abdiel
Well-Known Member
I was thinking about making my own diesel fuel polisher. I know what filter to use but Im not sure what type of pump. Has anyone any ideas (make it cheap) Thanks
Abdiel
Abdiel
DIY fuel polisher
- Thread starter abdiel
- Start date
oldsaltoz
Well-Known Member
The fuel polishing units available for hire have at least 2 or 3 coarse filters and up to 6 fine filters and a pressure gauge to indicate if filters are blocking and it's time to change one of the many switching valves to control the direction of flow.
Not sure a single filter will be up to the job if the larger particles are not removed first, could cost a bit.
The hired machine also has a separate return hose so fuel can be returned to the tank to stir up the mud on the bottom of the tank or to a container as clean fuel.
Good luck.
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Not sure a single filter will be up to the job if the larger particles are not removed first, could cost a bit.
The hired machine also has a separate return hose so fuel can be returned to the tank to stir up the mud on the bottom of the tank or to a container as clean fuel.
Good luck.
..
Latestarter1
Well-Known Member
With some thought a Facet style pump together with a proper coalesing filter set up could form the basis of a good polishing system, partictularly with the small current draw.
#1 Is to fit a timer powering up the polishing pump for sufficient time to circulate entire tank contents a pre set number of times a week dependant on battery capacity.
#2 Use a solar panel to power the polishing pump.
Prevention is far superior to having to attack the problem with hired in kit to sort out a tank full of grunge.
Alpha22
Well-Known Member
I'm thinking of making a DIY fuel polisher, I now know which pump to use, but what would be the best (cheepest) filter that water seperates and has resonably inexpensive filter inserts.
prv
Well-Known Member
Right, but they're designed to positively clean a tank that is known to be seriously contaminated (otherwise you wouldn't have hired it). I assumed the OP was building a system to routinely polish the fuel in his tanks as he went along, as more of a maintenance activity, as seems to be popular in the US. I could be wrong in that though.
Pete
savageseadog
Well-Known Member
Best approach in my view is to heat it up to 50 degrees in something like a Burco so and let the crud separate.
sarabande
Well-Known Member
we have about 6 25l cans of agridiesel which went very cloudy last winter and blocked the tractor fuel filters. OK it could have been a waxing problem, but the stuff was from the bottom of a tank which has now been properly cleaned. The cans have been sitting quietly in a corner of the shed for over a year.
The contents now seem to be clearer, but before using them in the , err, lawnmower, I'd like to ensure that any bugs are dead (using the normal Soltron, or other magic formulae), and then clean the fuel.
Rather than use expensive pumps, can I use Mr Gravity, and set up a flow from a high can through a couple of filters (coarse, then fine) into a low tank or can.
Time is not of the essence (joke, sorry ) and I am happy to pour 25 l into the top can, and remove the lower can with 24.9l at the end of a day.
The web information on filters for this kind of setup is confusing, so any suggestions gratefully acted upon.
The contents now seem to be clearer, but before using them in the , err, lawnmower, I'd like to ensure that any bugs are dead (using the normal Soltron, or other magic formulae), and then clean the fuel.
Rather than use expensive pumps, can I use Mr Gravity, and set up a flow from a high can through a couple of filters (coarse, then fine) into a low tank or can.
Time is not of the essence (joke, sorry
) and I am happy to pour 25 l into the top can, and remove the lower can with 24.9l at the end of a day. The web information on filters for this kind of setup is confusing, so any suggestions gratefully acted upon.
pvb
Well-Known Member
I used an old 12v fresh water pump when I did my DIY fuel polishing. You ideally need a reasonable pressure and flow rate, and I'm not sure that the Facet fuel pump suggested would give that.
pvb
Well-Known Member
Best and cheapest are probably mutually exclusive! The cheapest would be the CAV-type fuel filter with a glass bowl water separator, and filter elements for it are easily obtainable at very low prices.
Latestarter1
Well-Known Member
CAV Fuel filters were OK 40 years ago, the simple paper element is very inexpensive but you get what you pay for, as it does virtually nothing.
Modern spin on filters are inexpensive and highly efficent at removing water as well as solids.
One of my favorite rock/grunge/water stoppers is Fleetguard 5013, good Beta rato 96% efficient 20 micron first pass 10 micron second pass. Costs around £15.
