Fuel Filter Canister...

[Elite1]

I changed the oil and fuel filter today. I now have just over 70K on the truck & always change the fuel filter at every oil change. This time however, when I pulled the fuel filter element out (which looked normal) and took a shop rag and rubbed along the bottom inside of the canister (filter housing), the bottom of the inside of the canister had a bunch of gunk. I have never had this in the past. It looked almost like brown sugar and had a similar consistency as well. I pulled about 3 table spoons out of the bottom of the filter housing. I guess I got a bad batch of fuel at some point, although the truck is and was running fine. Has anyone else experienced this?

 

[Pawpaw]

It sounds to me like you got a tank of fuel with a little algae in it and the fuel filter did it's job. No problem unless you get a tank with a LOT of algae and it plugs the filter.



FWIW, I almost always by fuel from the larger truck stops. That should minimize the chances of contaminated fuel from any source.



Bob

 

[Nate]

I always have little rocks and grit in mine when I change the filter.

 

[WyattEarp]

Nate if your getting fuel from the same station sounds like they have a ground water problem or some type of sandy gritty sediment thats getting in the tanks, or could be one station that you usually fill up at every now and then.

Elite 1 i agree with pawpaw sounds like algae, if you use conditioner in your fuel you killed it thats why its brown and usually stinks awful. when ever i fuel up i always check the fuel as it starts pumping for any unordinary colors... so far i have had no algae or any water in the tank.

 

[jwduke]

WOW, you need to find a new place to fuel, never found anything like that in my canister.

 

[WyattEarp]

sounds like there is a station that your using that is way over due on changing filters on their pumps

 

[Truckie]

We just went through this at the place I work and haul out of. They ordered 1,000 gallons of off road diesel and with in a few hours of 3 machines filling up all had problems. We called our fuel supplier and they came out to check there tank, and found a ton of algae in the tank. They gave us some product to put in the 1,000 gallon tank and to put in the tanks on the machines and it took care of the problem. They were pretty good about it. They gave us more than enough product treatment and paid to replace all our fuel filters on the machines.

The algae was a dark brown almost a black sludge, and some of it was sticky. Algae is nothing to mess around with. It don't take much to cause havoc on a fuels system. FWIW I would defiantly put some algae treatment in you tank and find a new place to fuel up for a while.





Mike

 

[Elite1]

The problem is, I just got back from a trip up to Northern Calif. , for the holidays... fueled up at 4 different stations, so not sure which station had the algae. I do use Standyne additive is there another product which better treats algae?

 

[Elite1]

I just ordered this algaecide product from this company: http://www.survivalunlimited.com/fuelstorage.htm



I figure I will treat my tank every fill up for awhile and change out my filter several times... just to make sure I solve this problem.