polishing fuel with household water filters????????????????

bcarli · **Joined:** 02 Oct 2011 20:39 **Posts:** 49

Hi
I have a lot of crud in my fuel tank. The diesel in the filter looks like muddy water even though I had all of the fuel pumped out when we bought the boat. I have found only one fuel polishing company where we live and they are very expensive, so I went on line and saw a video on Utube where a guy was using a household water filter hooked up to a small fuel pump and he was cleaning his fuel...does anybody know if household water filters can be used to polish diesel fuel? The filters are cheap...
thanks

here is the Utube link: http://youtu.be/48yk212WvEY

JDLanglais · **Joined:** 27 Jun 2007 11:23 **Posts:** 40

Hello !
I have the same issue to deal next spring; this is most interesting. Not surprising after more than a year spent in hot waters with Nemea.
I would recommand using at least two filters in line (the last one being a real Parker/Racor 2 micron element ) to be sure that you get rid of all water and algae in the fuel; also I will empty my 50gal tank, "chock treat" my diesel with algicide and let it stand few weeks before putting it back in my tank. I hope that it will prevent more growth.

I will let you know how it worked out later this spring.

Good luck !

JD

curriernh · **Joined:** 14 Jul 2011 07:14 **Posts:** 60

A suggestion courtesy of the PO on my boat.....

Rig a simple drill pump with a small rigid pipe that you can get into the tank vent (after removing it by unscrewing of course) and suck out what crud you can from the bottom of the tank. I've found that following his advice I usually get about a gallon of gnarly looking fuel and an occasional bit of crud from scraping it along the bottom. After it starts running clear I'm done for the season.

TomC
s/v Dulcinea
1984 T37 Keel/cb #427

DAEDALUSCAN · **Joined:** 09 Dec 2007 21:03 **Posts:** 114

I got in the habit of sucking maybe a pint out of the bottom corner of the tank with my oil extractor though the fuel gauge sender port. Always got some water or dirty crud out.

artieTwelve · **Joined:** 16 Mar 2012 16:28 **Posts:** 5

This is slightly tangential to the topic, but it is along the lines of the "water in my fuel" problem. It's an inline adsorption (not absorption) desiccant. It pulls the water/humidity out of your vent line before it can get to the tank. Also good for tossing in the freezer to keep the cold plate from icing up. I haven't got any personal experience with it, but it looks like something I'm going to try.

SAIL Magazine story with video:
http://www.sailmagazine.com/pittman-inn ... ryers#ooid

Letter to Nigel Caulder about it:
http://www.sailmagazine.com/boatworks/a ... t-marinade

Lance Smith
Baltimore, MD
No Tartan yet, but I'm going to look at one this weekend.

Velera · **Joined:** 29 Dec 2006 09:38 **Posts:** 656

I will second (third) the advice of regularly sucking the crud from the bottom of the tank through the sending unit hole in the top. The tank comes to a point that forms a low spot directly below the hole where moisture collects and crud grows. I have done this on an annual basis and have not had a very big growth or lots of water come out in the 21 years I have owned Velera. That time includes a couple years in Central America in the rainy season. I run my engine about 150 hours a year now and that may help keep thing clean.

Tartan37.com

polishing fuel with household water filters????????????????

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