How To Clean Fuel Tank On Truck
Diesel Fuel tank cleaning??
Hello, I have a 1939 Smith & Gray Sedan Cruiser(Matthews) and there are 4 SS 35gal fuel tanks in her. One of them has sludge stuck to the inside bottom. There is no easy way to remove the tank. Is there something or some way to clean by going through the 6" straight fuel fill.
Thanks David
Re: Diesel Fuel tank cleaning??
David I've experienced sludge in my sailboat's tank ( replaced with Moeller plastic) but on a much smaller scale then what you have. Oh my! 4 of em!
How about access plates?
http://www.seabuilt.com/ http://www.seabuilt.com/demo.php
Denise, Bristol PA, retired from HVAC business, & boat restoration and building
Re: Diesel Fuel tank cleaning??
I had this problem with my Huckins, when I called their yard at Jacksonville, they put me through to their service department......this was about 1975, the boat was built in 1948...... After telling him the problem and details....boat number.....name etc.... he said 'I put those tanks in her'...... His advise was to put 1 gallon of ethyl alcohol for every 50 gallons of fuel...... Worked like a charm..... Had to change the filters a couple of times. Mark you this was diesel. I would not know what to do with gas.
Best of luck
Re: Diesel Fuel tank cleaning??
Well...its difficult. Next time you build a tank put a man size inspection port into it.To clean you need a diesel transfer pump, a scrubbing tool, a wet dry vac and a high pressure wash.
Like this...buy a good one. Consider the spray wand..it may need customization. This pump will be filled with clean diesel fuel
a transfer pump is a typical jabsco type pump witha fuel resistant pump impello
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subedrain the fuel out of your tank. Poke the diesel filled high pressure pump in and begin washing as best you can....transfer diesel slops into jerry jug with transfer pump...wash down again, transfer again...many times.
Do the best you can...perhaps scrub brush or other tool...then finish off with a wet and dry vacume cleaner. Perhaps a custom wand for your vac nose
You tank will be difficult
Last edited by slug; 12-05-2013 at 02:31 AM.
Re: Diesel Fuel tank cleaning??
�Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of those rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs."
Re: Diesel Fuel tank cleaning??
Do fuel polishing systems prevent sludge buildup in the first place?
-Dave
Re: Diesel Fuel tank cleaning??
Dont know. Sediments can come from the dock when fueling. Then there is biological growth.Diesel fuel is hot...the return fuel is heated by the engine. Evidently this gives a good home to microbes.
ive tried the fuel treatments. Dont know if they work...when i open the tank its always fouled
http://www.hpcdfuel.com/pdf/DOWfuel_training.pdf
The only defense i know of it to clean tanks every few years.
Re: Diesel Fuel tank cleaning??
Google "fuel polishing services" in your area. It used to be about a buck a gallon plus the cost of the trip. By the time you go through all the home remedies with possible failure along the way, paying for a professional service will seem like the efficient thing to have done.
Here's an outfit in RI that was easily discovered.
One of the most enduring qualities of an old wooden boat is the smell it imparts to your clothing.
Re: Diesel Fuel tank cleaning??
They help a lot. There are two levels: a centrifugal pump that is run on a timed schedule that removes sludge and water as it forms. This is all most boats will need if attention is paid to proper fueling routines; topping tanks in winter and so on. Keeping water out of the tanks is a big part of maintaining a fuel system as well.
Originally Posted by Woxbox
Do fuel polishing systems prevent sludge buildup in the first place?
Plumbing in for four tanks will require a real manifold and that would be the biggest part of a job for a vessel that uses an older system of balancing valves and doesn't have a proper manifold.
The second addition to a basic system is an element that acts to kill bacteria (usually some kind of heating coil). The dead organic matter is then centrifuged out of the fuel.
Boats that run only infrequently and retain old fuel are of course most subject to fouling. Biocides can help, but also carry their own problems. Probably the easiest program for somebody who doesn't want to install an on-board system and is plagued with old and fouled tanks is to have a polishing service come by on some routine schedule. Where you buy your fuel, keeping tanks topped up and free of water, and routine inspection all play their part.
