# diesel fuel bug



## patman (Jan 1, 2007)

Evening all

I've had the diesel engine out of my boat for the winter and upon putting it back in and bleeding the system through found that it had got the fuel bug . For those of you who aren't familier with this bug it clogs up fuel lines, filters and will infect your tank. It forms a black substance like chewing gum. When I stripped the filters they were solid with the stuff. If it had got into the injector pump and injectors the cost would have been frightening.
I would advise you all to read up on the bug on the internet and think about putting some of the preventitive fluid in your tanks.
The bug is caused by water mixing with diesel and this new bio diesel is especially prone.

Regards
Patman


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## aircool (Jul 13, 2009)

patman said:


> Evening all
> 
> I've had the diesel engine out of my boat for the winter and upon putting it back in and bleeding the system through found that it had got the fuel bug . For those of you who aren't familier with this bug it clogs up fuel lines, filters and will infect your tank. It forms a black substance like chewing gum. When I stripped the filters they were solid with the stuff. If it had got into the injector pump and injectors the cost would have been frightening.
> I would advise you all to read up on the bug on the internet and think about putting some of the preventitive fluid in your tanks.
> ...


Seems only to affect boats, road DERV is highly unlikely to have this problem these days as refineries have improved refining processes and additives in the fuel already however that said additives aren't really need if fuel tanks are maintained.

If water is mixing with fuel I'd check the source.


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## andyman (Aug 31, 2006)

Seems only to affect boats, road DERV is highly unlikely to have this problem these days as refineries have improved refining processes and additives in the fuel already however that said additives aren't really need if fuel tanks are maintained.

Not so. A friend of mine had this happen with his RV. It only gets infrequent use I will admit. We were coming back from Santa Pod a few years ago when it broke down. We found a load of gunge in the filter, cleaned it out at the side of the road and made it home just. 
He completly cleaned out the system but it came back, It took a good dose of a special aditive to kill it off.


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## gerardjanice (May 1, 2005)

The inside of diesel tanks are prone to excessive condensation in cold weather. You need to drain down or keep the tank full of fuel.


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## patman (Jan 1, 2007)

Correct I believe. The main source of water in diesel is condensation so it can happen to any diesel engine.

Patman


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## duxdeluxe (Sep 2, 2007)

Bugs like that keep people like me in business........ Marine fuels is what I do!

As per the post by Patman, there is loads on the internerd about it so I won't go into detail. The reason that road fuel doesn't suffer is because the turnaround time of the fuel is invariably that much quicker so it doesn't get a chance to develop and the water does not tend to drop out either. However, you can put the same fuel in a boat and leave it for several months and voila! Black, usually smelly sludge, that blocks filters big time.

This is why bio fuels are specifically banned for use in commercial marine fuels -read the ISO8217 spec if you are really bored - for exactly that reason. Some unscrupulous fuel suppliers dose their residual fuel with bio products to reduce the viscosity with inevitable results - I've got loads of blocked filter pictures and claims that we are investigating on behalf of clients. 

Edit - yes, either full or empty. Full - less condensation, empty, less bugs to develop. Drain the water if possible as well

All the best, David


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## patman (Jan 1, 2007)

We use red diesel and I believe that contains bio diesel now.

The reason I put the post on was I was thinking of all the M/Homes laid up for the winter . Basically the same situation as I had.

Patman


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## Codfinger (Jan 11, 2008)

Yup this can happen to the bigger stuff too, a couple of years ago I had to empty around 3000gal from one of the fastcat ferries that run from down here (it was French white diesel and not red) I'm told its a real problem to get rid of this bug
Chris


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## duxdeluxe (Sep 2, 2007)

You're right, a real pain to get rid of on ships, we provide "bug buster" kits for testing as prevention is better than cure. 

I think that Red diesel is simply road diesel dyed red for duty purposes. It meets the same EN 590 spec (google it for detail) and contains up To 7% of FAME (commonly known as biodiesel). Not to be confused with kerosene or heating oil.......


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## duxdeluxe (Sep 2, 2007)

Addendum:

Just noted that one of the conference papers (in Copenhagen at the moment at ship fuel conference) is about bio fuels. Heard it all before as above, but interestingly this one is by one of Maersk's technical people. As the biggest and most technically advanced shipping companies in the world, if Maersk start talking, people listen. Should be interesting


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## Nightwolf (Jan 3, 2009)

HI 

My father-In-law broke down in his Fleetwood Revolution RV last week due to diesel bug. It had got into the diesel filter and the diesel lift pump. We put some marine16 treatment into the tank to try and rid us of this problem. We also fitted a pre-filter for good measure. 
At the moment it seems to have done the trick. 

Most roadside breakdowns are fuel related, so I try and find out as much as I can about the fuel system in our motorhome. I also find it handy to carry a couple of spare fuel filters, just in case I get some contaminated fuel on our annual journey to Italy. 