Plumb this into fuel line with Facet pump and bang it back into the return.
Your are more than likely to get downgraded road fuel in your tank in the future. Biodiesel in the small quantities will make zero difference to your seals. Water contaminated biodiesel even in small quantities has a big impact on engine seals.
Some DIY fuel polishing set ups can be real professional.
Modern spin on filters are inexpensive and highly efficent at removing water as well as solids.
One of my favorite rock/grunge/water stoppers is Fleetguard 5013, good Beta rato 96% efficient 20 micron first pass 10 micron second pass. Costs around £15.
Plumb this into fuel line with Facet pump and bang it back into the return.
Your are more than likely to get downgraded road fuel in your tank in the future. Biodiesel in the small quantities will make zero difference to your seals. Water contaminated biodiesel even in small quantities has a big impact on engine seals.
Some DIY fuel polishing set ups can be real professional.
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Bilgediver
Well-Known Member
That looks like the sort of pump on an Eber and might not have a sufficiently good flow rate.
There are bigger fuel pumps available from motor factors or ideally a nice wee gear pump.
pvb
Well-Known Member
That'll be welcome news to the countless thousands of boatowners who have them fitted!
Latestarter1
Well-Known Member
That'll be welcome news to the countless thousands of boatowners who have them fitted!
It is referred to as progress. If you have an expensive engine why penny pinch on useless fuel filters.
The terms safe and fit for purpose also spring to mind.......
LittleShip
Well-Known Member
Earlier this year I checked my fuel only to find that I had picked up some dirty fuel and my tanks were contaminated with CR##
I decided to fit a Homebrew fuel polishing system using a spin on type CAV filter with water trap incorporated.
Information on system
It is a simple 12 volt fuel pump (Red dot) on the outlet of a spin on filter. The pump is self priming and will pass 40 gallons an hour, personally I think that’s optimistic so lets say 20.
The fuel is fed from the bottom drains off each tank and into the filter, passes through the filter and on through the pump which then has a tee junction. Each tank has a separate return to the top of the tank, with a valve in the line.
This setup will allow me to take fuel from one tank if necessary and return it to the other, or polish one/both tank. The drawing shows the setup.
The whole system was installed for about £150.
This system will not pass enough fuel to dislodge dirt from the bottom of the tanks but will whilst the tanks are agitated (used in the seaway) pick up any water and or dirt and trap it. It has the benefit of being able to be used whilst at the dock as well and should remove any water from the bottom of the tanks.
Tom
I decided to fit a Homebrew fuel polishing system using a spin on type CAV filter with water trap incorporated.
Information on system
It is a simple 12 volt fuel pump (Red dot) on the outlet of a spin on filter. The pump is self priming and will pass 40 gallons an hour, personally I think that’s optimistic so lets say 20.
The fuel is fed from the bottom drains off each tank and into the filter, passes through the filter and on through the pump which then has a tee junction. Each tank has a separate return to the top of the tank, with a valve in the line.
This setup will allow me to take fuel from one tank if necessary and return it to the other, or polish one/both tank. The drawing shows the setup.
The whole system was installed for about £150.
This system will not pass enough fuel to dislodge dirt from the bottom of the tanks but will whilst the tanks are agitated (used in the seaway) pick up any water and or dirt and trap it. It has the benefit of being able to be used whilst at the dock as well and should remove any water from the bottom of the tanks.
Tom
Latestarter1
Well-Known Member
Littleship I applaud your most of your thinking behind this set up, however if I were doing a survey I would be most unhappy with what looks like the use of thin wall 15mm plumbing pipe and Yorkshire soldered fittings anywhere a fuel system. Vibration is a killer for this set up. My biggest problem is that the filter looks way way undersized for the job in hand.
Please please do not be offended the Walbro pump and general idea is great, however the execution worries me.
Let me take some time explaining where I am coming from when it come to selecting fuel filters.
