Shoutout to the guy at the truck stop in Wyoming who showed me a trick for frozen fuel lines

I was stuck outside Laramie last January with a 2012 Freightliner that just would not start. Temperature was hovering around negative 15. A older mechanic who was passing through took one look and told me to pour a little bit of isopropyl alcohol into the fuel filter housing. It broke up the ice crystals in about 10 minutes and the engine fired right up. Has anyone else ever tried this instead of using those expensive fuel additives?

3 comments

3 Comments

joel_clark371mo ago

My buddy Dave got stuck outside Cheyenne in his old Dodge Ram last winter and tried this exact trick. He said he poured a little 91% isopropyl into the fuel filter housing and waited maybe 15 minutes with the block heater running. The truck cranked over rough at first but smoothed right out after a few seconds. He swears by it now and keeps a bottle in his toolbox instead of buying those expensive diesel additives. I guess the alcohol mixes with water and lowers the freezing point so it can't form ice.

jakejones1mo ago

Wait, did he put alcohol right into the fuel filter housing? My cousin tried something similar on his Ford F-250 outside Billings. He poured like a quarter bottle of HEET in the tank. Not the filter. Truck started fine but the next day his injectors were ticking like crazy. Had to flush the whole system. Took him three hours in a blizzard. I think there's a right way and a wrong way to do it.

jana_shah1mo ago

Oh totally, I did almost the same thing on my old Duramax last year. I put maybe two ounces of isopropyl right into the fuel filter housing after I got a bad batch of diesel with water in it. Let it sit with the block heater on for like 20 minutes while I cleaned the filter housing. Cranked it over and it spit and sputtered for maybe 10 seconds then ran fine. I was shocked honestly. Been doing it ever since when it gets real cold and I think the fuel might have some moisture. Your cousin probably just used too much or dumped it in the tank instead of the filter.