Using old deisel

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miles from the sea

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Unfortunately our local marina fuelling pontoon at Wolveston was out of action so I was unable to fill the tank before my boat came out for the winter. I have a 10 litre reserve of deisel in a plastic container which is now 4 years old and I was wondering if it would still be ok to use this before several trips to the garage to fill the rest of the main tank. If not where can I dispose of the redundant fuel in the Ipswich area?
 
miles from the sea said:
Unfortunately our local marina fuelling pontoon at Wolveston was out of action so I was unable to fill the tank before my boat came out for the winter. I have a 10 litre reserve of deisel in a plastic container which is now 4 years old and I was wondering if it would still be ok to use this before several trips to the garage to fill the rest of the main tank. If not where can I dispose of the redundant fuel in the Ipswich area?
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I have never had a problem with old diesel fuel. My own experience, backed by much evidence, is you do not need to fill your tank before laying up unless it is a steel tank that will rust internally on any surface is left uncoated with diesel for long periods.

Www.solocoastalsailing.co.uk
 
If it is red diesel it should be fine. but be careful of bio fuels which break down much more quickly than mineral oils.

Last year I was in Germany where marinas/ports [Cuxhaven and Sassnitz] proudly proclaimed that the fuel was bio fuel. However in Denmark [Gedser] a sign on their diesel tank stated that it contained no bio fuel. Always liked the Danes, happiest people in the world, must be because they are so pragmatic.

I always try and get as much white diesel out of my tank as possible before filling up with red diesel for the winter lay up.
 
When my steel hull arrived I filled the tank with 90 gallons of diesel (I'm pretty sure it was red) to avoid condensation and corrosion. It took eight years to complete the boat (I had a day job as well!) and at the end of that time the fuel was absolutely fine. Use Red Diesel and you won't have a problem.

Paul
 
I would fill your tank now because, particularly in steel tanks, there is moisture in the air above the fuel and as the temperature rises and falls through the winter the tank "breaths" through the breather pipe. More moisture gets drawn in and condensation forms inside the tank and collects as water in the bottom. Always fill the tank right to the top at the beginning of a winter's lay-up......... I always do and have never had a problem with "old" fuel the following season.

Paul
 
My understanding is that red diesel is white diesel plus an indicating dye.So unless, a special 'base' grade of diesel is provided ,there is nothing to preclude the presence of a bio content in red diesel.
 
I wouldn't be concerned at all about the old red diesel. And not excessively worried about the tank being completely full.
Some fuel treatment added when you put the old diesel in might be a good plan .
 
Well,OK Paul,my understanding on red diesel has certainly been improved by your authoritative attachment,although ironically it confirms that CPS and others in the industry have started to use the EN590 higher cetane,bio containing base fuel ,downgraded it for revenue purposes,marked it red and sold it as red diesel.
So if you are trying to avoid a bio element in your fuel,as some do,you would need clarification at the pump,as mentioned above.
 
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bluerm166 said:
Well,OK Paul,my understanding on red diesel has certainly been improved by your authoritive attachment,although ironically it confirms that CPS and others in the industry have started to use the EN590 higher octane,bio containing base fuel ,downgraded it for revenue purposes,marked it red and sold it as red diesel.
So if you are trying to avoid a bio element in your fuel,as some do,you would need clarification at the pump,as mentioned above.
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Supermarket etc red will almost certainly be ULSD and contain some bio fuel. If buying from a marina, you'd have to ask as a lot of marinas said they'd stick class D when the changes were made.
 
bluerm166 said:
although ironically it confirms that CPS and others in the industry have started to use the EN590 higher octane,bio containing base fuel ,downgraded it for revenue purposes,marked it red and sold it as red diesel.
.
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I wonder is we are confusing octane and cetane number here. Octane and Cetane numbers are really the inverse of each other. Octane measures a fuel's ability not to self ignite under pressure, in your reciprocating engine small aircraft you do not want your engine misfiring as your fuel air mixture is being compressed on the up stroke. The Cetane number on the other hand allows the fuel to self ignite as the fuel air mixture is compressed. Because the moment of self ignition is controlled by your fuel pump not the actual amount of compression. In an old worn engine you want as high a cetane number as you can get.

Just thought I would add this bit of pedantry seeing pedantry was allowed in the up/down argument.
 
Hi,

I would take issue with one point in the otherwise excellent presentation by the guy from ASAP. HE stared that present day diesel contains 12% bio diesel. While, thanks to EU regulations, this is true of road diesel, it is not so for marine diesel supplied by most UK marinas. Bio diesel is technically known as Fatty Acid Methyl Ester or FAME. I have been aware since the EU regulations came in that some marinas were supplying FAME free diesel. A couple of years ago, a discussion on the Moody Owners Association website prompted many of their members to enquire of marinas the nature of the dieselnthey supply and the vast majority of answers were FAME free, low sulphur. So it appears that the ASAP guy is correct on the absence of sulphur in our red diesel supply, but not on the presence of bio diesel.

Peter.
 
I gave up after a couple of minutes waffle about figures taken off the RNLI website and 'the majority of them problems.' 30 minutes of murdered English doesn't appeal ;-)
 
Gunfleet said:
I gave up after a couple of minutes waffle about figures taken off the RNLI website and 'the majority of them problems.' 30 minutes of murdered English doesn't appeal ;-)
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A very informative talk and not everyone was in the debating society at school, old boy ;-)
 
As far as the farming community is concerned, our red diesel contains bio, and we have been advised to ensure that winter supplies have an extra anti-waxing agent added before chucking it into tractors and off-road vehicles. Otherwise below -5 the filters block up with wax.

Not that -5 ever happens on my boat, you understand :)
 
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