diesel bug....sorry...again!

D3B

D3B

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Joined
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Location
Ely, Cambs UK
www.cutting-solutions.co.uk
following assurance from marine engineers I set off for shotley. just after orwell bridge. starboard engine stops....guess what..... it runs the power steering!!!! anyway limp back into ipswich, with help from lock keeper. decided to park her on fuel berth as theres plenty of room.
down into engine bay. engineers told me filters required attention but my journey would be ok!!!!!!!
vguess what i n the pre filters.....
looks like sludge as posted by solitare recently....
I have some serious questions to ask why that much sludge was deemed ok to use the boat.
I am talking a company I have trusted since I got the boat




so my question...
does the bug grow on its own or have I had shite fuel somewhere....been occasionally using debug liquid. but I never expected a four year old boat to suffer this quickly...
 
I'll post this again

If you look at the posts following my problems you will see that age of boat has nothing to do with it.

The only thing that I can see that will really keep things at bay is to use your boat and run the fuel through regularly.
 
Think you can get it for either reason. But once it's started, it tends to grow. The age of the boat has nowt to do with it. I've suffered seriously from it three times, but not in the last three or four years. Get any water out that you can and give it a couple of double dosing with Soltron.
 
Dave
sitting I ipswich pub feeling really pissed off, using xda...painful!!!
used regularly....400 hours in 4 years.... and serviced by vp agents!!!!
funny thing is volvo did a pre filter upgrade.......eventually....I had notification a year before.....
with the variety of marina's I've had fuel.....
 
Think you have to be like a car, filling up once a week, to avoid bugs. Trucks fill up every day. Hundred hours a year is pea nuts. Learn to change filters oin the go, it can happen at any time, please dont whinge about mechanics, though they should be able to tell you if there is a hint.

But it's your boat, you knew it had problems. So change the bloody filter. Or change then en route, Other folk have to do it all the time.
 
After taking advice on here, I have found a firm that will come to the marina and polish the fuel (125 gllns on board) and clean the tanks at the same time. It's not cheap, but you get to keep the fuel and £270 dosen't seem bad for piece of mind. I'm taking her to sea next month after she's been pottering on the river for years - no way I would take chances with this one...
 
does the bug grow on its own or have I had shite fuel somewhere....been occasionally using debug liquid. but I never expected a four year old boat to suffer this quickly...
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Yep the bugs grow faster than rabbits in the summer..Boat age is not important.

The bugs grow in the layer between water and fuel in your tank so you should endeavour to remove all water.

I would be wary about just pouring Solatron in as all you will do is kill the zillions of bugs that have taken residence and spend the rest of the season changing filters . Powerskipper will tell you there are nicer things to be doing when the sun shines than crawling in the bilges.

As a minimum get the fuel out and get out the water and gunge. Steam clean the tank and fuel lines if possible and then put in fresh fuel initially with a knock out dose of bug killer (Starbrite got the thmbs up in many tests) and you should be able to re use your old fuel as the bugs will die off and also the water will settle out. Use bug killer the rest of the season.

You could also eith make up a fuel polishing unit which is basically a good sized 5/10 micron filter and pump unit which circulates fuel round from and to the tank.

To reduce the chances of the dreaded bug you need to try and keep your fuel water free and there are products available to help here or find ways to syphon/drain the water out from the bottom of the tank.

You need to change bug treatments from year to year as the critters adapt over time.
 
Haydn
My point is that mechanic looked and said it was ok without changing the filters...
having seen the amount of muck in the bowl i am amazed they said ok.

Omega
I have the filters on board and know how to change them and often get my hands dirty.....blocked maserator /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif


Have changed the filters this morning and the alarm still goes off and and wont let me start the engine....
 
[ QUOTE ]
I would be wary about just pouring Solatron in as all you will do is kill the zillions of bugs that have taken residence and spend the rest of the season changing filters .

[/ QUOTE ]
I'm working from memory here (always a dangerous thing!) but I seem to remember that with Soltron it doesn't just kill the bugs but dissipates them into the fuel which passes through the filters without blocking them. I guess this may work up to a point but if you have a really heavy dose of the bug then there will be a limit to how much can be safely absorbed into the fuel.
Incidently I use Soltron in every fill and have not had a problem......yet!!
 
I lost a month or so of my first season with my current boat after the dealer filled me up with infected fuel. Despite dose after dose of Soltron and numerous filter changes I could not get rid of it. In the end after breaking down so many times on glorious sunny weekends I bit the bullet and had the tank, fuel lines etc. removed and cleaned. Since then I've been okay. That said, during extended periods of no use I ensure the tank is full, I dose with Soltron every time I fill up, I keep a spare set of filters on board and I maintain my Seastart membership.
 
Apparently, some breeds of bug have become soltron resistant, so some folk have suggested, it's best to use different types some times.

Dont think anyones saying that soltron will cure all faults known to man or beast.
 
Incidently I use Soltron in every fill and have not had a problem......yet!!
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I suspect from the rapid fouling of the filters he has had an exceptional birth rate so better to be safe and sorry.

Yes in many cases the Soltron will take care of both the water and the bugs but it isn t a wonder product that can work miracles and if the depth of bugs is above the fuel suction then it might need a little help.

I have seen tanks with 25% content as bugs. Looked like the moon. No way would a drop of Soltron get rid of them.

We are going to get more and more of these problems thanks to RCD and others deciding we have to have fuel tanks with suctions out of the top of the tank using a dipper tube and NO DRAIN COCK. This means we have incubators in most boats just waiting for Adam Bug and Eve Bug to find each other. At least in the older boats the water would find its way out to the injectors during a choppy passage:) I would suggest anyone with a mobo and big fuel tanks should try and fit a water drain even if it means syphoning from the top to the lowest corner to remove as much water as possible.

Water gets in all the time either from deliveries of poor fuel or from condensation forming within the tank as it breaths due to changes in atmospheric pressure and temperature.

The bugs love the interface between water and fuel. No water then no bugs.
 
also another soltron user. dose every time and have had minor probs but it seems to keep it under control. However I recall an MBY or MBM test a while back on additives and they found soltron lacking and another one came out way ahead. can anybody remember what it was?
 
Depends which Starbrite product you're thinking of. Soltron and Startron (by Starbrite) are basically the same product AFAIK, but Startron is less concentrated. Starbrite "Biodiesel" also came out well in the PBO test.
 
I've been using Starbrite Bio diesel since the boat was new.


I can now post a pic of the fuel drained off from the pre-filter on Saturday morning...
DSCN0906.jpg


The fuel is quite clean but as can be seen there is fine "soot" like dust particles in the bottom of the container.


Now....

I have also spoken to local Volvo P agent this morning who informed me.....
There have been quite a few cases of this problem with the "new" pre filters fitted for these engines. they are so fine that the belief is the colourant used in red diesel is being filtered out and blocking some of the filters. some have needed changing after only 20 hours!!!!!!!!!!
Volvo say you MUST use these filters to protect the engine....


I think there is an inherent design fault if you need to change filters every 20 hours.....
 
I was hoping some of the more experienced amongst you would have commented on the fuel i drained it.

it doesnt look like bug to me as its powdery and there was no water in the cylinder at all.
 
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