Fuel Polishing ??

Bazzer said:
Has anyone had any dealings with these fuel polishing devices, it makes sense to fit one that you have for ever rather than have for it to polished once ?

http://landauuk.com/news/6/20/MLS-Fuel-Purifier

any suggestions
Click to expand...

The question I would be asking is: What do they give over and above just building your own from an electrically driven fuel pump and the primary filter system of your choice?
 
Is it expensive enough to make you feel you've bought a quality item for your treasured possession? ;)

How many filters could you buy for £400?

Does it smell of snake oil?
 
Has a whiff of snake oil, though i'd like to hear more if manufacturer would explain. Seems to rely on centrifuge principle, but there is no spinner and so it relies just on the fuel flow through the thing. For starters that feels like it could lead to less good results if your fuel flow rate (and therefore fuel velocity through the curved bits inside) is towards the bottom of the range of the unit you choose. I'm not rushing out to buy one but if there were some candid non-spun (see what I did there:D?) analysis of how good it is I'd be interested
 
with regards to water the only way these things works is change of fuel velocity, in the pipes the fuel moves fastish carrying dirt and water with it, when it enters the canister, the velocity slows cos of the big cross section and heavy components will drop, like water and big particles.

However unless regularly drained any water trapped will grow bugs. the former unit has a place for a water sensor listed as an extra unless you buy this as well there is no protection.===snake oil ish really you could make your own.
 
It appears to be an line separator, simply treating the fuel flow to the engine.

My set up is an electric fuel pump (Holley 12v) drawing fuel through a Baldwin separator filter. I have a few whistles and bells so I can draw and return from and to either tank, plus I can backflush the pick up lines should I manage to collect a slug of crud, and I can also use this feature to prime the main pre-filters or on engine filters after change of element. If I run very low I can use the pump to transfer whats left into one tank.

Having the polisher means I don't wedge the tanks for Winter, and this year I expect the drop in fuel price has saved me more than the cost of the polishing system. I have never suffered fuel contamination issues by keeping the fuel clean and dry.

Details at turbo36.wordpress.com/improvements

All up including the instant dripless connectors about £250.
 
I installed my own fuel polishing unit on my Hardy and will do the same on my Mitchell... such a simple installation

4915670_20150119083806382_2_LARGE.jpg
 
Having looked at fitting a fuel polishing unit to Play d'eau (a Fleming 55 - www.playdeau.com), two main points emerged.

First, was that the fuel in the tanks is kept polished reasonably well by the return overspill diesel from the engines. This fuel has been passed through both the primary and fine filters before being returned. The cycle continues for as long as the engine runs keeping the fuel reasonably polished.

Second, the main issue that effects us all is any water, dead bug and other deposits that fall out of the fuel as time goes by. This sits on the bottom of the tank and tends to be awakened and mixed with the 'polished' fuel as the boat starts to move about in an emotional sea.

To cure this layer of rubbish on the bottom of the tank, we would need a system that sucked fuel from the tank, say from midway down the tank, passed it through a filter, and blasted it back into the base of the tank at such a flow rate to stir up the rubbish. The rubbish would then be sucked out, polished, and returned. The cycle would continue until the filer showed no more deposit on the filter or water in the bowl.

Retro-fitting such a system to Play d'eau's fuel tanks isn't really possible without major surgery. With baffles in the tanks, the job would need to cut into each in the four tanks and their baffles to position the return outlets correctly to achieve the objective.

Thankfully, in 12 years of cruising, and in really some horrid sea states when one knows this is the time when the 'crud' is being stirred up, we've never suffered a missed heart beat. Maybe it's because we choose our refuelling stations carefully. Maybe it's because we treat the fuel at every fill up and again at the end and start of each season, changing treatments every so often so bugs don't become tolerant.
 
Piers as always makes some very good points, the system on my Hardy sucks from the bottom of the tank and deposits at the top - great thinking to deposit at the bottom to "stir up" any low lying sediment, but I still think feeding from the bottom is good, something I will have a play with on my Mitchell, as my Hardy is for sale I will leave that idea for the next owner.. Other points about good fuel management is certainly something to look at, and if you are falling down in this area this is what needs looking at well before any fuel polishing system is installed.
 