One of the most enduring qualities of an old wooden boat is the smell it imparts to your clothing.
Re: Diesel Fuel tank cleaning??
Slug--isn't it dangerous to suck up diesel with a shop vac?Kevin
There are two kinds of boaters: those who have run aground, and those who lie about it.
Re: Diesel Fuel tank cleaning??
No...you suck diesel with the fuel transfer pump.http://www.mackengineering.co.uk/pro...-TRANSFER-PUMP
make a handy to use wand for its suction end...it will remove almost all fuel.
The vac removes any solids that might end up in the tank...work gloves, rags, cheeseburgers. Cigarette butts...
you could probably suck up small diesel puddles with the vac but it would be messy .
The fuel polishing rig is simply a centrifuge. A centrifuge is used when an engine burns 200 or three hundred gallons per hour and a normal filter would never be able to keep up.
for a small boat that burns two or three gallons per hour they are a waste of money
if you are close to a good shipyard that services mega yachts there will be a fuel tank cleaning company locally. Swing by with some beer after work and ask questions. They might have a few nifftyhand tools.
i know the garden type sprayer for tank cleaning because that is what the pros use.
Re: Diesel Fuel tank cleaning??
I have cleaned tanks using steam... A steam cleaner, fire it up, insert the nozzle in the tank let it run for a few hours with a container under the tank drain. The heat from the steam will melt the sludge and it will drip out of the the tank drain port. Note that this is true steam, about 300�f, not a hot pressure washer.
Re: Diesel Fuel tank cleaning??
I pulled mine and created an access hole so I can clean it out periodically:
Hello, I have a 1939 Smith & Gray Sedan Cruiser(Matthews) and there are 4 SS 35gal fuel tanks in her. One of them has sludge stuck to the inside bottom. There is no easy way to remove the tank. Is there something or some way to clean by going through the 6" straight fuel fill.
Thanks David
After Cleanout:
Re: Diesel Fuel tank cleaning??
Also modified the fuel pickups so they pull and push from top of tank rather than bottom.
This helps in NOT picking up junk that has gotten in to protect the injectors.
Re: Diesel Fuel tank cleaning??
Pardon me, but may I ask how you draw fuel from the top of the tank and avoid needing an almost immediate refill?Also modified the fuel pickups so they pull and push from top of tank rather than bottom.
Kevin
There are two kinds of boaters: those who have run aground, and those who lie about it.
Re: Diesel Fuel tank cleaning??
Boy, there is a lot of good info that you guys have given me. the tank is empty and the boat is out the water with its cover. I installed a door in the winter canvas cover right at the tank area so I could get to the fill easy.
Thanks all
David
Re: Diesel Fuel tank cleaning??
The fuel comes from the bottom end of the tank where there is a valve like a out side faucet. 2tanks per side go into 2 fuel filters be for the motor. The fuel is running over the sludge be for going out the valve. The filters were not bad but had sludge in the first one. I got this boat 2 years ago and have been working on every thing.
David
Pardon me, but may I ask how you draw fuel from the top of the tank and avoid needing an almost immediate refill?
Kevin
Re: Diesel Fuel tank cleaning??
Pardon me, but may I ask how you draw fuel from the top of the tank and avoid needing an almost immediate refill?
Kevin
Pickup and return tubes extend down from the opening. The intake/pickup tube is near but does not touch bottom to avoid picking up particles of anthing that isn't diesel.
This access plate was drilled with 4 holes because I wanted to setup pickup and return lines for the engine, as well as a timer activated fuel-polishing system at a later date.
Re: Diesel Fuel tank cleaning??
I've had good success by pouring a gallon of lacquer thinner in the tank and letting it sit for an hour. Slosh if possible then drain into a bucket. I let the thinner clear up some then put the same thinner in the next tank. No sludge!
