<VV> Thawing frozen fuel

[hallgrenn]

Thanks for the input from a cold weather veteran Dale

Bob


Sent from my Samsung Galaxy S®4

-------- Original message --------
From: Dale Dewald <dkdewald at pasty.net> 
Date:01/08/2014  9:54 PM  (GMT-05:00) 
To: virtualvairs at corvair.org 
Subject: Re: <VV> Thawing frozen fuel 

On 1/08/2014 15:00, Bob wrote:
> Speaking of cold fuel--what is the consensus for cold weather starting a car that sits a lot and has "stratified ethanol gas" that is probably frozen.  Rocking is my usual method along with the addition of fresh high test gas--but if it the water/ethanol stratified layer is frozen what do you do--wait until spring?  At what temps does it freeze?  Advice from those of you in Canada and the northern states (and cold areas of Europe and elsewhere) would be welcome.
Hello Bob,

I assume that the car you have issue with is a modern FI model and not a 
Corvair. Apparently water has entered your fuel system either from 
contaminated fuel or by condensation.  You can help prevent the latter 
problem by keeping the fuel tank as close to full as possible in cold 
weather.  It also helps to add a bottle of gas dryer (I like Iso-Heet) 
/well before/ the cold weather arrives.  Try to find ethanol free 
gasoline (Shell V-Power is one) to use during the winter if the car is 
not driven much.

If you already have a separated water/ethanol mixture at the bottom of 
your tank be aware that it may not actually be frozen, but has formed a 
jelly-like hydrate at the cold temperature.  Either way, it will not 
pump through a filter or the mesh sock on the pump suction line that 
passes for a filter on modern cars. If you cannot bring the car into a 
warm garage to thaw then you must warm the tank where it sits.

I have thawed both my old Ford diesel truck and a neighbor's Honda when 
each got water in the fuel system.  Both jobs were done outdoors using a 
kerosene fired torpedo heater (a fan-forced jet engine type garage 
heater) to flow warm air underneath the rear end by the fuel tank.  The 
key is to insulate around the sides of the vehicle so that the warm air 
blast doesn't escape the sides as it flows from rear to front.  The most 
readily available material I had on hand to insulate and direct the heat 
was snow.  We piled it up on both sides and up to the edges of the 
heater to form a funnel of sorts. I kept the heater a couple feet away 
from the car and also used a fiberglass blanket to direct the air blast 
down under the bumper.  The 3/4 ton truck sat high enough that the 
heater could be placed almost underneath the fuel tank.  It only took 
about 15-20 minutes to thaw the car's fuel tank to where it would 
start.  It took almost an hour to do the truck, but it had a 40 gallon 
tank and the temperature was -10F with lots of wind at the time...

Dale Dewald
Hancock, MI
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