The "micron rating" of fuel filters is a very simple way of allowing someone to select one of the requirements for filtration. I've learned that a nominal micron rating is not necessarily the best way of choosing correct filtration. Micron rating should only be used to categorise the media since the ratings were developed based on single-pass efficiency tests using uniform spherical particles as a system contaminant. In real life, diesel fuel contains contaminants of various sizes ranging from sub-micron to 100's of microns in size.. For a perspective on the size of a micron, 25 microns = .001" or 50 microns is about the diameter of a human hair. Cigarette smoke particles run from about .01 to 1 micron in size.
Many filter, engine, and hydraulic equipment companies do not recognise micron ratings as significant and specifically recommend the use of "Beta ratio" in selecting a filter to meet system requirements. Beta ratio (multi-pass test method) ANSI/B93.31-1973, ISO 4572-1981; this is the only test accepted by ANSI and ISO. It is the industry standard for measurement of efficiency.
The Beta ratio is determined by counting the number of particles over a given size upstream of the filter and dividing that number by the number of particles over the given size downstream of the filter. Simply put, a nominal 2 micron filter may only capture 94% of 2 micron particles, 98% of particles 10 microns, and close to 100% of particles above 10 microns. A Caterpillar spec filter (one of their most modern "last chance" filters on a very expensive engine (about £75,000) - CAT P/N 1R-0749) has these ratings: 100 GPH maximum flow with Beta ratings as follows: 2 microns at 96.5%, 3 microns at 97.8% and 10 microns at 99%.
I truly believe that a company like Caterpillar would only use the best filtration technology available to protect their engines, and I would like to see Racor subscribe to a much more widely accepted filtration rating for their filters and not just use name recognition for their marketing hype. I'm not a big Racor fan as many of my past posts will confirm, but I am a believer in using modern filtration methods and, more importantly, the most modern filtration media.
Please please do not be offended the Walbro pump and general idea is great, however the execution worries me.
Let me take some time explaining where I am coming from when it come to selecting fuel filters.
The "micron rating" of fuel filters is a very simple way of allowing someone to select one of the requirements for filtration. I've learned that a nominal micron rating is not necessarily the best way of choosing correct filtration. Micron rating should only be used to categorise the media since the ratings were developed based on single-pass efficiency tests using uniform spherical particles as a system contaminant. In real life, diesel fuel contains contaminants of various sizes ranging from sub-micron to 100's of microns in size.. For a perspective on the size of a micron, 25 microns = .001" or 50 microns is about the diameter of a human hair. Cigarette smoke particles run from about .01 to 1 micron in size.
Many filter, engine, and hydraulic equipment companies do not recognise micron ratings as significant and specifically recommend the use of "Beta ratio" in selecting a filter to meet system requirements. Beta ratio (multi-pass test method) ANSI/B93.31-1973, ISO 4572-1981; this is the only test accepted by ANSI and ISO. It is the industry standard for measurement of efficiency.
The Beta ratio is determined by counting the number of particles over a given size upstream of the filter and dividing that number by the number of particles over the given size downstream of the filter. Simply put, a nominal 2 micron filter may only capture 94% of 2 micron particles, 98% of particles 10 microns, and close to 100% of particles above 10 microns. A Caterpillar spec filter (one of their most modern "last chance" filters on a very expensive engine (about £75,000) - CAT P/N 1R-0749) has these ratings: 100 GPH maximum flow with Beta ratings as follows: 2 microns at 96.5%, 3 microns at 97.8% and 10 microns at 99%.
I truly believe that a company like Caterpillar would only use the best filtration technology available to protect their engines, and I would like to see Racor subscribe to a much more widely accepted filtration rating for their filters and not just use name recognition for their marketing hype. I'm not a big Racor fan as many of my past posts will confirm, but I am a believer in using modern filtration methods and, more importantly, the most modern filtration media.
vyv_cox
Well-Known Member
To add to that, use of copper with hydrocarbons is often not a good idea. See this post earlier today http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?t=254309 Copper can also cause severe oil foaming in crankcases.
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Pete7
Well-Known Member
Yes and here is one in the process being built last Spring. CAV filter on the front facet pump mounted on the back. I now filter the tank once a year.
The pump flows 110Lph for 1.6 amps.
Pete
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pvb
Well-Known Member
Don't most fuel tank installations utilise copper tubing?
vyv_cox
Well-Known Member
Not sure about that, mine certainly doesn't. Problem with a fuel polishing system in copper is that the fuel gets considerable exposure to it.
