want more wrestling news, rumors, and results? Be sure to visit PWInsider.com and PWInsiderXtra.com.
It's winter, and depending on where you live and which type of vehicle you drive, you may have different levels of experience with winterizing your car, home, motorcycle, or even RV. Winterizing is the process of preparing your equipment, car, or home for sustained lower temperatures. Diesel vehicles are particularly vulnerable to low temperatures. Newer engines can start with effort, but the older diesel engines with glow plugs can easily mess up due to the cold.
Diesel fuel holds wax-like substances known as paraffin that will solidify when it's cold and can choke or plug your fuel system. Likewise, ice and moisture present is another series of winterization problems for your diesel engine, and they must be addressed beforehand.
Typical diesel engine maintenance should start way before winter hits. While you should always let your engine warm up well regardless of which season of the year you're in during winter, here are some additional diesel engine care steps you can undertake.
Your battery should be the first. The colder it gets, the less effective your battery will be at starting your engine. When starting at 32 degrees, your battery's charge can start to degrade, making starting your vehicle sluggish and slow. A battery warmer will prevent this from happening.
Check your battery terminals and tighten all the connections before winter sets in, or you can completely replace your batteries if they’ve reached the end of the recommended 48 to 72-month lifespan. A new fresh battery can stand up to the cold weather better than an older one.
If you plan to store your diesel-powered machine for the winter, such as a boat, ensure that you disconnect any battery ground cables, and also, inspect other potential battery drains before storing them away.
Diesel fuel is infamous for "gelling." It contains substances known as paraffin that freeze very easily, turning the liquid into some jelly-like substance. Once this starts happening, the fuel injection system and the filters get blocked. There's also water and other liquids that can get separated, and this will wreak havoc on your diesel engine's internal system.
There's a way to prevent your fuel from gelling. You can add liquid treatments such as paraffin anti-setting fluids, de-icers, and cold flow improvers that will fortify diesel fuel and maintain optimum engine performance.
You can also consider using diesel fuel that's blended explicitly for extremely low temperatures. These unique blends will often automatically include the liquid additives named above, making them a one-stop solution for your winter fuel preparations.
Also, installing new and clean fuel filters can remove fuel with no additives sneaking through. For high-quality diesel parts, go to https://goldfarbinc.com/collections/diesel-core-buyer-seller.
When diesel burns, it creates water byproducts that are damaging during the colder months. Fuel pumps and fuel injectors are susceptible to condensation or, even worse, water freezing into ice in the fuel storage tanks and filtration lines.
Keep your fuel tanks and hydraulic oil full, and ensure that you check your water separator condition and moisture filters at the beginning. Also, remember to replace old moldy or corroded filters with new ones as needed.
The next step in winterizing your diesel engine is to inspect your engine’s cooling system. When temperatures are extremely low, they cause intense temperature fluctuations around your diesel engine. This means the cooling system will be under severe stress.
Check your coolant fluid levels for proper freezing points. You can also add liquid treatments to the coolant if needed, but never mix the coolants or use a different coolant variety other than your engine's recommended type. Lastly, you can look for cracked, damaged, or loose cooling system parts such as the radiator hoses and hose clamps.
Ensure that you pay attention to the condition of the engine hoses and belts. These parts are usually under increased strain in winter, especially the hoses, as they are used to transport smooth non-gelled fluids through the entire engine.
When doing your belt and hoses assessment, you should turn off the engine. Ensure that you inspect for bulges and cracks in the rubber and torn strands, and too flexible or too rigid lines. Hoses should especially be soft and smooth during the winter seasons, returning to their natural shape after you've pressed them to check their texture.
You should also check for liquid seepage or leaks, which you can fix with a clamp or a new hose, if you find the damage is too severe.
Glow plugs are also another way you can use to maintain your oil burner during the cold season. Older Duramax, Cummins, and Power Stroke will particularly appreciate this extra step when winterizing your engine. Glow plugs will heat a cylinder to 1900 degrees Fahrenheit. When you test your glow plugs, it will save you a lot of heartbreak later.
There are tools available that you can purchase which you can use to check your glow plugs, or you can use a multimeter to check them. The number you should be looking for when doing your tests is between 0.6 and 2 ohms. Anything that reads over 2 ohms should be replaced.
Ensure that you check the type of oil you use and the viscosity of the oil. As with most liquids, when it gets colder during winter, the fluids become thicker and run slower. When the oil becomes more viscous, it will also become less lubricating to your engine's moving parts. This is clearly a problem that won't only make starting your vehicle more difficult, but can also have long-term and even terminal damage to your engine, if the moving parts aren't sufficiently lubricated. To fix this problem, you should ensure you're using thin oils with the proper viscosity, even during the winter season when temperatures drop.
Winterizing your diesel-powered engine is essential for its lifespan and the overall health of your equipment and vehicle.
If you enjoy PWInsider.com you can check out the AD-FREE PWInsider Elite section, which features exclusive audio updates, news, our critically acclaimed podcasts, interviews and more by clicking here!
Bang On Casino