Re: Diesel Fuel tank cleaning??
Thanks guys for all the info. I am going to see if I can get the tank out of the boat.
\ I will keep you poste
Thanks David
Re: Diesel Fuel tank cleaning??
CMI makes a pitch and gum remover for router bits and other tools. It is a miracle cleaner for darn near anything and will remove even the heaviest embedded sludge. It is also non toxic.
Jay
Re: Diesel Fuel tank cleaning??
When you're talking about "sludge" what you're really talking about is "bacterial slime." Slime is a bacterial colony that lives at the interface between the water the sinks to the bottom of a fuel tank, and the fuel above it. It's an anerobic organism (doesn't need oxygen), and in addtion to masses of nasty-smelling sludge that clogs filters, the colony also can move into the fuel injection systems, where it has two bad effects: 1) The byproducts of respiration are acidic, and will etch the very highly finishes surfaces of the fuel injection metering system. 2) The calcareous exoskeletons (God, don't I love this terminology!!) of the creatures are very abrasive, and will rapidly wear the metering parts of the injectors way beyond their design limits.
There are two primary responses: 1) eliminate the "water bottoms" from the tanks by getting a suction line to the lowest point of the tank, and sucking all the water out. 2) Poison the little buggers. This is best done with borax, which is sold specially formulated for this purpose, labeled as "Biobor." Accept no subistitutes!."
It makes sense to rig up a low-volume circulating pump that will pull fuel off the bottom of the tank, then through a strainer and a fine filter, then discharge back to the tank. The Biobor will kill the slime, and the object of the recirculating system is to eliminate slime from the tanks. The tanks should be plug-full, because the slime will colonize up the dry walls of a half-slack tank.
If you're in a big hurry, the best approach is to rig up a fairly high pressure pump, such as a Jabsco impeller pump with a fuel resitant nitrile impeller, or a sundstrand pump that is used as the fuel pump on almost all oil household heating system burners. The latest versions put out over 100 psi, and if directed through a spray nozzle will physically blast the slime loose, where the recirc system will run it though the filter system. this is quicker, but not necessarily more effective. The poisoning (biobor) part of the process is essential, as if stripping off the water bottoms.
All of this drivel is based on fairly extensive service as engineer on tugs being brought out of oil field service, which had large (42,000 gal) of tankage, some tanks almost solid with slime. Biobor and stripping water bottoms was the critical element.
I honestly have no idea what people are talking about when they refer to "fuel polishing." I've had it described to me as something that would restore heat potential to fuel that was degraded by long storage. As far as I know, this is absurd.
A centrifugal fuel filter is a wonderful gizmo, and in a big enough tank a cleaning set-up based on an Alfa-deLaval centrifuge will pay for itself by not requiring a lot of fuel filters. Worth it in your application? Dunno.
Last edited by seo; 01-01-2014 at 10:14 PM.
Re: Diesel Fuel tank cleaning??
You are right on Seo. Most of the fuel sold in CA is treated to eliminate the bio slime problem. We used to use an additive but the treated fuel has solved the problem. I can remember the slime being like Jello before they came up with a solution.
Jay
Re: Diesel Fuel tank cleaning??
Polishing in my view is just filtering.
I honestly have no idea what people are talking about when they refer to "fuel polishing." .
I added a second "loop" independent of the engine's filtering system so I could have water seperation and small particulate filtering inline on a timer such that (its a sailboat) the suspended items that form while the boat is sitting won't immediately overwhelm the water and particulate filters I have on the engine supply loop.
I've never heard of any system that "restores" degraded fuel and wouldn't that be special if such a system existed. I just like redundant systems that are cheap and easy. The new engine was a serious chunk of money for a "hobby toy", so it makes sense to protect is a carefully as you can.
Some may feel this is excessive, but a sailboat is different animal than a power boat in the frequency and duration the engine is used. In many ways, it's the toughest environment for a marine diesel as is seldom gets up to temp for any length of time and as a "pleasure boat" is seldom used.
