My first "issue" was I noticed in the fuel filter bowl what appeared to be ice. Trust me, that is NEVER GOOD. I had the block heater plugged in for a couple days so the engine was OK, but the fuel looked like it may have "gelled" from the sub-zero weather we had. I put a space heater under the rear of the engine to get some heat to the fuel lines and the fuel tank. A few hours later the fuel looked better in the fuel filter bowl. I started the engine and it ran fine (that was a relief as I have no place to take it to warm the rig up).

I decided to over-treat the diesel fuel as I thought I might have still had some summer diesel in the fuel tank and (evidently) not enough anti-gel fuel additive. I went to the local O’Reilly's Auto Parts store and bought a gallon of Lucas Oil's Extreme Cold Weather Fuel Treatment. One quart is the suggested treatment of 100 gallons. My fuel tank is 95 gallons and as I was thinking I may have moisture or non-winterized fuel in the tank, I doubled the dosage. The tank was about 3/4 full so I mixed the half-gallon of fuel treatment into a 5-gallon fuel jug and filled it up with "winter blend" diesel from the local truck stop.

I poured that in the tank and drove the coach up to the truck stop and filled the tank. It was well below zero the next three nights and when I checked the fuel filter sight glass it was clear. The Lucas Extreme Cold Weather fuel treatment had done its job.

The trip to the Keys from Iowa had some mechanical "adventures" but none were related to fuel delivery; that was a relief. A turbo pressure hose blew off and was a fairly easy fix except I had to McGuyver a couple hose clamps until I found a stainless T-bolt type clamp.

The next and last little issue was the mounting bolts falling off the fuel shut-off solenoid. I had just replaced that part and I am pretty sure I didn't use Loc-tite - that won't happen again! But I did keep the old mounting bolts and I even had them in my toolbox. Five minutes and that was the last mechanical issue for the rest of the trip.

The one thing that I noticed was the I was getting less black smoke after using my engine brake and then stepping back on the throttle the further down the highway I got into my trip. I am thinking the Lucas fuel additive might have been working to clean up the injector nozzles or was allowing the diesel fuel to burn a little quicker and cleaner. I'm no diesel expert, but I do know what I see out the rear view mirror and what I see when I look at the exhaust pipe outlet.

I had just serviced the engine before we left and when I reached Florida the oil level was about 2 quarts lower than the full mark (I think I shorted it about that amount on the oil change). I decided to add 2 quarts of Lucas Engine Oil Additive before I left Florida.

Two very apparent changes were noticeable immediately: one, the oil pressure at idle with engine hot was 30 psi and it was always 25 psi before; two, the oil pressure at 60-65 mph was 75 psi coming home and it was usually at 60-65 psi on the trip down to Florida.

All I can say is the oil pressure was better with the Lucas additive and I averaged 7.8 mpg on the trip getting to Key West and averaged 8.6 mpg on the trip home. Wind, temperature and driving speed could have had an effect, but I have to be honest and say the engine seemed snappier on initial start up and I rarely see the black smoke like I did on the trip down to Florida.

I am anxious to do my oil change and install Lucas 15-40 Diesel oil in the 8.3 Cummins along with the correct amount of Lucas Oil Additive. As for fuel treatment, I stayed with the recommended dosage once I got to Memphis all the way to Florida and back to Birmingham. At that point I started adding about 50% more than the recommended dosage to the fuel because I was uncertain if the fuel I was buying in the South was ready for the sub-zero weather I was headed into.

It worked. The coach is in the driveway under about 6 inches of snow and wind chill last night was -32 degrees! (Yeah, that is bad-ass COLD!)

Just a little story about my experience with some oil and fuel additives. I did NOT receive any free products from Lucas (darn it!), it was just something I wanted to try. I have to admit, I was impressed on the 3,000 mile test I gave the Lucas products. Probably so much so, I am going to order their 20/50 synthetic Race Oil and trans fluid for the race cars.