Fuel Polishing

[DougSea]

Hey all,

Anyone out there shining up their fuel? As my boat sits on the hard, in the heat and humidity, I can't help but think of the little microbial bastards reproducing away in my fuel tanks. It is my intention to eliminate them.

With that in mind, how are you doing the same? (If you are.)

I've just ordered a Jabsco fuel pump and Racor 1000 series filter and plan on running several thousands of gallons of diesel through decreasing filters in the next few weeks. I'd be interested in hearing your stories.

I did look at several "pre-packaged" options, including the highly recommended Gulf Coast line, but circumstances demand a more budget minded approach.

[mudskipper]

I fuel my boat from a pickup truck tank w' 10 micron filter. I have 50 ft of hose and the 12 Vt pump lets me control flo; so no blow back from regular dock side fuel stop. I can put the nozzle in the truck tank fill, and run to " polish fuel " your big racor should work well running a circuit . Look in bowel for shmutts or water, and pop in clean filter when you have run the fuel a few times. Happy motoring Jay

[ScubaPete]

I think to really "polish" your fuel, you need to shake things up a bit. You know all crud settles to the bottom of the tank, so just filtering the fuel as it sits still on jackstands will leave all that debris in place. That's why the best diesel polishing is done while underway with the boat bouncing around and the fuel sloshing all around inside the tanks. Your racor or spin on filters are constantly filtering the fuel and returning the excess to the tanks. You may filter out all the suspended impurities, but leave behind what may cause more problems when you're in need of full engine power.

[DougSea]

Thanks Jay and Pete,

Based on the setup I'm planning to use, a Jabsco pump running at just about 9GPM and a big Racor I'm figuring to put a lot more fuel through the filter than the normal engine return line. And yes, I don't think sitting on the stands is optimal for a complete job, but it's what I have right now. Also, the way my tanks are plumbed together they feed each other from the bottom so I'm counting on the fairly high flow rate as I pull from one and return to another to help stir things up. Once I can get underway again I'll look to bounce the boat around and polish again.

[jleonard]

Sorry, but i believe that polishing is a big waste of time. Filter it correctly and burn it.

[DougSea]

Sorry, but i believe that polishing is a big waste of time. Filter it correctly and burn it.

No worries Jay, I'm looking for opinions and yours is a valued one. My normal MO is to run the engines, burn plenty of fuel and turn over the tanks. But, with an engine in pieces on a shop floor, and a primary that I just cleaned of "gunk", I want NO issues when I get back on the water. So, I will be "polishing". Please note that magic magnets are NOT involved in my process...

[Great White]

Doug,

My PO installed a system of valves and a dedicated fuel pump and a Racor 900. I can filter one tank at a time and return it to the same tank or the other one. During my cruising time fuel does not sit long but I do use it if I am in one place very long. I do try to polish on the move for reasons stated above and also if I take on fuel at a marina that I am not familiar with I place it in one tank and polish it before I burn it. Not sure if all of this helps me but I have had zero fuel problems and it costs me nothing.

[DougSea]

Thanks Great White, that does. And it sums up my view. It doesn't cost THAT much, and it potentially CAN help reduce problems. I've had nearly no use of a very expensive boat for over a year now, and while it may well not have been a fuel problem, well, who knows for 100% certainty. So polishing seems like cheap insurance to me.

I hope to get the Racor 1000 in this week, along with the Jabsco pump, and a-polishing I go...

[Tree]

Doug,

What were the issue you had with the boat, I'm guessing fuel related?

I assume you guys have it there, but we get a bacterial growth in the red diesel over this side of the pond - it causes filters, injectors pumps etc to sludge up. It can be passed from boat to boat by simply using the same nozzle at the fuel barge. 99% of the time we have to add an additive to the fuel to kill off the Bug that grows in it - The Bug is also very good at attacking welds in aluminium fuel tanks.

The down side of the additive is that it can leave a fine black residue in the tank if the fuel isn't used for a long period of time. Thankfully we are out as often as possible all year so this doesn't affect us.

Back to the fuel polishing, from what I understand. Doesn't the Racor filter clean the fuel and separate the water, then the filters mounted on the engine do the final polishing? I suppose you could go down to a 5 micron filter to really get it clean?

[mudskipper]

Hey Doug just saw actual Racor fuel polisher in latest edition of national fisherman, new product, I have no idea if it would be better or worse than regular Racor. You might want to check it out?

[N4QC]

Doug:

I agree with Jay to the extent that fuel polishing may be a waste of time if one has clean tank(s) to begin with. The problem is getting the tank(s) clean and that usually entails bouncing underway. My solution for the bounce was to use a wand at the end of a compressed air line and move the wand inside the tank. This stirring up helped suspend particles which were later captured by the fuel polishing system.

I had to aerate the tank several times. Also, I reduced the amount of fuel in the tank so that I was able to minimize the amount of fuel that I was repolishing – the polished fuel being returned directly to the tank. The amount of reduced fuel increased the ppm of gunk that the polisher processed which caused a reduction in the time required to turn over filtered fuel – polishing filter accumulated gunk faster.

Access to my tank was obtained by removing the fuel float gauge assembly. Both the suction and return lines of the polishing system entered the tank there. Wand used that opening too. All areas of the tank may not be reached by the wand as there may be baffles in the tank. Allowed a day or two for the polished fuel to settle. Any air bubbles were then given time to dissipate.

The wand was just a piece of half inch pvc pipe. The air connection was a manual holding of the pvc pipe to the air pistol supply nozzle (terminology?)…

Clean fuel and clean air make for a good running diesel engine…

Good luck,

[DougSea]

Being determined (stubborn) I went ahead and built my own fuel polisher. It's a Racor 1000 series filter, a fuel pump, and a timer switch.

It's chugging away next to me as I type this. I tapped into one of the main engine supplies for the feed and I'm returning to my deck fills. We'll see what tales the filter tells after a few hours.

Here's the setup.

image.jpg

And here are my interconnected tanks. (125 gallons each, connected via manifold on bottom)

image.jpg

[DougSea]

Check out the photo below. I'm thinking you an guess which filter is new, and which one has been polishing. This is after ~8-10 hours at about 130 GPH. I also added Startron Fuel Tank Cleaner and let it sit overnight per the instructions.

image.jpg

I think it's reasonable to say there's crap in the tanks.

Since I can't run the boat to agitate the tanks I've been closing off the manifolds between the tanks and then pumping fuel,out of the center tanks into the outboard ones. After they're full I quickly open the manifolds back up, allowing the fuel to rush in to the center tank and stir things up.

[RobS]

Nice work. You don't need to be in the water to be aboard and be productive. I think we already discussed this but a bubble system could be a simple agitator, no?

[jleonard]

That filter doesn,t look that bad based on ones i have seen. It is doing it,s job. I consider fuel polishing a little like playing solitaire. It,ssoethingto do if there is nothing else to do.