Last edited by BrianM; 01-06-2014 at 01:39 PM.
Re: Diesel Fuel tank cleaning??
I've always known the term to refer to services that come by and run your fuel through centrifugal filters. The fuel is removed and centrifuged, the tanks cleaned and the fuel replaced back to the tank. Using the term is little more than how you locate a service to get it done.
I honestly have no idea what people are talking about when they refer to "fuel polishing." I've had it described to me as something that would restore heat potential to fuel that was degraded by long storage. As far as I know, this is absurd.
A centrifugal fuel filter is a wonderful gizmo, and in a big enough tank a cleaning set-up based on an Alfa-deLaval centrifuge will pay for itself by not requiring a lot of fuel filters. Worth it in your application? Dunno.Centrifugal systems of many sizes are available for installation with their own filtering systems and can be installed on board. These days such a system can be found starting at under a thousand dollars complete with everything needed. Some systems include a "bio treatment package (my term) that (if I recall) uses a heating element to kill off the existing "flora" which is then collected by centrifuging. As to whether that makes dollars and sense is not anything I could answer.
Of course it's impossible to polish fuel but I can see the value in hiring a service on some routine basis if a pristine system is important to the owner.
There's a great deal of discussion around here in respect to products like Biobore in respect to use and misuse, and it's another discussion. Everything I know about additives for controlling algal blooms in fuel is anecdotal, but I do know they are not a panacea for an existing fouled tank.
As for "fuel polishing" yes, it's a weird term, but that's at least one way the services are generally referred to.
One of the most enduring qualities of an old wooden boat is the smell it imparts to your clothing.
Re: Diesel Fuel tank cleaning??
Said microbes tend to form mats which absorb water which encourages more growth.
Am I the only one that cringes when I see magnetic devices which claim to kill the little bugs.
♦ During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act
♦ The further a society drifts from truth the more it will hate those who speak it
♦ If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear
♦ George Orwell
Re: Diesel Fuel tank cleaning??
Racor filters offers a " Fuel Polishing Module" --basically a low-pressure pump and timer along with some fittings. Perhaps they coined the term, which, as Lew said, is how you " order" this service.The FPM is to work in concert with one of Racor's " Turbine Centrifuge" filters. In these, fuel flowing through the filter assembly is routed past a series of blades or vanes that causes the fuel to spin. This occurs at #1 in this cutaway:
The spinning thus spits out particulate matter and other nasties so they can sink into the collection bowl. There 's a nice cutaway of a such a filter, and more tech specs here:
http://www.parker.com/literature/Rac...02011%20HQ.pdf
I Have no affiliation with Racor. In fact, Separ makes comparable filters.
There are two kinds of boaters: those who have run aground, and those who lie about it.
Re: Diesel Fuel tank cleaning??
Hi guys,
happy new year first !
we have a lot of problem here in Asia with dirty diesel fuel, many are B3 or B5 (3 to 5 % bio diesel mixt what look even more sensible. ) also many wet, hot, dirty storage, + humidity and condensation.., and so.. to avoid problems, when I built my last boat, I do a different arrangement for the tanks than generally advised: I install the suction completely at the bottom, I can pump all until the last drop.. and have a daily tank just above the engine, so all the time I do refill of my daily tanks,I suck the eventual little water or other sludge on the bottom, after the pump the diesel pass by a big filter with water separator before to refill the daily tank, I assume my tanks are always clean and without any water, also, the fuel return only go to the daily tank, no hot fuel so much less condensation on the mains tanks..
another smaller filter with water separator is between the daily tank and the engine fine filter..in case..
this setting is also to avoid the classic problem when you have bad weather, sludge mixing with diesel due to abnormal movements, and all fuel filter clogged, at the worse moment !
bacteria develop in the interface with water, so no water, no (or less) bacteria..
all the best
bertho
www.fusionschooner.blogspot.com
Re: Diesel Fuel tank cleaning??
Have you seen these, Jake?
