OK I have heard a lot about the famous Tier 4 engines and Doosan mostly . I have heard that most of you gents run out and buy new fuel filters at a moments notice when your Doosan does not respond to full throttle or just cant get up and move . Because of the cold . Would it be that the fuel is jelled or just plugged . Would it not be an issue to use a heat gun on the filter to unjell the fuel or is it just crappy fuel . Sorry guys but I cant see myself buying new filters if the fuel is going solid . I have had to heat up kubota filters to get the fuel to flow as well . Hey i am just askin , is it just crappy fuel . All of my equipment I fill up at the pumps at the gas station . No issues . The only problem with the Doosan Its hard to start in the cold . The Kubotas usually fire right up . If we could just get the makers to put a Cummins in all of this little stuff we could end this forum . All of my 580 Case had Cummins no friggen issues .
The higher the tier, the smaller the holes in the filters, because the fuel systems keep going up in pressure so the clearances are tighter. I'm hearing 2 micron absolute or less and the fuel you get from the truck or pump, if you're lucky is maybe filtered to 10 micron nominal. It's just gotten to basically zero tolerance on fuel, any water, dust, algae, rust particles, the filter plugs up... to save the fuel system. Cold does make the fuel thicker and harder to push through a plugging filter, if it's a gelling issue some additive will cure that after the first filter change.
Dead on. The fuel suppliers can filter the fuel better but don't because of cost reasons. Would you be prepared to pay an extra 50 cents a gallon for "cleaner" fuel..? I don't think so. Because TIER 4 operates at much higher injection pressures it has much more stringent requirements as regards fuel cleanliness, hence the 2 micron recommendation (which has in fact been a recommendation for optimum fuel system component longevity on larger engines for at least the last 20 years as far as I'm aware). So long as the fuel is the correct #1 or winter diesel in cold ambient temperatures I can't see heating the filter doing any good, the likelihood is that the filter will be plugged and the only way out of it will be to change it. The only answers I can see are either larger/additional filters on the machines so they don't plug so often or the machine owner gets himself an off-machine fuel storage system equipped with a kidney-loop filtration system on it and does the extra filtration work on the fuel even before it hits the tank on the machine.
Any one using a fuel heater on their skid loader, back in the trucking business I think every one did. Steve
the Doosan I had started good in cold weather just wont run very long. as far as fuel filter there is no throttle difference it just beeps and says low rail pressure and shuts you down you can start it right back up it will last about 5 min. and do it again but pretty soon it wont move until you change filter. seems to me if you had a good filter on storage tank it would be plugged all time also. I used to work for a fuel company servicing gas stations and building them and if you put a 5 micron filter on a diesel pump in winter time it wouldn't last a day so they about have to stay with a 10 micron. my fix was get rid of it and try a cat which I did and couldn't be happier, I use a skid steer 7 days a week not just summer time. seems to me that Doosan will really hurt the bobcat sales at least they could do is sell that plastic filter for less than 53.00
I tried the heat gun on the filter also and that just got you further away from your truck lol. also cut filters open but couldn't see anything. fuel had additive in it and all other equipment would run off of same storage tank
On my fuel storage tank and lube truck tank back when I was wrenching for a construction outfit I used to run a 10 micron full sized hydraulic spin on with water absorbing media ahead of a 3 micron absolute spin on... Also added biocide regularly. Worked well but we were switching out filters often. Fuel filters for machines are not cheap, so I thought we were way ahead of the game catching most of the elephants at the source, especially since we were catching a lot of the water from condensation. And that was back around 1990. :my2c