Engine rebuild, keep or discard existing diesel in tank?

J

Johnny WAFI

Member
Joined
10 May 2023
Messages
28
Visit site
Hi all

I had an engine rebuild to my Bukh 20 over winter. The fuel tank was removed The yard says it binned my 70 litres of fresh diesel (which I had treated with Marine 16). They didn't tell me at the time. Obviously there may have been some water and sludge at the bottom but surely the top 50 or 60 litres would have been fine? Given the option I would have decanted the diesel into 20 litre Jerry cans using a funnel with a fine mesh filter. Any polite opinions on whether this was a customary sensible precaution by the engineer or a needless waste (or even misappropriation ) of my diesel?

Regards

Johnny
 
The cost of 70 l diesel is a drop in the ocean compared to having an engine removed, rebuilt and refitted. I assume you didn't give your engineer any instructions regarding the fuel tank, and it would appear he did a proper job and ensured the rebuilt engine had fresh fuel. My only question would be did he clean the tank as well?
 
Johnny WAFI said:
Hi all

I had an engine rebuild to my Bukh 20 over winter. The fuel tank was removed The yard says it binned my 70 litres of fresh diesel (which I had treated with Marine 16). They didn't tell me at the time. Obviously there may have been some water and sludge at the bottom but surely the top 50 or 60 litres would have been fine? Given the option I would have decanted the diesel into 20 litre Jerry cans using a funnel with a fine mesh filter. Any polite opinions on whether this was a customary sensible precaution by the engineer or a needless waste (or even misappropriation ) of my diesel?

Regards

Johnny
Click to expand...

They did the correct thing, better to start with fresh new diesel.
 
Kwik Decision said:
The cost of 70 l diesel is a drop in the ocean compared to having an engine removed, rebuilt and refitted. I assume you didn't give your engineer any instructions regarding the fuel tank, and it would appear he did a proper job and ensured the rebuilt engine had fresh fuel. My only question would be did he clean the tank as well?
Click to expand...
Thank you for the reply. I believe he did clean the tank. I have confidence generally in the engineer but I have had various issues some very vague and expensive invoices from the yard manager.
 
jakew009 said:
The reality is the labour cost of sorting out the old diesel was probably greater than the value of the diesel.

It would have perhaps been polite for them to offer you the old diesel they drained out back, with a friendly warning that it was not suitable for putting back in 🙂
Click to expand...
A very helpful reply. Thank you.
 
Johnny WAFI said:
Hi all

I had an engine rebuild to my Bukh 20 over winter. The fuel tank was removed The yard says it binned my 70 litres of fresh diesel (which I had treated with Marine 16). They didn't tell me at the time. Obviously there may have been some water and sludge at the bottom but surely the top 50 or 60 litres would have been fine? Given the option I would have decanted the diesel into 20 litre Jerry cans using a funnel with a fine mesh filter. Any polite opinions on whether this was a customary sensible precaution by the engineer or a needless waste (or even misappropriation ) of my diesel?

Regards

Johnny
Click to expand...
Hi all

I accept the wisdom of the 3 replies, so no others required please. If only social media could be this civilised!
 
jakew009 said:
The reality is the labour cost of sorting out the old diesel was probably greater than the value of the diesel.

It would have perhaps been polite for them to offer you the old diesel they drained out back, with a friendly warning that it was not suitable for putting back in 🙂
Click to expand...

Utter tosh !! OP already said it was M16 treated .. so a reasonable filter and use it ..
 
If you had asked the yard to clean out the tank then I can understand that the diesel in the tank would be disposed of (after checking with you first). Otherwise I would suggest they exceeded their remit. If they were replacing the tank then I would expect the loss of any 'old' diesel.
 
I am with Refuler here filter and treat the diesel is all that was needed.

Petrol is a different matter as there are volutes that could evaporate and reduce the effective
 
When I had my two 60 Gallon diesel tanks cleaned by a contractor, I told them to keep the old fuel as I would be filling with fresh at the start of the next season. I did not want the hassle of decanting, filtering, and refilling, nor did I want to pay for that service. I just wanted the old fuel out and gone and the tanks left clean and empty.

I appreciate that there are options to keep, filter and reuse fuel, these are not the only options. In my case, it was convenience, especially as I had other things to do over the winter.
 
I enquired about a boatyard pumping out the small amount of fuel in my tank, as I wanted to attempt to clean the tank, and to my surprise they said they could pump it out and dispose of it, but didn't have the means to store or polish it before returning it.

I'd certainly be miffed if a boatyard threw away 70 litres of fuel with checking with me first, but I've had worse instances of yards doing unasked for and/or inappropriately extravagant work.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top