Fuel contamination

[tcm]

My name is tcm and i think I have contaminated fuel. The boat is only a year old, and has one large tank, which could hold I suppose 6300 litres. I could have taken on the dodgy fuel, or i supose it might have gone dodgy itself, maybe since I have never had less than 500 litres.

Anyway. The engines have stopped now three times, each time cleared by disturbing the tank by either adding more fuel or by blowing an airline upstream from the first (in direction of flow) of four inline filters. The contaminent seem to be sort of gungy "flakes" which look solid, but feel like oil.

Now, a friend has recommended that a good way of solving the problem once and for all would be to use as much of the fuel as possible, then get a bloke to suck all the fuel out, filter it and then plonk it back in. I have no idea what this might cost, though i suppose it can't be more expensive than new fuel, can it? The advantage of this method is that at least I am pretty much guaranteed to have a clean tank and fuel.

Alternatively, is there a chemical additive that might dissolve the gunge? What? How much does it cost to treat the fuel? I currently have 2000 litres of fuel on board. Trouble with this approach is that it has no guarantee, really.

I don't seek more power - just want rid of the contamination.

Ideas please.






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[Guest]

You need to go along to your nearest Diesel Bug Victims Anonymous meeting. I think there is some kind of 12 step self help program involving S******

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[MedDreamer]

Has anyone noticed the resemblence between postee TCM who has a "fuel contamination" problem and TCM the raging postee having a go at Depsol and Soltron.

Could they be, by any chance, related.

I think we should be told

<hr width=100% size=1>Martyn

 

[jimi]

TCM, just take it a day at a time and it will get better, it will never go away completely but you might be able to get some sort of control. Excessive addictive behaviour in other forums may be expectorated though! Apparently one way to solve the problem is to keep your fuel in the fridge

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[PhilCool]

If this is really a problem and the tank is easily accessible then you might want to have your tank steam cleaned and start with fresh fuel and filters.
Only an opinion....

Phil


<hr width=100% size=1>Sun Coast Sea School & Charter

 

[jhr]

Sell it

Go on, do it now while it's still shiny & new. Don't wait for the ashtrays to fill up; it will all be downhill from now on.

Replace it with a nice little fisherman's "pointu" (there are loads moored round the corner from you) which you can row home when the engine goes phut.

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[tcm]

but but, you said the soltron worked? anyway, i think steam cleaning is going a bit ott? and then there'll be a load of water in the tank too, no? some of the filters are self-cleaning others I can replace.

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[PhilCool]

Is this a wind up?
I said that the results have made a difference when added or something like that, this is not to say it has worked it might be just the frequent fuelling had a major part.
And to the steam cleaning they do dry the tanks out and it sounds like you a quite a problem that any additive you try might struggle with it.

Phil


<hr width=100% size=1>Sun Coast Sea School & Charter

 

[wakeup]

The first step in road to receovery

is to admit publicly you have a problem. Well done , you are no longer in denial.

You must confront and excercise your demons and buy a load of solly and it must come from a well know source in Guernsey.

Then you must regularly bore us all with anecdotes of more MPG, higher performance and a cleaner backside than ever before. But what ever you do don't confuse us simpletons on here with facts and data because we might make up our own minds before buying a single drop. Then raise your hands skyward and shout 'I believe'.

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[jfm]

TCM as I recall the fuel tank is pretty permanently glassed in, but with an inspection plate. Can you remember how big the insp plate is?

I'm thinking, mebbe raz down to machine mart and buy a big industrial pump and crud filter, plus two pipes, a suck and a squirt. Stick both pipes in tank thru the insp hatch and just leave the pump running for a day. Should easily be able to pass 2000 litres through the filter about 20 times. This should pull out the crud. Then dose with a chemical (or non chemical....) to kill any bugs. Needs a fairly industrial solution methinks

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[tcm]

ooh i like the idea of buying yet another contraption for my seagoing shed. I can add this to the monster boltcutters i bought recentluy which are 4 feet long and probly good for cutting away lampposts and masts.



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[tcm]

no, not a windup, sorry.

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[hlb]

Sounds to me that all these gobbles of gunk have been in there since it was built. A look see in the tank would not be a bad idea.. One tank feeding two engines is not the best idea. Hence the problem. Like some one said. Use all thefuel up then pump out the rest. Then have a look see. In the mean time go on a diet till can fit through hole. Then sweep up and hoover!

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Haydn

 

[DepSol]

Re: The first step in road to receovery

No dont buy it from Guernsey, I urge all of you not to buy the 'well known' from Guernsey ok. Every time you lot come over here I end up giving it away.

Especially you Piers your tanks must be 3 x the size of your last boat.

<hr width=100% size=1>Dom

2003 is going to be a good year for me

 

[markc]

I had the bug in the last boat - blocked up filters & seperators. The culprit was a black stringy snot like substance. I put loads of Fuel Set in each fill up and kept filters handy - after 3 tankfuls and about 10 sets of filters problem went away and never returned. Depends if you can be bothered with all the filter changes.

M

<hr width=100% size=1>http://www.geocities.com/jinto100/Jintopics.html

 

[tcm]

oright, wot sort of pump eh? cozs the daft git at the local pump shop s say ah yes sir here a pump with a filter on the end

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[boatone]

Where are you finding these 'flakes' and what colour are they? Are they anything like wax?

<hr width=100% size=1><A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.boatsontheweb.com/galleryframes.html> BoatsOnTheWeb, Photo Gallery, Chat Room</A>

 

[jfm]

detailed spec for pump shop

Dunno. I'll have a look round and revert. Obviously a big bugger with cooling fins, metallic paint, german writing, recessed allen heads and a nice whuuuuoooor noise, but beyond that I haven't worked out the detailed spec

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[hlb]

Re: detailed spec for pump shop

Oy fink he should do as I did when got five gallon of water in diesel. Fix a tap and pipe to tank drain plug hole. You can buy an inline pump, si fix that in there. Pump all the diesel and hopefully all the mess will go through the plug hole and into fourty five gallon drums. Through in some fresh diesel and then pump that out. If you use clear pipe you can see the lumps wizzing past. When lumps stop wizzing past, it should be clean. Then filter the fourty five gallon drums back in at leasure.

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Haydn

 

[tcm]

Re: detailed spec for pump shop

cept i wd need 400 x 5 gallon drums for 200 litres. Mind you, 40 sounds quite a performance. I think i need a bilge pump andin fact i am quite cheesed off that there is no intrinsic setup involving levers and valves already in place.

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