Flaming diesel bug
 

1Out for a sail in Astraeus today as my brother and son home from Australia. Motored up river through bridges (2knots of wind!) then when preparing to anchor for lunch.... Engine almost dies. Checking filters which were clear two weeks ago and.... The dreaded diesel bug. Filters clogged.... Diesel in tank.... Yuck! Whole tank of diesel too!

I suspect water has got n when we had that very, very heavy rain last week.

So, after anchoring for lunch.... bypass main filter, and renew engine filter and take fuel directly from 10 litre plastic can that I always have on board and get our little outboard going. Plenty wind for sail home., sails down before harbour, outboard into harbour then main engine started and back to berth.

So Monday will be a day of chucking out ( to recycling centre) 45 litres of diesel, tank seal off and clean out with some petrol rags.

Absolute pain
Grrrr

Chris

WHY on earth would you throw away 45 litres of Diesel ??/:shrug:

Cant you use one of those funnels that separate water from the diesel,Not sure what they are called.

Hi Chris,

They tell me keeping your tanks full will help avoid diesel bug.

Two 320 litre tanks on Lady Emma rather puts me off saying "Fill Her Up" when going for fuel:eek::D

Have you tried any of the additives that are supposed to help stop diesel bug?

Well, you learn something new everyday
https://www.wcfnw.co.uk/what-is-diesel-bug/

Risk!
 

Have one of those funnels and well, I Could do that ....but.... It is a right Royal PITA to clean out the tank properly. Empty all the diesel, tank inspection hatch off, pumps out all the diesel by hand pump, then clean all the pipes and all the inside of the tank.....all this when upside down.....into engine compartment ....on a floating boat....that is bobbing about....::o

Now anybody who has done aforementioned will realise that you end up feeling sick! :eek::eek:

So getting done once....without risk of cross contamination!

Full
 

Yip, tank was full. Never let it get below half full. It had some additive in it as does white diesel which is what I use. I have never put red diesel in her. Some of the tanks up here were dipped by VOSA or whoever and fines handed out. I think somebody shopped them. As you know it is now illegal to use red diesel for propulsion, only for heating.

Thankfully Astraeus does not have 320 litre tanks! :eek:

Ah well, out for a walk this morning then get started this afternoon. Of course it is really windy today so the boat will, err....not exactly be a stable platform
:puke::puke:


:D

Never knew that it's now illegal to use red diesel in a boat engine. It's not as if it's on the road!!

I remember something similar ruining a batch of the oil and water emulsion used on the metal cutting lathes in the workshops at the Beecham plant in Worthing.

The microbiologist were asked what was going on and when we tested it there was a heck of a lot of bacterial contamination. Bacteria love to live in the water phase and feed off the oil phase.

We felt best option was better cleaning and store in smaller batches.


On the boats - if just short journeys - any mileage in setting up a smaller auxiliary tank system?

Because with a large tank and condensation I would have thought this was always going to be an issue.

Success
 

Well, I am glad to report that after a few hours work and a trip to recycling centre to dispose of dirty diesel that Astraeus is now cleaned up and running again. New filters and cleaning out tank and pipes has done the trick. Had her running while on her berth for 45 minutes. (under load)
New spare filters ordered to replace the ones I have used. Have also ordered some new diesel bug additive.
I think I have found source as well. We had some very heavy thundery rain. The filler for my tank is flush with floor of cockpit. The seal around the tank filler cap, s not in good condition when looked at closely. So that needs renewing too..... and closing with a good seal of Vaseline round outside of cap.

Next time boat out of water this stupid design is getting raised a couple of inches. This possible as cockpit has teak gratings with sufficient clearance.

New rule on board..... :smilie_re: Check glass water trap on primary filter before every trip.

Chris

Interesting that - I'd never heard of it before.