Protect Your Engine

Engines use a lot of air. Air filters keep dust and dirt out of your engine, which would act like sand paper and shorten the engine’s life or even ruin it. However, as air filters become clogged, they rob the engine of performance and power. Because of the important job they do always use good quality air filter.

Some trucks have a ‘Filter Minder,’ which shows how much restriction the air filter has developed.  However, our experience has shown filter minders are not very accurate. A vehicle will begin loosing power long before the filter minder says to replace the air filter. Therefore, it is best to replace the air filter as soon as the filter minder indicates any restriction at all.

Don’t Get Stranded

Diesel vehicles have large fuel filters, which trap contaminants in their fuel. Diesels also have ‘fuel water separators,’ either as a separate filter or combined into the main fuel filter. If your ‘water in fuel light’ comes on don’t panic. Just consult your owner’s manual for the easy procedure to drain the water out of the separator. To prevent problems, though, we recommend changing all the fuel filters every 15,000 miles.

Diesel fuel can also attract water, which will settle to the bottom of the fuel tank and grow algae. If the algae are sucked into the fuel filters, it can plug them up quickly, and stop your engine. You can buy additives to put into the fuel system that will kill algae.

If an algae infestation becomes bad enough the fuel tank may have to be removed and cleaned.

Prevent Overheating

The cooling system is the most neglected item we see on diesels. The liquid coolant needs to be a mixture of anti-freeze and chemical free water; either distilled or purified by reverse osmosis. A 50/50 mixture gives the best protection against freezing and, just as important, protection against overheating.

In some coolants is very important to have the ‘nitrate strength’ in the coolant checked. Nitrates help the coolant stick to the cylinder walls and carry away engine heat. If the nitrates are out of range, it is possible for the cylinder walls to develop holes that the coolant can flow through. When that happens, the engine will need a major overhaul. It is simple to avoid, though.

Coolant additives can bring the nitrates back up into specification.

Their proper range is above 1200.

The coolant’s PH level, also important, depending on the coolant type, it should be between 7.7 and 9.0 on a PH scale. If the PH gets too far out one way or the other, the coolant will become either too acidic or too alkali. When this happens, the coolant will actually start to pit and flake the metals it touches. This is especially harmful to modern radiators, which are made of aluminum.

Green coolants need to be changed every two years. Some of the more modern coolants used in light duty vehicles, can be used for 100,000 miles or 5 years.

Some coolants used in medium and heavy duty vehicles are designed to be replaced at 500,000 miles.

Because of the many different types of coolant it is best to only coolant made specifically for your diesel engine, not a ‘universal’ coolant you might see for sale.

Diesel Fuel – Myths and Secrets

Diesel fuel will not go bad from being stored for a long time as gasoline does. However, it can ‘jell’ in cold weather, turning from a liquid into a semi solid state, which prevents the engine from starting. In past years, people had to mix #1 and #2 diesel fuels to prevent jelling. Nowadays, diesel fuel sold and taxed for street use comes premixed during cold seasons, so it stays liquid.

Do not fill up when you see a tank truck delivering fuel to a station. The new load of fuel can stir up sediment on the bottom of the underground tank, which might then be pumped into your vehicle.

Easy Starting in Cold Weather

If your vehicle has a block heater, the electrical cord hanging from the front, plug it into an electrical outlet when the temperature drops below 40 degrees. The engine will start quicker, run smoother and the heater will work faster.

If the vehicle does not have a block heater, we can install one for you.

Avoid Battery Problems

It takes a lot of battery power to start a diesel engine, so keep the battery cable ends clean and tight. Dissolve a tablespoon of baking soda in a glass of water and pour it on corroded cable ends to clean them. Just don’t let the baking soda get inside the battery.

If the battery has caps on it, maintain its water level above the plates you can see inside the battery. Use only distilled water.

Prevent Expensive Repairs

Diesels have inexpensive transfer pumps, which push fuel from the tank to the engine’s very expensive injection pump.

The transfer pump supplies more fuel to the injection pump than it needs to make the engine run.  Why? To lubricate and cool the expensive injection pump. Therefore, anything that restricts the flow of fuel can damage the injection pump, which can cost between $2,000 and $4,000.00 to replace. However, an injection pump should last the life of the engine.

Prevent injection pump damage by replacing your fuel filters on a regular basis. Use only high quality filters. Filters on a diesel are not the place to be penny wise and dollar foolish.

Increase Tire Life

Most vehicles have stickers on their doorposts that show ‘recommended tire pressure.’ Use that pressure.

Tires have a maximum weight and air pressure printed on them. This shows the most air to put in the tire when it is carrying the maximum weight. Do not use this pressure for normal driving. It will cause the tires to wear out quicker and make the vehicle ride stiff.

Conversely, tires that are under inflated will also wear out quickly and cause the vehicle to handle poorly.

When replacing tires, make sure to get tires that are the correct size and rating for your vehicle. A difference in tire circumference as small as ¼ of an inch can cause problems with the Anti-lock Brake System, and on four-wheel drive vehicles, can damage the transfer case.

When buying only two tires, have them put on the back and move the used tires to the front. Studies show that a tire blow out on the front is less dangerous than one on the rear.

Towing and Hauling

Few things will damage a diesel engine faster than excessive exhaust gas temperature.  Excessive is anything above 1000 degrees, measured after the turbo.

An exhaust temperature gauge, tells when the engine is being over-worked.

Driving for extended periods with the exhaust temperature elevated can overheat the engine. Watch the coolant temperature gauge to see if it starts to rise. If it does, slow down until the temperatures drops down into normal ranges.

Most of the time damage from overheating will not show up immediately, but might take several thousand miles to appear. An engine that should have gone 350,000 miles may only last 60,000 miles because of elevated exhaust temperatures.

Protect Your Transmission

People we know, who repair transmissions tell us that they would be out of business if everybody serviced their transmissions regularly. Our shop, seldom replaces transmissions that were serviced on a regular basis.

Transmissions are expensive, but it does not cost much to simply change the fluid and filter every 30,000 miles, for traditional transmission fluids, sooner if the fluid becomes dark from use.

Use Synthetic Fluids

For several years, we rebuilt the manual transmissions in one company’s fleet of trucks. We switched them to synthetic transmission fluid. That small thing alone cut their number of failed transmissions by 50%. Their savings were huge. A fluid change is good for a manual transmission every 50,000 miles.

The same thing applies to automatic transmission, using synthetic fluids will extend the life of the transmission.

Most vehicle manufactures are now putting synthetic fluids in the transmissions and differentials.

The Tire Pressure Warning Light

The dash warning light will come on if a tire is only 14% low on air. There are two systems used for this. One uses sensors inside each tire to monitor air pressure. When the tires are rotated, the sensors need to be reset so the computer knows where each tire is located.

The other system uses the anti-lock brake system to measure the tires diameters. When low on air, a tire’s rotational diameter becomes smaller, and turns on the warning light. Consult a knowledgeable shop before changing tire sizes or rims so as not to cause the Tire Pressure Monitoring System to give false warnings.