Checking for water in your fuel

[JVantreese]

I was talking with a friend who said his water in fuel light came on this week. He drained some fuel off until it was clear of water and seems to be doing alright. He went on to mention that he checks for water about every other fill. He has a 60 gal aux tank and fiqures he gets moisture from the air exchange in this tank.



I also have an aux tank and had never checked for water in 40,000 miles. So I put a pan under the truck and gave the yellow handle a twist. I shut the drain off and found that what was in the pan was nice clean fuel with no sign of water. I also had about a 1/2 cup of fuel on the driveway from the drain tube being located above the front differential causing some of fuel to miss the pan. I will add about 10 inches of hose to the drain tube the next time I have the truck on a hoist.



Please let me know what your experience has been for water in your fuel and how often you check for water by draining some fuel.

 

[GaryOwen]

I always check my fuel when changing the fuel filter. Drain fuel into glass jar via yellow handle valve. Have never found any water, but has been a bit cloudy a few times (suspended water). I have occasionally checked it in between if I buy fuel from a different truck stop than I normally use.



I also have an aux tank. I placed a fuel/water separator filter and a regular fuel filter in line to main tank. So I pump fuel from aux tank thru filters to main tank. Have gotten a few drops of water in the f/w separator a few times. I normally change these filters about every 40 to 50k miles when the pump rate seems to get a bit slow.



Gary

 

[AllianceDiesel]

the way I always check for water is get a canning jar and put your sample in there and let it sit for 20 min. and the water will seperate from the fuel.



Also I have pulled samples out of customers truck and got nothing, talked to cummins and they said to put a hose in the tank and hook shop air up to the other end and stir the fuel up, and when I would pull a sample from the same truck, I got water

 

[InfernoB]

10" will work, but you may like to add 16" or more. I slipped another piece of hose over the the stock one.

No water in my fuel ever. (38K).

It would have been nice if they had a drain on the tank too.

 

[DPKetchum]

I drain some off just about every fillup. I don't check it. Just drain it. By the way this is the FIRST POST I have ever read on any Dodge forum about the WIF light coming on. I don't trust the son of gun.

 

[MickeyMiller]

I drain it off at every filter change, about every 10K miles, 10 filter changes so far. Add 14" of garden hose over the stock drain hose and collect the sample in a glass jar. Let it set for an hour or so... the most water I have ever found is a small water globule about an inch long when holding the jar at an angle. I have ALWAYS filled at high volume stations.

 

[kkreigh]

No ater in fuel ever 99,000 7 years.

 

[jelag]

We have installed a 10 micron filter with water trap and behind that is a 2 micron filter... both of these are off much larger engines...

At this point we have 35K miles on the highest mileage truck and check each set of filters, that is, each truck every couple of months and haven't had any amounts of water to worry about... .

A table spoon or so... .

We have scheduled the first filter change at one year... on a couple of my trucks that will be in excess of 50K miles... which we don't think will be a problem.....

We buy all our fuel in card locks... and have never had much of a problem..... BTW - each of my trucks can hold 130 gal or so with each fill up...

 

[steved]

I drain some off just about every fillup. I don't check it. Just drain it. By the way this is the FIRST POST I have ever read on any Dodge forum about the WIF light coming on. I don't trust the son of gun.

Ummm, from the tank, through a pump, and into a filter... what do you think that water looks like after its been blended into the fuel with a pump?? I've posted multiple times on this, the factory system will pass a lot of water that the WIF light will never acknowledge.



I have proved this with my homemade auxiliary tank... I ran tank, pump, water knockout (with light), water separating filter, back to the tank to see how well my system worked... it DIDN'T. The result was a tank full of emulsified diesel and water (looks like greenish-yellow puke). I have since changed it so the fuel passes through the knockout prior to the pump, and I catch quite a bit of stuff...



I've pretty much found that either this fuel is hygroscopic, or there is just a lot of water in our fuel at any one time.

 

[steved]

And for the record, I probably grab several teaspoons of water from every tank... between all my filters. Not to mention the amount of debris found in our "clean" fuel.

 

[JVantreese]

And for the record, I probably grab several teaspoons of water from every tank... between all my filters. Not to mention the amount of debris found in our "clean" fuel.

With water in the tank I understand that microbial growth can cause a slime that will make a real mess out of the fuel system. I ran across a product called "Biobor JF" that can be used at a "shock" level of 270 ppm to kill off a growth or be used at a weaker 135 ppm as a maintenance treatment. I have given my system a maintenance treatment about every 6 months. This stuff was developed by Boeing for their jet fuel and now is sold for use in any Jet fuel, diesel, or kerosine tank.



I was wondering if you are using any type of Microbicide. Has anyone had a problem with a fungus in their tank?

 

[steved]

I was told there was evidence of algae in my injectors during rebuild... but the rest of my system is clean, and I assumed it was algae I had picked up somewhere along the line since I fuel all over.



I don't think you could get rid of all algae, its just the amount that can be tolerated.



I do not run any additives, nor do I run an algaecide because, after some discussion, its unclear if the additives cause trouble with the already additized fuel. But that's just me...

 

[steved]

I would add, I would be more concerned if I was fueling at small stations where the fuel might have sat around a while... it does take some time for algae to grow.

In a station with high volumes of fuel passing through, there is probably little chance of getting a detrimental dose of algae because it would not have enough residence time to grow, even with the presence of water.

 

[magothy1]

I can't say anything about the algae in my truck fuel, but on the boat, when we sit idle thru the winter, the stuff will grow in the fresh water from condensation inside the tanks. What we found is that it's better to have the tanks as full as possible, to minimize tank wall surface area for the condensation. It can be hell to get rid of the algae. I've used Siloo, a NAPA product, and had good luck with it. The boat engines are old old technology, tho, they could probably run on alot crummier stuff than these trucks. We'd go thru no end of 10 micron filters before the problem would be solved.

 

[steved]

I can't say anything about the algae in my truck fuel, but on the boat, when we sit idle thru the winter, the stuff will grow in the fresh water from condensation inside the tanks. What we found is that it's better to have the tanks as full as possible, to minimize tank wall surface area for the condensation. It can be hell to get rid of the algae. I've used Siloo, a NAPA product, and had good luck with it. The boat engines are old old technology, tho, they could probably run on alot crummier stuff than these trucks. We'd go thru no end of 10 micron filters before the problem would be solved.

I believe that's one of the original uses for the Gulf Coast Filter... to polish fuel in trawlers.

 

[rbattelle]

I have 2 WIF sensors, and neither has illuminated yet.

It is my hope that a good fuel additive will suppress bacterial/algae growth and handle water.

Ryan

 

[steved]

I have 2 WIF sensors, and neither has illuminated yet.



It is my hope that a good fuel additive will suppress bacterial/algae growth and handle water.



Ryan

That's what I thought, but neither PS or Howe's prevented water from finding its way into my filters. Both are water dispersing...