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Diesel Bug and Fuel Polishing


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Hi all,

 

i found our boat boat had a bad case of the bug.

 

i searched around and found a company called Bio Clean Jetting Limited who offered a fixed price job.  They have just finished and I am well impressed with their work.  They did three passes and fuel is a lovely cherry colour now, all for £300 inc VAT.  No other costs.  They offer this as a standard all in price.  No connection, just well chuffed.

Edited by Fungusp
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3 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Yup - sound nothing like being quoted half-a-crown and getting a bill for £5 zillion

The thread in question were the price was somewhat not expected!! was the same firm/bloke a good friend of mine used last summer. The end bill was £900. He was far from amused. He has a boat with twin tanks and large access panels but was busy so got it " polished " to save binning the 150 litres or so of contaminated fuel. he also thought it would be nice for the tanks to be cleaned out at the price quoted. He would have been hundreds better off to bin the diesel and open the tanks and clean them out and know they were clean in every nook and cranny. As I said, not amused. Not the company mentioned in this thread I hasten to add but I didnt post in the last thread as I hadnt checked my pals story out till yesterday.

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12 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

The end bill was £900. He was far from amused. He has a boat with twin tanks and large access panels but was busy so got it " polished " to save binning the 150 litres or so of contaminated fuel.

So it worked out at £6 per litre.

 

I wonder what they'd quote to do mine (currently somewhere between 2000 & 2500 litres in the tanks)

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7 minutes ago, Detling said:

How much diesel did you save?  £300 will buy a lot of new diesel, but it is a drag collecting it sometimes.

Merely getting rid of the contaminated diesel is not necessarily enough. Any remaining trace of bug will readily multiply in the fresh diesel. When we had our problems with bug, a boatyard who claimed to be specialists filtered it with cheap filters for 3 hours then returned it to the tank but within a week the bug had returned. The next yard tried dumping the diesel then thoroughly rinsing through with clean diesel then dumping that and refilling, which gave us only 3 days respite before it returned. Then another yard tried 3 different biocides (dumping 2 tankfuls in the process) and still failed. Finally we had the tank cleaned and sterilized with high pressure superheated steam; that cured it.

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6 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

So it worked out at £6 per litre.

 

I wonder what they'd quote to do mine (currently somewhere between 2000 & 2500 litres in the tanks)

Yes this was why he had his done. He has twin tanks that each hold around five hundred litres ish so he ran them down to about 150 litres to make the job easier and " cheaper " lol. As I say he even has large inspection hatches in each tank but was quoted less than half the bill so had it done!!!!!! He didnt have bug just water contamination.

Edited by mrsmelly
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25 minutes ago, Detling said:

How much diesel did you save?  £300 will buy a lot of new diesel, but it is a drag collecting it sometimes.

60 Gallons but the re filtering helped clear bug, now helped by marine 16

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I bought some fine filters from Ebay. They are the type you use for making your own fuel from cooking oil.

I used several grades....down to incredibly fine...and just put one inside the other. They are like huge socks. 

 

I then pumped the fuel out..through the filters... and into some plastic dustbins.

It was beautifully clear in there.

I added Marine 16...stirred it..and cleaned the tank as best as possible...and pumped it back in.

 

Change out of £40 and it remained clear.

 

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16 hours ago, Bobbybass said:

I bought some fine filters from Ebay. They are the type you use for making your own fuel from cooking oil.

I used several grades....down to incredibly fine...and just put one inside the other. They are like huge socks. 

 

I then pumped the fuel out..through the filters... and into some plastic dustbins.

It was beautifully clear in there.

I added Marine 16...stirred it..and cleaned the tank as best as possible...and pumped it back in.

 

Change out of £40 and it remained clear.

 

That's my plan sorted.

I think I would want to make sure  the tanks are "rinsed" clean, is there no danger of contamination of the fuel en route to the injectors if you are not removing the diesel direct out of the tank with a manual pump?  Perhaps you could clarify how you got the diesel out of the tank in to the dustbin, I might have the wrong end of the stick.

 The whole point is to stop nasty stuff getting in to the injectors, I think that is the main point.

I looked on Ebay and saw a lot of aquarium filter socks in various mesh grades, but none under "fuel filter socks"

 

To me it's just ridiculous to charge huge prices for boats pottering about in muddy ditches, I can see the point of polishing if one is under time pressures and going to places where there might be problems, but even then, a bit of forward planning .............. 

Edited by LadyG
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I've had what I presume is diesel bug twice in my 20-odd years of boating. The first time the engine started sounding very rough and eventually stopped.  The first filter was blocked solid with black gunge and quite a bit in the second one.  I replaced all the filters and syphoned out the water in the bottom of the tank, trying to catch as much black gunge off the interface.  Bunged in some Fuelset and it didn't reappear.   Second time on a different boat I sucked out quite a bit of black gunge during one of my now regular tank syphonings.  Drew out as much as i could and checked the filters. A bit of gunge on the first one but none in the other two.  Changed the first filter and again threw in a bit more Fuelset (which I now add regularly) and again no re-occurence.

Maybe I'm just lucky?

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2 hours ago, LadyG said:

 

That's my plan sorted.

I think I would want to make sure  the tanks are "rinsed" clean, is there no danger of contamination of the fuel en route to the injectors if you are not removing the diesel direct out of the tank with a manual pump?  Perhaps you could clarify how you got the diesel out of the tank in to the dustbin, I might have the wrong end of the stick.

 The whole point is to stop nasty stuff getting in to the injectors, I think that is the main point.