Something I want to explore this year is being able to lower a long metal pipe into each tank and somehow to suck fuel out to see if there's anything nasty lurking in the depths. Thankfully, my filler caps have straight access to the tanks. Hopefully all will be clear, but something I'll maybe find something nasty...If I do, the question becomes how on earth do I treat it?
 
going through my Mitchell paperwork there were 3 invoices from marine fuel doctor for some eye watering amounts to clean fuel tanks. Previous owners had it done every other year. When I asked if they had the treatment done as they had fuel bug they said absolutely not, but they considered it a necessary precaution they chose to take, but the boat was already equipped with a Racor FG900 fuel filter with water monitoring system. To be honest it seemed overkill to me especially considering the boat was very regularly used... But Piers, if you find anything horrid then a shock dose of whatever fuel treatment you use would normally do the trick, if you then re-tested and still found nasty bits in there then a professional tank clean would probably have to be the answer, and I don't really need to say the obvious, but for your tanks that wouldn't be cheap...
 
Piers said:
Something I want to explore this year is being able to lower a long metal pipe into each tank and somehow to suck fuel out to see if there's anything nasty lurking in the depths. Thankfully, my filler caps have straight access to the tanks. Hopefully all will be clear, but something I'll maybe find something nasty...If I do, the question becomes how on earth do I treat it?
Click to expand...

MB&Y April 2011 - " wipe out .....Grotomar 82, Marine 16......then prolonged use of .....Soltron.

Personally, I use Fuel Set: never had a problem but might not have had without.

ATB,

John G
 
Firefly625 said:
going through my Mitchell paperwork there were 3 invoices from marine fuel doctor for some eye watering amounts to clean fuel tanks. Previous owners had it done every other year. When I asked if they had the treatment done as they had fuel bug they said absolutely not, but they considered it a necessary precaution they chose to take, but the boat was already equipped with a Racor FG900 fuel filter with water monitoring system. To be honest it seemed overkill to me especially considering the boat was very regularly used... But Piers, if you find anything horrid then a shock dose of whatever fuel treatment you use would normally do the trick, if you then re-tested and still found nasty bits in there then a professional tank clean would probably have to be the answer, and I don't really need to say the obvious, but for your tanks that wouldn't be cheap...
Click to expand...

I think you are absolutely right in your recommendation - and the potential cost! Thanks for the info.
 
Firefly625 said:
Other points about good fuel management is certainly something to look at, and if you are falling down in this area this is what needs looking at well before any fuel polishing system is installed.
Click to expand...
And I think burning ths stuff is also quite a good trick...
 
There is a very simple cure to dirt in the tank and this is something called a tank bulb and is something I designed for heavy plant many decades ago, it is merely a round metal bulb which connects to the bottom of the fuel tank below the fuel pick up pipe, as the diesel sits in the tank the crud settles to the bottom and as most tanks have a depression pressed in below the pick up pipe this is the lowest point. I used a standard 1"BSP fitting welded to the bottom of the tank which was fitted with a shut off valve, the bulb screwed onto this.

You merely closed the valve and unscrewed the bulb and took it to somewhere where you could empty the contents out, you could settle it in glass jars as we did to separate the water and crud from the diesel to ascertain water content, or as we had a laboratory we sent it there and they filtered it and settled it. These bulbs caught massive amounts of **** as many of these machines were "site filled" from dirty fuel bowsers or drums of fuel so all the contamination was caught by them and when they were drained the **** was removed.

We found that by doing this that plant stopped suffering from dirt and water in the fuel as it all settled in the bulb and the only thing the drivers/operators had to do was close the valve before starting the engine and starting work and when they finished for the day they opened the valve to let the sediment settle overnight.
 
Yes I can see that your bulb idea would work for heavy plant where fuel tanks are not too tucked away but most boat fuel tanks are fitted low down in the hull in places that are difficult to access for retrofit of modifications.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top