What to do with 4 year old red diesel, that has fuel bug?

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NealB

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Our old motor boat has been ashore, ignored, for 4 years now.

The fuel seems to have bug (ie quite a lot of black gunge in the first filters, and the stuff from the bottom of the tanks has an unpleasant, pungent smell).

I've drained both tanks down, and will tomorrow set about a thorough clean of the tanks' innards.

Hmmmmm ..... so .......what should I do with the four year old red diesel?

So far, I've allowed it to settle in various containers.

Options seem to be:

- chuck it away (sorry, I mean, dispose of it sensibly and responsibly) and replace (and then make sure that the boat gets some use)

- skim off the clean looking top stuff, discard the mucky bottom layer

- a seriously heavy dosing of the whole lot, with something like Marine 16 diesel treatment, then re-use

- pay to have it professionally treated

Thanks for any tips.
 
Some car garages used to have a oil fired boiler for their heating. They used the " free to them " old engine oil.
Perhaps you have a local garage that can take it and burn it.
 
I took some old engine oil to our local dump but the receptacle there for it was full.

I was told to put it in the large skip for non recyclables. It will get burned with all the rest in there I was told.

So have a word with your dump. They could be helpful.
 
I had about 40 Litres contaminated once. I tried most of what you said – skimming, filtering more than once, and diesel additive treatment. But I was still very suspicious of it even though it looked quite clean. Eventually I gave it to a neighbour who recycles contaminated oils for vehicle fuel.
 
Is this from your Seamaster? So less than 200 litres probably. I'd get rid of it; the potential cost and inconvenience of trying to re-use it isn't economically worthwhile.
 
I would let it settle then use the clean stuff from the top.
If you keep it in sealed cans you should be able to check it just before pouring it into the tank to be used.
If you're not going to need it within say 6 months, look for someone to take it off your hands for a generator, eberspacher, garden tractor or whatever.
 
MarkCX said:
How much diesel are you talking about?
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pvb said:
Is this from your Seamaster? So less than 200 litres probably. I'd get rid of it; the potential cost and inconvenience of trying to re-use it isn't economically worthwhile.
Click to expand...

Yes, it's the dear old Seamaster.

I haven't, quite, got the tanks absolutely empty as yet (that's the first job tomorrow moring),but there must be close to 300 litres.
 
Thanks for all the replies.

Much wisdom to ponder there.

My personal favourite, being a tight bastard, is to filter, treat, refilter and use, though, as pvb, Halo and dutydog, wisely suggest, that could be the road to regrets, annoyance and lots of swearing!
 
You have two issues, the bug itself and the crud. The treatment should kill the bug reliably, as long as you are then using clean storage and lines and going on to use the fuel reasonably soon.

For the crud, if you start by letting it settle and skimming off the top, and you're going to filter, surely you should be ok? If you are using a filter cartridge externally, maybe start with a new one and dissect it after? If it comes about reasonably clean, you've done ok.

But wouldn't you nuke it before filtering, not vice versa?
 
Get rid of it!* And thoroughly clean the tank(s), filters and pipework

Cos if you don't you risk ongoing bug problems which could end up costing a lot more than the value of 300b litres of diesel

* Message me and I'll let you into a local secret on getting rid! :)
 
RJJ said:
You have two issues, the bug itself and the crud. The treatment should kill the bug reliably, as long as you are then using clean storage and lines and going on to use the fuel reasonably soon.

For the crud, if you start by letting it settle and skimming off the top, and you're going to filter, surely you should be ok? If you are using a filter cartridge externally, maybe start with a new one and dissect it after? If it comes about reasonably clean, you've done ok.

But wouldn't you nuke it before filtering, not vice versa?
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You need to consider what you are going to 'nuke it' with.
In my view, it's best to physically remove as much water and dirt as possible, before even considering additives. You don't want an additive which tries to break down way more biological matter than it can cope with. If there's 200litres of dirty fuel, then filtering off say 150 litres of savable fuel and treating that is a way forwards. There is no point 'treating' many litres of gunge. Some of it may settle out as water, but there may be kilos of slime to remove. The issue may become physically getting the rubbish out of the tank. Sometimes it can be very tenacious.

As Bru says, the key is to avoid ongoing problems. That means getting to a clean system and keeping it that way. Mostly I think that is about preventing water from lying in the tank and not storing fuel long term. Run the tank low several times a year.
 
Have sucessfully recovered fuel both with diesel bug and when some twat filled a freshwater water tank with diesel. :)
You will lose a good proportion each time you let it stand and then filter and then stand etc etc.
Is the amount you are likely to recover worth the effort fiddling about with after locating /buying drums/ pumps and the time .
However careful you are everytime you pull a pipe out of drum etc some of the fuel will get on you or your clothes .
Eventually what is left is going to have to be transferred back into the boat.
You might also be left with a garage full of stinky 20l drums all with small amounts of filthy diesel in the bottom which you cannot quite get out.
 
oldgit said:
...
Is the amount you are likely to recover worth the effort fiddling about with after locating /buying drums/ pumps and the time .
However careful you are everytime you pull a pipe out of drum etc some of the fuel will get on you or your clothes .
Eventually what is left is going to have to be transferred back into the boat.
You might also be left with a garage full of stinky 20l drums all with small amounts of filthy diesel in the bottom which you cannot quite get out.
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whatever route the OP takes, he will need to remove the fuel into some drums or other containers, unless he's going to pay someone to do all that for him.
Even if you pay a waste oil service to empty the tank, you still have the task of cleaning the tank.
 
I have just done a similar job on our house boiler tanks. Two 1350l tanks had about 6" of water and crud from the previous owner's life, and had given problems.
I drained the tanks of it's lower dirty stuff before raising the take off point on one tank and transferred"good oil" from it to the other tank. 3x20l of watery crud went to the dump. I used the good oil for a year before extracting all the oil from both tanks into clear 20l drums where it was again allowed to settle along with bug eating treatment .
A new bunded tank was purchased and the now "clean oil" was transferred. It then left me with about 30l of watery oily black sludge. Poured into the oil recovery talk at my local re cycling centre with their approval.
No problems with the boiler as yet although it has had 1000l [cheaper now] since from a tanker.
 
I had some diesel that was almost black where crud and bug had been stirred up into suspension. I simply pumped it through one of those really cheap inline plastic filters and what came out the other end was clean and red. The filter, which was new, was completely black and almost blocked by the end. This was only about 20 litres of fuel. The filter cost me around £2. The £20+ worth of fuel was then used with no problem. The tank it was put into has since shown no signs of bug or contamination. The lost diesel amounted to a few ml. For 300 litres it will take a bit of work and a few filters but it depends how much £300 means to the person facing the dilemma.
 
lw395 said:
whatever route the OP takes, he will need to remove the fuel into some drums or other containers, unless he's going to pay someone to do all that for him.
Even if you pay a waste oil service to empty the tank, you still have the task of cleaning the tank.
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That's exactly where I am, right now.

ie empty tanks (so lots of full cans plus a 45 gallon drum).

Next on the list is tank cleaning.
 
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