I looked on Ebay and saw a lot of aquarium filter socks in various mesh grades, but none under "fuel filter socks"

 

To me it's just ridiculous to charge huge prices for boats pottering about in muddy ditches, I can see the point of polishing if one is under time pressures and going to places where there might be problems, but even then, a bit of forward planning .............. 

It was something like this...in several grades and I put one inside the other....largest rating outside....

I 'think' that the actual diesel bug is fairly large and so I didn't see much contamination getting through the outer filters.

I also seem to think  ( WARNING...Bob's actual thoughts may vary from description ….  ?  )  I used a 25 micron for the last inner filter and there was nothing on it.

I used a  (electric) fuel transfer pump to drain the tank...and then J cloths on a stick to get the last dregs from the bottom of the tank.

I removed the fuel filter and pumped the fuel up to the filter housing to clear it...if you have a good fuel filter bug shouldn't get beyond that.

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/50-100-200-MICRON-7-RING-15-LONG-NYLON-MESH-FILTER-SOCK-AQUARIUM-MARINE-SUMP/113679363632?hash=item1a77d16e30:m:mcB7hCpN5mF5wlspoLB_jKw

 

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45 minutes ago, dor said:

I've had what I presume is diesel bug twice in my 20-odd years of boating. The first time the engine started sounding very rough and eventually stopped.  The first filter was blocked solid with black gunge and quite a bit in the second one.  I replaced all the filters and syphoned out the water in the bottom of the tank, trying to catch as much black gunge off the interface.  Bunged in some Fuelset and it didn't reappear.   Second time on a different boat I sucked out quite a bit of black gunge during one of my now regular tank syphonings.  Drew out as much as i could and checked the filters. A bit of gunge on the first one but none in the other two.  Changed the first filter and again threw in a bit more Fuelset (which I now add regularly) and again no re-occurence.

Maybe I'm just lucky?

Maybe I am tempting fate by agreeing, but for many years now I have used Fuel Set and not had the dreaded diesel bug. I recently completely drained the tank with a manual extraction pump and even the last dregs of diesel were not too bad, if a little cloudy from the Fuel Set emulsifying any water. 

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47 minutes ago, Bobbybass said:

if you have a good fuel filter bug shouldn't get beyond that.

Perhaps not, but it will still stop your engine due to fuel starvation when it clogs.   We had a survey ship crossing the Atlantic which had picked up "bugged" fuel in the Med.  Had to resupply her with batches of fuel filters by air drop to get her across.

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5 minutes ago, Sea Dog said:

Had to resupply her with batches of fuel filters by air drop to get her across.

Wouldn't it have made sense to drop of more than 'a couple' each time ?

Maybe a couple of gross would have kept her going with just one air-drop

 

It is surprising that they managed to 'hit' the vessel.

 

When the Fleet Air Arm tried to 'bomb the Torrey Canyon oil tanker that was sat on the rocks they used 161 bombs , 16 Rockets and 'missed' it wasn't until the RAF got involved and dropped 1500 tons of Napalm and 44,500 litres of kerosene that they got the ship to burn

Edited by Alan de Enfield
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1 hour ago, dor said:

I've had what I presume is diesel bug twice in my 20-odd years of boating. The first time the engine started sounding very rough and eventually stopped.  The first filter was blocked solid with black gunge and quite a bit in the second one.  I replaced all the filters and syphoned out the water in the bottom of the tank, trying to catch as much black gunge off the interface.  Bunged in some Fuelset and it didn't reappear.   Second time on a different boat I sucked out quite a bit of black gunge during one of my now regular tank syphonings.  Drew out as much as i could and checked the filters. A bit of gunge on the first one but none in the other two.  Changed the first filter and again threw in a bit more Fuelset (which I now add regularly) and again no re-occurence.

Maybe I'm just lucky?

Or just unlucky? In our thirty years we have never had any bugs. I have had a bit of water contamination in our first old boat that was sorted by binning a few litres of fuel and simply replacing the one small filter on the engine and a few years back again some water that was sorted by simply replacing the filters that had obviously never been changed by the previous owner on another boat I have never bought any form of fuel additive. I have talked with people re this before and we came to the conclusion rightly or wrongly that continued daily useage of the fuel and replacement from well used sources seems to cover it.

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5 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Wouldn't it have made sense to drop of more than 'a couple' each time ?

Maybe a couple of gross would have kept her going with just one air-drop

Well, it was the RAF...!  Actually,  they dropped shed loads every few days - the filters were being replaced at an alarming rate, but little else could be done as the tanks were so badly contaninated and she made very slow progress as a result.  Read across moral of the story - always use a high turnover fuel supplier! 

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1 minute ago, Sea Dog said:

Well, it was the RAF...!  Actually,  they dropped shed loads every few days - the filters were being replaced at an alarming rate, but little else could be done as the tanks were so badly contaninated and she made very slow progress as a result.  Read across moral of the story - always use a high turnover fuel supplier! 

Yep.

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4 hours ago, LadyG said:

 

That's my plan sorted.

I think I would want to make sure  the tanks are "rinsed" clean, is there no danger of contamination of the fuel en route to the injectors if you are not removing the diesel direct out of the tank with a manual pump?  Perhaps you could clarify how you got the diesel out of the tank in to the dustbin, I might have the wrong end of the stick.

 The whole point is to stop nasty stuff getting in to the injectors, I think that is the main point.

I looked on Ebay and saw a lot of aquarium filter socks in various mesh grades, but none under "fuel filter socks"

 

To me it's just ridiculous to charge huge prices for boats pottering about in muddy ditches, I can see the point of polishing if one is under time pressures and going to places where there might be problems, but even then, a bit of forward planning .............. 

 

If you have a shiny boat with glittering brass mushrooms, tiller bar and headlamp then it is de rigueur to have your fuel polished as well. ?

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