Fuel Set (Fuel treatment for bug etc) Anyone used it?

Matador - no, that was the end of Fuel Set for me. To be fair it may be the amount of water that had got in which was my fault. There is some debate about whether the products that claim to allow the water to dissolve in the diesel are ideal but I dont have any evidence to support that. I use Fuel Doctor now.

It has made me realise how important it is to ensure you dont use contaminated fuel and make sure water cannot get through the cap. I use a diesel filter funnel now. It is a pain because even the largest size doesnt allow the fuel through very quickly, so I test the first few litres to make sure their isnt any rubbish coming with fuel or water. At least that stands a reasonable chance of catching any bad fuel before I have filled the tanks. Pumping 300 gallons and it is important to be as sure as you can.
 
I think you will find that ALL engine manufactures advise against any product that emulsifies large amounts of water. Period. They don't like the idea of burning soap and seawater. Joking aside, the emulsifiers have a reputation for gumming up injectors.

The claims of dispersing micro-amounts of water are basically unproven. Ask them for standardized test results. What follows will be pure obfuscation. The truth is you are FAR better off with a clean break that can be removed in the separator. Ask the engine manufacturer.
 
Thank you for your replies. Have been out to the boat and cleaned more of the white deposit out of the filter bowl. Also drained quite a bit of fuel from the tank which seems fine and clear. Fuel Set have been very helpful and are going to send me some paste which detects water in fuel, so am waiting for that. So it could be condensation formed from when I forgot to top the tank up and with all the hot weather [!] we've been having, or dodgy fuel from the garage. Beta don't recommend the use of any fuel additives. Confusing! Cheers.
 
Matador said:
Thank you for your replies. Have been out to the boat and cleaned more of the white deposit out of the filter bowl. Also drained quite a bit of fuel from the tank which seems fine and clear. Fuel Set have been very helpful and are going to send me some paste which detects water in fuel, so am waiting for that. So it could be condensation formed from when I forgot to top the tank up and with all the hot weather [!] we've been having, or dodgy fuel from the garage. Beta don't recommend the use of any fuel additives. Confusing! Cheers.
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1. Condensation in a few months could not amount to more than ~ 1 ml of water and probably far less.
2. If it were the garage you would not be the only one; there would be a line of customers with pitchforks.

If it is water it is nearly always a leak on-board.
 
Hi, yes silicone grease or vaseline. It's an old aluminium fitting that will seize up given half change with seawater around. Not too much, don't want that in the fuel as well !
 
I have just started using ‘’Clearwinner LA88’’ which I have purchased direct from the makers – contact Alan Stewart
sales@clear-winner.co.uk
0.5litre of the product costs £12 plus vat and treats 1000litres of fuel at 1:2000 dose rate which works out at about 1.5p per litre . It works in the same way as fuel set.
I don’t have any fuel issues so cant report one way or another whether it does any good.

No fuel additive is intended to deal with significant quantities of water in fuel such as from a leaky fuel cap.
 
Yes, the O ring is the first place to look, but it sounds as if that is fine. I agree condensation will not be the cause here. It could be as simple as some bad fuel. As I said earlier do be very cautious that a bumpy passage doesnt stir this up from the bottom of the tank because that is where it collects.
 
All very interesting!
When my dipstick ( and I assume) tank sides started to get a very hard tarry deposit I used marine 16 treatment. Soon after the deposit went but the fuel became black. No amount of polishing even with a fine filter would clear it and neither would it settle out.
The assumption was that the treatment dispersed the tar ( asphaltine ?) into the fuel. I read that the fine suspended particles will pass 'harmlessly' through the engine so am 'risking it' When the tank gets low I will give it a clean out. My other tank was not treated and the fuel remained clean.

I guess that additives may well have these kinds of side effects. Some people avoid any additives and ask why manufacturers don't add their own but , then, our fuel often sits in our tanks for longer periods and modern fuels may be more likely to 'go off'?
 
An obvious tip I didn't think of until someone mentioned it to me:

The simplest, safest way to sump the bottom of the tank for water or junk is your oil change vacuum. It will only pull a gallon or so, but typically, that is all you want to pull! You may need to extend the hose with a bit of stiff metal tubing, or even some copper that you can bend to reach the right corner.

Really funny, since I used to work in refineries where we would use 50 barrel vacuum trucks to sump huge tanks. Same thing, just different scale. I didn't make the connection.
 
thinwater said:
An obvious tip I didn't think of until someone mentioned it to me:

The simplest, safest way to sump the bottom of the tank for water or junk is your oil change vacuum. It will only pull a gallon or so, but typically, that is all you want to pull! You may need to extend the hose with a bit of stiff metal tubing, or even some copper that you can bend to reach the right corner.

Really funny, since I used to work in refineries where we would use 50 barrel vacuum trucks to sump huge tanks. Same thing, just different scale. I didn't make the connection.
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It is a good idea. The issue that does crop up is many larger tanks have baffles so it is difficult to syphon up all the sludge, also this stuff can be quite sticky so it is not that easy to dislodge.

I think that is why the ideal technique is to pump polished fuel back into the tank under pressure to stir everything up properly.
 
ip485 said:
It is a good idea. The issue that does crop up is many larger tanks have baffles so it is difficult to syphon up all the sludge, also this stuff can be quite sticky so it is not that easy to dislodge.

I think that is why the ideal technique is to pump polished fuel back into the tank under pressure to stir everything up properly.
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The pump is just for water.

Recirculating is a better idea, in some circumstances. However, the ideal method will always be to empty and actually clean the tank. Polishing only handles that which is easily suspended. To me, it always feels like an expensive stop gap.
 
thinwater said:
The pump is just for water.

Recirculating is a better idea, in some circumstances. However, the ideal method will always be to empty and actually clean the tank. Polishing only handles that which is easily suspended. To me, it always feels like an expensive stop gap.
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So long as your polishing or cleaning system is more effective at removing the dirt or water than your engine system is, it's good.
In my view, the object is not to have the tank surgically clean once in 3 years, it's to keep it always clean enough that the dirt and water will never be too much for the filters to handle.
Also it's good to always know what state the fuel is in.
I just want to know that if the tank gets shaken up by a choppy sea, the engine will keep going.
 
I used fuel set, in several thousand litres of fuel a year. One basic sedimenter and the regulation two Crosland 522s on the engine. Never any problems, but bear in mind the Ford dover doesn't suffer much anyway.
 
I have tried the water detection paste in the fuel tank and fuel from the separator bowl, the paste didn't change colour so there is no water which is good. Still not sure about continuing to use fuel set though [20 quid!!] and Beta advised against it. It would be good to know for certain what caused the outbreak of white gunk.
 
Matador said:
Hi, yes silicone grease or vaseline. It's an old aluminium fitting that will seize up given half change with seawater around. Not too much, don't want that in the fuel as well !
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Quite a cocktail of chemistry.
Diesel
Additives
Aluminium corrosion
Water
Silicone
Vaseline.
Salt.

I'd suggest simplifying life by buying a decent deck fitting in plastic instead of additives.
 
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