Rob


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## Spacerunner (Mar 18, 2006)

I've noticed on the Fiat service invoice for my motorhome an item named 'fuel treatment'. 
Could this be Fiat actually keeping up with the game and are using an additive to prevent this bug.


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## gm6vxb (Nov 3, 2007)

Had the fuel problem in a Peugeot that my father-in-Law bought unseen 250 miles away.
Low on fuel when we picked it up so filled it up. Did about 15 miles onto the M74 and it started spluttering and loosing speed.
Quick check showed the filter was full of muck, so managed to get a filter (on a Saturday). All ok for about 100 miles then the same again.
Got another filter and did another 100 miles and it did it again. Changed filter and got home.
Suprised it never gave a problem after this for many thousands of miles.
Suspect the problem was either being left standing for a long time or bad fuel from a 'farmers' tank (red).

Martin, GM6VXB


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## BillCreer (Jan 23, 2010)

I believe that fuel filters on diesel vehicles are much larger in an attempt to deal with the high water content in the fuel.
A bit off topic but one of the problems you can get is that in very cold weather the water and emulsion trapped in the filter will freeze and stop the fuel flow which leads people to think that they have a glow pug or fuel waxing problem.
Drain your filter as often as you can.


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## rayrecrok (Nov 21, 2008)

Hi.

We had this problem in my mates motor sailer..

The trouble was it was half way across the North Sea on our way to Ijmuiden Holland from Grimsby at daft o'clock in a force seven, not very nice scrambling round the bilges in the dark trying to keep your dinner down with the smell of deisel and the boat rocking and rolling :roll: ..


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## Autoquest (May 16, 2007)

This is Cladosporium Resinae which grows in the layer between water at the bottom of the tank and the lighter than water fuel which sits on top. In the aviation industry we check for water contamination on a daily basis and drain the bottom of the aircraft fuel tanks to check for water - No water=no Cladosporium Resinae. One trick to avoid water contam is to keep your tanks topped with fuel so that no condensation can take place.


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## Spacerunner (Mar 18, 2006)

Autoquest said:


> One trick to avoid water contam is to keep your tanks topped with fuel so that no condensation can take place.


That's one hell of a trick! How does it work when you actually want to use the fuel then?


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## Autoquest (May 16, 2007)

Just trying to be helpful :? Perhaps it wouldn't do to store one's van (or boat) for the winter with an empty fuel tank which I suspect is what Patman (the OP) did.


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## dandywarhol (Nov 14, 2010)

gm6vxb said:


> Had the fuel problem in a Peugeot that my father-in-Law bought unseen 250 miles away.
> Low on fuel when we picked it up so filled it up. Did about 15 miles onto the M74 and it started spluttering and loosing speed.
> Quick check showed the filter was full of muck, so managed to get a filter (on a Saturday). All ok for about 100 miles then the same again.
> Got another filter and did another 100 miles and it did it again. Changed filter and got home.
> ...


Maybe the previous owner had been using veg oil mixed with diesel.

The veg oil strips the tank and fuel lines clean of muck and usually needs the filters changing a couple of times to solve the problem - other than that older Pug engines with Bosch pumps run very well on veg mix


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## patman (Jan 1, 2007)

I think my problem started in the filters and spread to the fuel lines. The tank, which was isolated appears to be free of the stuff. Just in case though I've put in a biocide and cleaned the filters and lines twice. I'm going to get some stuff now which burns away the contamination and absorbs the water and burns it off. "Fuelset", I think it's called.
Anybody used anything like this?

Patman


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## duxdeluxe (Sep 2, 2007)

Don't know that one.

At the conference this morning, Maersk had run one of their ship generating sets on FAME (the bio bit of biofuels) and found that yes it worked as expected and yes there were storage problems. They haven't finished the trial yet but it seemed to prove that biofuels didn't store well and by extension of that, neither did anything with a bio component. Biggest non surprise ever....


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## TDG (May 26, 2009)

When I was a young Superintendent in the 70s, we used to get "information sheets" about bugs in fuel in lub.oil and fuel. We used to read it, have a good laugh and throw it the bin  
Then in 1974 one of my ships got bugs in the crankcase oil and did £300k(1974 money!) worth of damage :evil: 
Later that year another of my ships was adrift in the Pacific without power because bugs had grossly contaminated the whole fuel system - result vessel towed into LA at a cost of > £100K :evil: 
Since then my life has been punctuate with oil and fuel bug problems  
Without going into the chemical details, bugs will thrive in hydocarbons with some fresh water, some dirt (preferably in the form of carbon) and moderate temperatures and once established can be very difficult to eradicate.
One ship I was involved with had to have it's crankcase oil continually dosed with biocides for 4 years before the problem was resolved.


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