I bought a used DP which had been in storage for 4 years. Lucky me the tank was full. Poured a bottle of Diesel Kleen from Walmart into tank and hit the road for a drive. Had extra filters as a back up. Used about half tank then filled with fresh fuel and more Diesel Kleen. That was three years ago and coach still runs great. Had no damage to pump or fuel system. Actually I use the diesel additive on a regular basis.
Driving over the road trucks for years I did get "bad" fuel occassionally so I learned how to deal with it. I do question the effect of bad fuel in these new units with so many sensors,etc. I have not experienced these situations.
Randy Gulf Stream Friendship Diesel Pusher Honda Accord
Mine sat for 6 years never started. I threw some fresh in, drove it home, and it sat for 4 more years, started and driven occasionally to move to different storage sites.
We then fired it up and drove to Florida on our maiden voyage.
Bring spare filters along and change them as soon as you think the engine sounds weird. Carry a small dish detergent bottle with clean diesel in it to pre-fill the filter.
I never clogged the strainer on the booster pump at the tank (I have a FRED), but the pump itself burned up. Replaced it with a Carter gerotor pump. I now have two 3/8 filters in parallel feeding the new pump. I've since found cleanable strainers that would work even better.
You will never get all the sludge out of the tank. I can say this with certainty because we ran 400 gallons through it then I tried draining, circulating, and flushing. I ran the same drum of fuel through the tank 3 or 4 times, trying to get the hose to various points. The tank eventually developed a leak, so I had to drop it to get it welded. The bottom of the tank was covered with rusty cat litter type stuff. The tank itself wasn't rusted much, just the little sump on the bottom with the drain plug in it. Welding shop cut the sump off and welded a plate on.
Add anything that adds lubricity. Lots of off the shelf stuff for that.
50pascals wrote: You will never get all the sludge out of the tank. I can say this with certainty because we ran 400 gallons through it then I tried draining, circulating, and flushing.
Fuel polishing WILL get all the crud out (assuming tank is not rusted out or some other incurable malady).
They place a suction hose in the bottom of the tank, return line into fill line and use a HIGH VOLUME pump and external filters and pump gallons of fuel per minute-- enough to stir up the fuel. When clear filters quit clogging (usually takes filtering all the fuel the equivalent of 20 or more times) it DOES get the crud out.
Most charge a base rate plus per number of filters it takes to "polish" the fuel.
Have had this done on customer's boats and IT WORKS.
* This post was
edited 01/26/09 04:26pm by wolfe10 *
50pascals wrote: You will never get all the sludge out of the tank. I can say this with certainty because we ran 400 gallons through it then I tried draining, circulating, and flushing.
Fuel polishing WILL get all the crud out (assuming tank is not rusted out or some other incurable malady).
They place a suction hose in the bottom of the tank, return line into fill line and use a HIGH VOLUME pump and external filters and pump gallons of fuel per minute-- enough to stir up the fuel. When clear filters quit clogging (usually takes filtering all the fuel the equivalent of 20 or more times) it DOES get the crud out.
Most charge a base rate plus per number of filters it takes to "polish" the fuel.
Have had this done on customer's boats and IT WORKS.
Was not aware of that. What's that cost versus a couple filters? Assuming after the first two filters you could go back to annual changes.
Do you think this will work with an automotive style tank? Mine had baffles, a long section of pipe at the fill point, and some have check-valves in the filler.
The main advantage of fuel polishing over just running the old fuel through your engine is that you do not risk your expensive fuel injection system on questionable fuel.
And marine tanks are at least as "baffled" as ours-- offshore boats roll quite a lot more than our coaches do!
And most marine tank fills are longer and more convoluted than ours. Never seen one with a fill check valve, so can't comment on that.
OP sure looses nothing by calling a marine fuel polisher in his area (near lots of boating activities). This should be their slack season and they might appreciate the work.
I'm going to look into the fuel polishing. There's a commercial harbor right down the road. Any ballpark price i should expect. it's probably about 70 gal in a 150 gal tank.
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