Keep diesel engines purring in winter

Henry Guenter is a retired former service manager for Massey Ferguson. He offers hints for keeping diesel engines running longer and more reliably in cold weather.

Fuel

Use diesel fuel conditioner in fuel stored more than three months. Without conditioner, you get poor starting, rough running, smoking and less power.
Always store machinery with full fuel tanks to prevent condensation.
Drain a little water out of the bulk tank often. Make sure the filler hose is a lot higher than the drain plug to keep the water level below the filler hose. This prevents water from getting into the engine and keeps out bacteria that grows along the line where water meets fuel.

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Don’t use winter fuel in summer. If you do, horsepower will be reduced by about 10 percent and you get more wear on fuel injection parts.
Keep the fuel clean.

Air filter

Service only when the indicator shows it needs cleaning. Filter manufacturers say 80 percent of engine failures that trace back to the air filter happened because it was handled too often. Every time you handle that filter, there is a chance of damaging it. A plugged filter will not hurt an engine but a damaged one will.
Do not clean by slapping with your hand or banging against a tire. The side of the filter will touch the paper element if damaged, even the slightest bend. The metal will then wear a hole in the paper and allow dust into the engine. Also, severe treatment cracks the glue that

holds the paper to the metal ends.

Change the air filter as often as the book recommends. The engine creates a vibrating airflow, which means the paper element is always bending and will eventually start to crack. As well, chemicals in the paper element dissipate into the atmosphere even from the amount of air passing through.
Wash the air filter when exhaust fumes get into it because exhaust residue doesn’t blow off easily.
Both filters must be changed when the inner one becomes dirty. Dirt on the inner filter means the outer filter is damaged.

Engine oil

Stick to the oil recommended by the engine manufacturer.
Do not overfill because that causes heating problems, oil consumption and leaking crankshaft seals. Remember that “full” might be lower than the “full” mark on your dipstick. Check this next time you do an oil change. When the crankcase is completely empty, fill with the correct amount of oil as indicated in the manual. Wherever that is on the dipstick is the correct “full” mark.
Change oil when necessary. Don’t wait for the time interval given in the manual. This is only the maximum allowable interval. You should change oil as soon as the engine starts using oil.

Under heavy use, the oil might start breaking up, so this oil change interval could be half the time given in the book. Also, there is a lot of moisture in the crankcase in winter, which mixes with sulfur in the oil to form an acid that eats bearings. Fresh oil eliminates this expensive problem.

Always change the oil and filter before storing an engine over winter.

Transmissions

Use the recommended oil. Tractors with wet brakes use special oil. Most tractors use the transmission case as a reservoir for the hydraulic system so it must also be hydraulic oil.
Drain water out of transmissions after winter storage. You might be surprised how much water collects over winter in the transmission case.

Engine

Try to run the engine at rated load speed, whether it has a load on it or not. When pulling a heavy load, pick a gear so the engine pulls down to rated load speed. That is the rpm where the engine is most efficient.
Do not idle for long periods of time. This causes injectors to foul up and lose performance.
Expect to lose about two quarts of engine oil for every 100 gallons of fuel burned. Most manufacturers accept as much as one gallon

of engine oil for every 100 gallons of fuel.

Some say that less than one quart per 100 gallons of fuel can cause more wear on the moving parts, although I would take that with a grain of salt.

Change antifreeze at least every other year. The frost protection is probably still there in old antifreeze, but after two years the water pump lubrication in the antifreeze is used up.