To empty, or not?

[jimi]

I recall talking to a chemist from the marine fuel lab in Hamburg who said adding a couple of litres of unleaded petrol to my diesel tank would eliminate diesel bug as lead substitute is a powerful biocide.

 

[Nito]

I’ve heard of this years ago to stop diesel waxing, however I understand adding petrol is a big no no with modern high pressure diesel systems.

 

[Nito]

How does the panel suggest for disposal? There is a very handy drain nearby ?

Ink

Gift it to your local mobo, who will be very grateful

 

[PeteLivez]

Drained my tank and put it in my van. Cleaned tank and filled with fresh treated Diesel.

 

[Nito]

We’ve now fitted our Marship diesel dipper.

I’ve yet to run it at sea, but after 4 hours in port to cycle the current 500L tank contents at least once, this is the sludge that came out...

Apparently the movement at sea will dislodge and mobilise much more gunk off the walls of the tank and we’ll soon see how it gets on. The stuff is disgusting, the closest I can liken it to is thick gravy...

After a quick shake you can see it sliming it’s way slowly down the bottle...

and next to some clean diesel for reference...

 

[PeteLivez]

In this month's Yachting Monthly in the letters page there is a letter with the above title asking whether diesel tanks should be emptied over winter or not.

The gist of one of the respondents is that yachts carry such small amounts of diesel that tanks should be drained and left empty and refilled with fresh diesel in the spring.

It doesn't say what happens to the diesel that is drained off, but another respondent stated that for small amounts, disposal may be a safer option.

My tank is half full with about 70 litres of red diesel. I have no space to drain and either store it or dispose off it. Access to non road diesel would be a chore to go back and forward to the nearest filling station with a Jerry can and fill up with 20 liters a time (4 trips).

How does the panel suggest for disposal? There is a very handy drain nearby ?

Ink

Stick it in your car. I put about 7 gallons of red in no worries.

 

[Ink]

Stick it in your car. I put about 7 gallons of red in no worries.

No worries that the engine continued to operate, or, no worries about the red dye staining you injector pump and fuel lines, or, no worries about breaking the law ??

I'm now just sitting here reading about the next scare from Yachting Monthly in that they are now saying 40% of our tanks are likely to be full of Carboxylic Acid. Jeez I can't even pronounce it!

Ink

 

[geem]

Would you use fuel that old in your car?

I left my car for two years. When I got home it started first time. Took it straight for an MOT. It passed emmision test and everything else no problem.

 

[thinwater]

Too much work.

But if you want to protect the diesel from moisture and excessive air circulation, add a silica gel vent filter.
H2OUT

Even more important for e10 gasoline. I've used them for a dceade (my own design, though).

As an aside, in the US, most new gasoline power boats now come with carbon canisters. Carbon is all wrong for boats (higher humidity than dry land and poor design by EPA), but siliga gel works well both to conserve volitiles and keep the water out (the ethanol helps it self-regenerate). Lasts ~ 3 years before the media needs to be regenerated on a stove or replaced.

silica gel and gasoline

 

[jwilson]

Stick it in your car. I put about 7 gallons of red in no worries.

Your car will drive fine, but if by chance you get stopped by the HMRC/Highways Agency you might have your car seized, be fined rather more than the cost of the fuel, and in theory at least also get a prison sentence. And only a tiny trace of red left mixed with white is still illegal. They do occasionally pull cars over for "random" checks, though often pick on older Landrovers and pickups.

All last week in Cornwall road diesel appeared to be completely unobtainable. I was faced with possibly having to do a 500 mile journey without nearly enough fuel, and a full 130L tank of red diesel in the boat was starting to look attractive. Fortunately by Sunday I followed an Asda tanker into a fuel station and (hooray) it had diesel in it..... By the time I left there was a huge queue.

 

[Frogmogman]

We’ve now fitted our Marship diesel dipper.

I’ve yet to run it at sea, but after 4 hours in port to cycle the current 500L tank contents at least once, this is the sludge that came out...

Apparently the movement at sea will dislodge and mobilise much more gunk off the walls of the tank and we’ll soon see how it gets on. The stuff is disgusting, the closest I can liken it to is thick gravy...

After a quick shake you can see it sliming it’s way slowly down the bottle...

and next to some clean diesel for reference...

That sounds like a brilliant piece of kit. Do please keep us informed about how you get on with it over time. Did you fit it yourself ?

 

[Sandy]

All last week in Cornwall road diesel appeared to be completely unobtainable. I was faced with possibly having to do a 500 mile journey without nearly enough fuel, and a full 130L tank of red diesel in the boat was starting to look attractive. Fortunately by Sunday I followed an Asda tanker into a fuel station and (hooray) it had diesel in it..... By the time I left there was a huge queue.

Devon has also had a shortage due to panic buying, I can't think why.

 

[Nito]

That sounds like a brilliant piece of kit. Do please keep us informed about how you get on with it over time. Did you fit it yourself ?

I’ll certainly be keeping this thread updated. Yes I fitted it myself, almost embarrassingly I received it in 12th November and it has taken me until the 20th feb to complete it and fire it up. I’d spent a few weekends trying to find the best place to mount it and the least intrusive method while trying to make it look factory fit like it belonged there all along whilst also not interfering with anything else and ordering up all the various bits to make a clean install.

All the wiring is in conduits and even the stainless fixings have expensive nordlock washers to prevent the tapped machine screws from backing out of the hard timber verticals that the stand off brackets are fitted to (which I measured up and mocked up in cardboard first).

As mentioned above, there’s a 3/8 line in and out to connect, 2 wires and four screws to fit it lol.

Talk about making a meal of something, I’d be hopeless if I had to make a living out of it

Conveniently it’s connected to the Generator battery, so if I want to, I can turn it on or off from the top deck from the genny battery isolator switch or from it’s own switch. It’s rubber mounted on av washers too so you can’t hear it topside making it easy to let it run while stopped

edit: oops getting my threads crossed, there is more info on this in the mobo section of the forum under diesel bug and the diesel dipper which should be on the first page there.