Lew centrifuges separate liquids at a set specific gravity, a installation used for diesel needs a dirty oil tank of considerable size for discharge, unless they have come way down in price the cheepest ones I've seen are around $15,000. They also will still pass solids well above 15 microns so not a substitute for filtration.
Available with 10 or 30 micron filters.
There's also a smaller single element system available at even less expense.
One of the most enduring qualities of an old wooden boat is the smell it imparts to your clothing.
Re: Diesel Fuel tank cleaning??
I've worked as engineer on diesel-powered (not steam, not gasoline) in different vessels in commercial service from Panama to SE Alaska, winter and summer. The problem is water bottoms in the fuel tanks. If you have water bottom in your tanks you're going to have slime, sooner (tropics) or later (sub-arctic). Biobor will work, but it's a stopgap. I've read about running fuel through a strong magnetic field to kill bacteria, and am willing to believe it will work. I sent an article on the subject to my first cousin, who's a chemical engineer with long experience with petroleum, and his opinion was that it would work, but that you'd have to be continually circulating fuel from your bunker (deep) tanks through the magnets, then back to the the deep tanks. Feasible? Sure. But why not just eliminate the ecological niche that these critters live in (diesel/water interface), and be done with the problem.
Polishing to
in my viewis just filtering.
I added a second "loop" independent of the engine's filtering system so I could have water seperation and small particulate filtering inline on a timer such that (its a sailboat) the suspended items that form while the boat is sitting won't immediately overwhelm the water and particulate filters I have on the engine supply loop.
I've never heard of any system that "restores" degraded fuel and wouldn't that be special if such a system existed. I just like redundant systems that are cheap and easy. The new engine was a serious chunk of money for a "hobby toy", so it makes sense to protect is a carefully as you can.
Some may feel this is excessive, but a sailboat is different animal than a power boat in the frequency and duration the engine is used. In many ways, it's the toughest environment for a marine diesel as is seldom gets up to temp for any length of time and as a "pleasure boat" is seldom used.
In my experience I've had good luck with stripping water bottoms, poisoning the slime, and changing strainers and filters when needed. In the case of big tanks (5,000 gallons +) we pumped out the tank, opened up the manholes, and shoveled out jelly-like slime by the wheelbarrow load. Nasty job. Would the stripping/poison/filtering (SPF) regimen been effective in that case? I think so. On another vessel, we had serious slime in three out of five tanks, comprising about 30,000 gallons. There was no chance of mucking out the tanks, so for the duration of a trip from LA to ME I kept up the Biobor, stripped water bottoms, and continually cycled fuel through a gang of strainers and Racor filters. By the time we got to Maine the fuel was clear, but the WABCO (Westinghouse Air Brake Company) engine/gear controls were freezing up, and it was time to shift attention from bacteria to ice. What a lot of fun.
Re: Diesel Fuel tank cleaning??
"Papilon," how is it that slack tanks cause slime? You're the first place I've hears that opinion expressed. In a humid environment with a big day/night temperature difference, a slack tank can breath in as the temp goes down, and the air taken in might get down to dew point, so it might be a source of water. The solution to that problem is the same as the solution to the entire problem-eliminate water from the bottom of the tanks.
Pressure washing tanks with water is an option, but so is washing with fuel. a garden-variety fuel pump from a household heating oil burner runs at 140 psi, which is a strong stream. The fuel is then sucked out, run through a strainer and filter, and back to the pump. Sort of how a crude oil tanker's COW system (Crude Oil Wash) works.
The main problem with scrubbing or pressure washing tanks is that they are so often really hard to get at, and just as often don't have clean-out plates. Even if they do, the baffle plates built in to stop sloshing make access to all surfaces really hard. I've seen tanks being cleaned with a steam cleaner, and maybe the temperature of the steam will kill slime algae. Dunno.
Re: Diesel Fuel tank cleaning??
