Diesel Bug. Can I still use the juice?

jfkal

jfkal

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Cleaned my tank ( thick black slime) and now I am not sure what to do with the 60 liters of diesel which was in the tank. Can I re-use it after filtering with an Baja filter or similar. Or would I invite trouble to happen again. Any advise please.

THX

Dieselbug
 
jfkal said:
Cleaned my tank ( thick black slime) and now I am not sure what to do with the 60 liters of diesel which was in the tank. Can I re-use it after filtering with an Baja filter or similar. Or would I invite trouble to happen again.
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So long as the diesel appears free of suspended material it should be fine. The diesel bug grows at the interface between diesel and any water in th bottom of the tank, so long as you have cleaned the tank out and your engine filters are in good condition you shouldn't have a problem.
 
I wouldn't personally re-use infected fuel.

If you are going through the process (and effort) of cleaning the tank and fuel lines (perhaps with acetone), replacing fuel filters, cleaning gauzes etc.. then I think it is worth ensuring that the replacement fuel is as clean as possible.

In my experience fuel additive is useful in helping prevent diesel bug, but has limited effectiveness once the problem is established.

Pete
 
Halcyon Yachts said:
I wouldn't personally re-use infected fuel.

If you are going through the process (and effort) of cleaning the tank and fuel lines (perhaps with acetone), replacing fuel filters, cleaning gauzes etc.. then I think it is worth ensuring that the replacement fuel is as clean as possible.

In my experience fuel additive is useful in helping prevent diesel bug, but has limited effectiveness once the problem is established.

Pete
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Although what Peter says is true in the case of tanks with severe contamination this is not the case with you. You have removed the tank and system contamination and you have filtered most if not all the bugs out of the fuel.

In this case there should be no further problems especially if you use a proprietary biocide to treat the fuel . It is becoming more and more necesary to continuosly treat fuel now that a percentage of bio fuel is mixed in.

I repeat what Ken says and ensure in future you try to remove water from the tanks regularly using a dipper tube through the filler if no other way. Also change your primary filter at least on a regular basis so you will see the first signs of a problem should it re occur.
 
If you any doubts about the old fuel you can hire a fuel polishing system from Filter Wash.

Good luck.:)

PS run the old fuel through a chamois cloth, it will trap any moisture and most particles.
 
I did similar to you in November (tank removed from boat, given a steam clean using a wall paper stripper, and then dryed throughly), and I also got quite a lot of black slim out of the bottom of the tank. Most of the fuel was syphoned off first (about 50L in my case) and looked resonably clear, so this I left to stand in numerous plastic bottles in the garage for a couple of months. It then looked very clear, with a small black residue at the bottom of each bottle, so I decanted the clear stuff from each one and put it back in the cleaned and re-installed tank in Feb. I added some Marine 16 bug killer, and topped up with fresh fuel and so far have had no problems.
 
jfkal said:
Cleaned my tank ( thick black slime) and now I am not sure what to do with the 60 liters of diesel which was in the tank. Can I re-use it after filtering with an Baja filter or similar. Or would I invite trouble to happen again. Any advise please.

THX

Dieselbug
Click to expand...

I have had diesel bug three times ( each time on a boat I have just bought) and have always re-used the diesel without problem.

However, you need to debug it. The way I did this was to add the usual biocide and leave the diesel in 50 litre containers in the garden shed until it had had time to settle - a few weeks. Then I carefully syphoned the top 3/4 into clean containers / the boat tank and put the residue into a couple of 50 litres again leaving it to re-settle.

Ended up with 5 litres of dirty diesel that I used to make fire lighters for the woodburner.
 
Diesel always contains the 'bug' even fresh from the pump, but only becomes a problem on a fuel/water interface. Cleaning and filtering it is all that is needed to ensure there are no solids left in it. Fresh from the pump? yes of course - how else does the bug get in to your tank in the first place?
 
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