polishing diesel fuel????????

B

bcarli

New member
Here is a rather strange question for the group....We need to clean the fuel tank on our sailboat, it must be full of crum because the fuel in the filter looks like mud even though I recently changed it. We are in an area where nobody has a fuel polishing machine...So my question is can I use a household water filter to filter out my tank. I would install a small fuel pump inline before the filter then run the line into 5 gal buckets until the tank was empty. I only have about 30 gallons in the tank. I don't an inspection plate but I do have access to the tank itself......
from one c-brat who is dealing with his sailboat
thank you
bill
friday harbor
 
The saying goes that you can make a silk purse out of a sows ear. Why not just dispose of the bad fuel and start with a fresh batch,treated with a recommended additive if you are going to leave it sit for more than a month. If you are going to recycle it why not use a filter made for diesel fuel?
D.D.
 
Hi Bill,

THE source for marine diesel engine expertise is boatdiesel.com. You don't have to have a membership to browse there, but the quality of the information and advice there has justified my annual $25 many times over, year after year.
 
Polishing of fuel is done routinely... No one can afford to throw away $4 fuel on a regular basis

Here is one resource
http://www.trawlersandtrawlering.com/ho ... tnwil.html

You can spend thousands on a system - or you can be thrifty and sensible
You need
1. pump
2. filter
3. some fittings and lines to put it together
4. hoses to go into the tank


The basics are
suck some fuel out
push it through a filter (or two)
squirt it back into the tank

This can be a two step program of pull the fuel out, filter it, push the cleaned fuel into a storage drum, pump clean fuel back into boat tank when your storage tank is full (fifty gallon drum?) Repeat until fuel looks clean... Cheap, easy, labor intensive

Or this can be a continuous process where the pump runs constantly while dumping the cleaned fuel right back into the boat tank... Takes a few more dollars for fittings/hoses and time to rig the intake and return lines for continuous pumping...

Pumps can be had at the local tractor supply store, or West marine, or auto stores, internet, etc... Whether the pump is 12 volt or 120 volt depends on your situation and whether you ant the polishing system permanently running on the boat or a one time installation... Any pump rated for gas will be 100% safe for diesel... The reverse is not necessarily true..

You can go nuts over filters... Gulf Coast, etc. are expensive for the canisters but the replacement paper towel or toilet paper rolls are cheap... And they work well...
Spin on filters are the best compromise... You will need the base to spin a filter onto - which will cost only a fraction of a GC canister...

Here is one source:
http://www.fleetfilter.com/filters/wix- ... bases.html

Some folks will suck you into discussions of Microns with religious fervor... Back slowly away while maintaining eye contact as they can be dangerous if their predator instinct is aroused by overt fleeing... Forget microns...

Buy a pump, two filter bases, four filters (or more), and fittings and hose to put it all together... The two filter bases are plumbed in series, a pre filter and a post filter... The pump should be pushing the fuel through the filter, not sucking it through...
Once the system is running watch the output flow... When it starts to show slowing (or the output fuel is not as clear as it was) then throw the pre filter away, move the post filter to the pre filter base, put on a new post filter, and away we go again...

Now, for a gunked up tank - as apposed to simple contaminated load of fuel - continuous pumping is the best way... Make the hoses large and keep the flow as high as you can... You want the fuel to roll and agitate so it 'scrubs' the gunk off the inside of the tank and carries it to the filters...

Uuunhhh, just read what I wrote... Sorry about the verbosity...
While I am good a cobbling things together, I would not use anything meant for water filtering on fuel...


cheers...
 
Your tank fuel-pickup tube, of course, will not get the last few gallons in the tank. These are going to be the most cruddy. If you are going to jury-rig a setup, consider unscrewing the pickup tube and inserting a rigid tube until it touches the tank bottom to get the last of the fuel out. I would probably discard this last bit.

Used to have a 1978 Grand Banks :)
 
I use the same polishing system on diesel (in fact that was what it was designed for), but just change out the Racor cartridge in the filter. The process is the same.

Yes, you have to get the very bottom "crud" out of the tank in diesel. You can add Soltran or Startron (same thing-an enzyme) to help liquify and dissolve any material in the bottom of the tank.

NO you cannot use the household water filter. It is not small enough particle size, and may be incompatible with diesel.


Best if you get in the tank with the fuel sender--and then use a "wand" to suck out the bottom of the tank--after pulling the fuel from the top.

Now---building a system will cost somewhere between $35 and $100 for the pump, about $40 for the tubing etc, and $100 plus or minus for the filter---do the economics. But you still have to clean the tank. If there is only about 10 gallons of fuel, I would pump it out, put in clean fuel (about 4 gallons and the Startron, and then let it sit, for a few weeks. Then pump again, and look at the filter.
 
A Beckson Siphon Mate pump, 5' of PEX flexible tubing and kitty litter buckets with lids to pump out gas tanks. I can remove either a fuel pickup or fuel sender unit to access the bottom of the tank and it does not take long to remove 30 gals. Be safe! Let let someone close by know what you are doing in case you need help.

Polishing system would be nice!
 
Then there is the guy the mechanic told to burn all the diesel out of the tank.
Off he goes and runs out of fuel in the middle of the strait...
Hello Vessel Assist!
 
To get my gulf 32 motor sailor diesel tank and fuel clean took a professional. They had some kind of high pressure spray thingy that helped sweep the top and wall of the tank to loosen up the crud. Then they removed and filtered the entire load of fuel, put it back in and added good diesel to the top of the tank which was treated. Then came back in a week and ran that batch through filters and then back into the tank. It cost about 75 bucks back 20 years, but they had really good arguments about needing to do the high pressure spray to really clean up the walls of the tank. I don't know if I paid more for work I didn't need, but a flash light inspection of the tank through the sender port looked really good after they'd done the high pressure spray/stir work and emptied the tank.
 
Chester":2b3d0u62 said:
Then there is the guy the mechanic told to burn all the diesel out of the tank.
Off he goes and runs out of fuel in the middle of the strait...
Hello Vessel Assist!
Click to expand...

I know that guy!
 
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