Modern diesel fuel injection systems return very little fuel-a far cry from the good old days of Detroit Diesels and Clevelands. Those engines used unit injectors, which at idle would return over 90% of the fuel pumped to the injectors back to the tank. They made a virtue of this by using the circulating fuel as a cylinder head coolant. This had a happy side effect for people working on tugs in the winter, where the returning hot fuel to the tanks under the towing deck would keep the deck ice-free.
Get rid of the unit-injector engine, and install an engine with a Bosch type injection pump, and your fuel return volume goes down to a fraction of what was seen with the Detroit/Cleveland/EMD system. Also, because the return fuel does not circulate through the cylinder head, it is not nearly as hot. Go one step further to a fully modern "common rail" injection system with piezo electric injectors, and fuel return is further reduced.
Depending on the engine service, with a unit-injector engine you could see significant contraction of volume as fuel tanks cooled while the engine was shut down overnight. Is this the source of water in fuel tanks? It's one of the sources, along with water coming aboard from watery shoreside tanks (which tanks are almost always rich in slimy algae), or from leaks at the fuel fittings, or from water splashing against the vents. Simply keeping the tanks pressed up won't eliminate water in tanks. Stripping the water out is the only method that will do that. It can be done either with a suction pump, or with a drain at the tank's low point. Whether a low-point drain is allowed depends on the rule you're following NfPA 302 prohibits fittings on anything but the tank top:
7.3 Fuel Tank Design and Construction.
7.3.1 The following shall apply to fuel tanks other than dieselfuel tanks:
- (1) The bottom, sides, and ends shall not have openings.
- (2) Openings for fill, vent, and feed pipes and level gauges, if installed, shall be at or above the topmost surface of tanks.
- (3) Clean-out plates shall not be installed.
- (4) Plates used for fittings shall be secured in such a manner
that they cannot be used for clean-out purposes.
BUT! note that 7.3.1 applies to fuel tanks "other than diesel fuel tanks."
The rule also states:
7.3.12 The use of gauge glasses shall be restricted to day tanks and service tanks of diesel fuel systems.
A gauge glass almost by definition allows a low-point tank penetration,
Point being that NFPA 302 doesn't prohibit low point tank fittings. USCG sub-chapter T prohibits low point fitting on tanks over 300 gallons, but allows it on smaller tanks.What you finally come down to is that if you have a diesel fuel tank, you are managing an ecosystem that can be quite congenial to algal slime. The interface between water bottoms and fuel is the ecological niche. The fuel is the feed source, while the water is the source of oxygen which they need for respiration. By product of respiration is hydrogen sulfide, which explains the "rotten egg" smell of a tank that's heavily populated with algae. The best way to eliminate slime is by eliminating the niche, which you do by getting the water off the bottom of the tank, eliminating the source of oxygen. At the same time, using a borax poison such as "Biobor" will poison the food source (fuel). Having the tank full during the poisoning cycle will be helpful, because the algae can live in slime adhered to the tank's interior surfaces, and by filling the tank you're exposing more of the algae to the toxic effects of the Biobor.
After the algae is dead, the slime and little algal cadavers will decompose, and be filtered out by a good fuel filter. If the tank was heavily infested, some kind of mechanical cleaning may be needed. An alternative might be to install a strainer, and maybe a Racor filter ahead of the engine-mounted micron filter. The Racor filter elements might be the most "open" element they make. The idea is that with a gunked up tank, the strainer will take out the worst of it, and the wire mesh strainer can be cleaned for free. The 30-50 micron element in the Racor will get rid much of the remaining material, and the engine-mounted filter will get the rest. If the engine-mount filter is a duplex (two filter cannisters on one mount, the idea is the fuel will go through one filter, then through the final filter, then to the injection pump. With that rig, the first filter might be 5-10 microns, and the final filter 2-3 micron. Putting two filters of the same filtering mesh doesn't make sense. The idea is to use the primary filter to get out the worst of the junk, and the final filter to take out the very small particles that can still damage a fuel injection system.
