Diesel fuel woe

billcole said:
If this is, as it seems to be, sabotage then that's a very sad and shocking thing.
The cameras that others have mentioned can be found by searching for "wildlife cameras" if the marina cctv doesn't adequately show your boat.
Could you devise a way of making it impossible to lift the cockpit grating when the boat is unattended...maybe wooden blocks screwed down with Torx or some other uncommon headed screws, or dome headed coachbolts with the nuts on the side that's locked in the cabin.
It must be very unpleasant to think there's someone doing this to you, you have much sympathy from me and I'm sure from everyone else on here too.
Click to expand...

Good post, I agree completely.
Another thought, could someone outwith the marina have a grudge against boaters? I'm sure you will have spoken about your problem to the marina staff, had they anything helpful to add?

Keep us posted please, I think a lot of us want to hear how you get on.
 
Sorry, no further news - just gotten back from a week away. I'll be visiting the boat tommorow & will update you on the test results & what the Marina office suggest. I'm sorry to be so slow, but I'll he on the case tommorow!
 
Time for an update ��

Well, as I said earlier, the first batch, i.e. the first time it happened, it tasted of sugar. This was about four weeks ago.

Popped back to the boat today & picked up the sample from the second breakdown (which I had forgotten was sitting in neat Marine 16). Dabbed my tongue in gingerly and nearly burnt the end off - M16 is very acidic!
Took sample home, rigged up Breaking Bad crack look alike teaspoon with foil etc. Both gas lighters refused to work, so stuck the lot on the gas oven. The crystals dried out, did not melt though. Taste test number three - SALT. Cooking/table salt. Taste test 4 comprised coop salt. Taste test 5 crystals, same as 4.
There we have it. Salt.
 
WestWittering said:
Time for an update ��

Well, as I said earlier, the first batch, i.e. the first time it happened, it tasted of sugar. This was about four weeks ago.

Popped back to the boat today & picked up the sample from the second breakdown (which I had forgotten was sitting in neat Marine 16). Dabbed my tongue in gingerly and nearly burnt the end off - M16 is very acidic!
Took sample home, rigged up Breaking Bad crack look alike teaspoon with foil etc. Both gas lighters refused to work, so stuck the lot on the gas oven. The crystals dried out, did not melt though. Taste test number three - SALT. Cooking/table salt. Taste test 4 comprised coop salt. Taste test 5 crystals, same as 4.
There we have it. Salt.
Click to expand...

Interesting, thanks for the update. Surprising the first batch tasted of sugar though.
Are you any closer to finding out how the substance got into your tank in the first place? Would salt cause diesel to gel as yours had done?
 
I know nothing specific about the effects of salt in fuel, Dianne, but we do know it's a a great deal more corrosive than sugar. If there's any chance it's got through the fuel system, I'd have all the metal bits out in a flash: fuel pump, fuel lines. injector pump, injectors, the lot. The latter two, in particular, depend on very exacting tolerances. You might want to take professional advice.
Good luck.
 
pcatterall said:
So is it established that the (salt or sugar) is there in quantities for which there is no explanation other than sabotage?
Click to expand...

Could it not simply be sea-water which has got in and then evaporated?

Assume 10 grammes of NaCl (doesn't sound much, but I just weighed out 10g of Maldon sea-salt crystals and it's a surprisingly big heap).

Sea water contains 35 grammes per litre, so 10/35 = 286ml of sea water would be required. That's not so very much - half a pint or so - to have got in should the deck filler have a poor seal. Especially as we don't know how many years it's been going on for, maybe a decade of only a few spoon-fulls a year.

That leads to the question, how did the water evaporate leaving only the salt crystals?

Water is soluble in diesel, not very, but a bit. To about 80ppm in pure distillate fuel, and about twice that in fuel that contains 5% FAME. Assume only 80ppm to be on the conservative side. So 0.286 * 1,000,000 / 80 = 3575 litres of diesel would be required.

It's possible but unlikely that this much has passed through the OP's tank in ten years or so. Should one of the 'anti-diesel-bug' snake-oils have been used that will have increased the amount of water which gets dissolved in the diesel. The effect will have been to concentrate the remaining brine.

The more obvious way that water evaporates is heat. Tanks do get quite warm because of the spill back (engine and installation dependant) and depending on site in the boat they can also get warm from the sun (a cockpit locker can get very warm on a sunny day).

It all depends how long the influx of sea-water haas been going on for. If only for half a season I find it hard to believe that 300ml odd of water has evaporated, but if it's been over a few years than I can quite believe it.
 
Well, I thought I would come back and update this thread as I’m linking it to my ‘fuel tank build’ thread on the Westerly Owners Group thread.

On taking the tank out again, about 7kgs of salt was found in the tank. Yep. 7kgs. So I matched into the marina office with a massive super strong bag of it. It could be roadsalt from the unsecured bins.

Anyway, we went away skiing for the season and the marina moved the boat to under the lock keepers eyrie so an eye could be kept on her.

We came back end of April and Robin made a new stainless steel tank as the salt mullered the old mild steel one. So far so good, but that does remind me that we must secure the cockpit grating.
 
I have absolutely no idea, however, there is now a Mobo livaboard opposite me on
the pontoon and I think this has lead to a cessation as the risk of discovery has now increased.
 
It's possible, in a twisted sort of way, that it could be someone who wants to buy your boat once you are fed up with all the trouble and just want to sell it :nonchalance:
 
Biggles Wader said:
I think you need to find out for sure if this is sabotage and, if it is, involve the police.Anyone who does that to a boat's engine is putting lives at risk and needs to be caught.
Click to expand...

My opinion hasnt changed over the intervening year. This is a police job to investigate deliberately putting lives at risk.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top