Filtering old diesel

[Woodpile]

I've got a couple of auxiliary fuel tanks holding 5-600 litres of diesel. They were last filled at least six years ago, possibly a lot longer, and the fuel has just sat there ever since.

The main tanks recently came out and were bleached and steam cleaned etc - to get rid of a major bug colony that developed over the same period - so I'm now wondering what to do with the old fuel in the aux tanks. I don't envisage using the tanks again in the foreseeable future, but I'd like to filter and transfer the fuel by pumping it slowly through one of those micro-porous filter funnels that are supposed to prevent water and bacteria/solids passing through. Would this be safe with fuel that is likely to be heavily contaminated? And how old does diesel have to be before my Gardner 6LXs won't run on it anyway?

Cheers
Chris

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[Peterduck]

When I bought my boat there was a fair amount of fuel in the tanks [not unreasonably] and it was a deep gold colour, not the usual pale straw colour. I rang Shell Technical Enquiries to find if there is a shelf life for diesel fuel. They were not aware of one. The micro-porous filter sounds like a good idea anyway, and I wish that we could get them here. I would have to rely on lining a funnel with chamois cloth and pouring through that.
Peter.

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[tcm]

You can just cycle the fuel through a filter, over and over again, and i think big ships do this. I don't think there's a limit in terms of age of the fuel- if the stuff gets through the filters it is good enough to burn. I don't believe that its all finely-tuned science - whack it through nozzles at high pressure and bang, it pushes the crank down, that's it. It is said by the fuel fairies that adding Soltron will break down the gooy bacteria and make it more able to pass thru the filters, and this might well be true. Age-wise, note that most diesel is about a billion years old anyway...

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[Woodpile]

Thanks chaps - I suppose what I really need to know is whether passing the stuff once through one of those hand held filter funnel devices like a Racor would remove everything I need to worry about? Water, bugs, sludge, etc...

Chris

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[tcm]

the answer is "yes probably". water will seprate, and the chances are that al lthe other visible gunk will also separate and fall to the bottom. So, i wd decant to smaller see-through containers if poss, then decanting the stuff through filter (else if dump the lot straight thru filter you may clog it up) into your tanks, then tip some soltron in , then top up with newer diesel. Note that any boat which has not utterly emptied its tank will always have a bit of quite ancient fuel in. Not to much soltron cos it costs a sodding fortune.

<hr width=100% size=1>

 

[DepSol]

Racor filters have a film coating that aids the seperation of water and work better on breaking up sludge and slime than say a Separ 2000 which acts as a centrifuge aswell as a filter and does not break up larger soft particles aswell as the Racor.

If you can get you r hands on a ships centrifuge, even a small one then this would be best.

<hr width=100% size=1>Dom

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.soltron.co.uk>the website</A>

 

[tcm]

a franchise across the med "interlube" (and mebbe others surely) do a service in some places where they come alongside, take out all the diesel, centrifuge and pump back in. probly not worth it if fule is cheap/red.

<hr width=100% size=1>