One last point about slime. It doesn't naturally occur in oil, and it certainly does not survive the refinery process. It gets into fuel somewhere in shipment or storage, and if it finds its way into a favorable niche or warm temperature, fuel, and water, then it will multiply its numbers exponentially. So pay attention to where you get diesel fuel from. The more rapid the turn-over of fuel in the shoreside tank, the less likely you are to get slime. A prime suspect is a yard that caters to yachts, where the tanks will sit all winter with very little turn-over, and often very little maintenance. A dock that caters to commercial fishing boats is likely to sell cleaner fuel, simply because they sell it year around, and because fishermen KNOW where they buy their fuel, and if everyone who buys there fuel from dock A starts having slime problems, EVERYBODY knows about it overnight. Compared to yachtsmen, fishermen can be quite forceful in expressing their displeasure over a lost day "out t' haul."
Re: Diesel Fuel tank cleaning??
Our small USCG boats had man hole covers for their diesel fuel tanks, which were emptied every season, ventilated and declared gas free safe, then physically cleaned. Weekly preventive maintenance procedures included stripping the bottom of the fuel tanks with a built in hand pump, inspecting the contents for water and safely discarding. On the dockside itself, before we took on any fuel from a vendor, a simple Clear and Bright Test was performed. It was a simple and easy task, taking a sample of the fuel from the truck into a small, glass mason jar and inspecting the diesel for clarity. Large contaminants meant outright rejection of the fuel. Letting the contents settle for a minute or so, we would move and swirl the jar in a manner to create a vortex in the jar; any water present would settle on the bottom in droplets and outright rejection. These are all tasks that can be incorporated easily by any boat owner....and should be. You may have a dependable fuel vendor at the home pier, but far away from home, who knows?I've read enough about fuel polishing over the years through articles published by Passagemaker Magazine. Fuel polishing basically is the filtering of the entire contents of a diesel fuel oil tank using a dedicated, stand alone, high volume, high pressure pump and filtering system designed expressly for this purpose, on a pre-set schedule. The pump itself creates such a high flow inside the tank that the tank's contents are mixed about and strained and filtered by the filter elements. The key is the pump. Picture the outlet as a jet, blasting the contents all about.... I recall my days as an oiler on a CG cutter and working the DeLaval diesel (and lube oil) purifiers. Amazing what they remove, but the particular size and cost would be prohibitive for any small boat diesel fuel oil system, I'd imagine! But going back to the Fuel Polishing System: it's best to start with a completely cleaned tank. And the systems are not cheap. But the technical folks over at that magazine swear by them and so do the boat owners.
The most cheapest insurance you can have is doing a Clear and Bright Test before adding any fuel onto your boat!
Best Regards,
Mike
Re: Diesel Fuel tank cleaning??
Mike, in response to your post #38. The clear and bright test sounds like a good idea. Maybe also steal the fuel tank cap off an old Cat D6, which had cast into the cap the deathless instructions "buy clean fuel. Keep it clean."
Your comments about the Alfa Laval centrifuge was also interesting. I've sailed on tugs with Fairbanks engines that used them whenever moving fuel from deep tanks up to the day tank, and it was amazing the stuff they'd filter out, although I'm not sure how they'd do on bacterial slime.
Looking at the diagram of the Racor filter in #29, I think that's not really a centrifuge at all. I've watched them working when the engine was running at full rpm, full boost, and it looked like the fuel was rotating at maybe 10 rpm. A very far cry from a Laval centrifuge which must turn at over a thousand rpm.
My first exposure to a Laval centrifuge was one we had in the corner of the milk room of the dairy farm where I grew up. It wasn't used anymore, but in my grandfather's day had been used to separate cream from milk. I think that Laval's original business was making cream separators, and I've seen pictures of some that were powered by a steam turbine. It's amazing the number of fluid processing gizmos they make today.
How To Clean Fuel Tank On Truck
Source: http://forum.woodenboat.com/showthread.php?170925-Diesel-Fuel-tank-cleaning
Posted by: yancyhatelt.blogspot.com
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