Water in Aux. Fuel Tank!

[rrausch]

OK... its my own dern fault... I put a locking gas cap on my 45 gal. , diamond plate, in-the-bed Aux tank, and it has leaked a little bit of water into the tank.

I check the tank with a flashlight each time I fill up and this is the first time i have ever found water in it. There is not a lot of water, just lots of little "bubbles" on the bottom of the tank... since they could not possibly be bubbles, they must be water!



OK... How do I get rid of the water. I'm not worried about it getting sucked into the system, as I have a larger than stock, fuel filter/water separator mounted in the pumping system, and also have the stock filter, which gets changed faithfully. But I am worried a little about biological thingys growing in there.



The pickup tube on the Aux tank is located about a half inch up, off the bottom of the tank, so they probably won't get sucked into the tube.



How the heck do I get the water out?

 

[Joe G.]

The first thing to do is add some biocide to the tank. After you have done that then you can solve the water problem without a big hurry.

 

[illflem]

Drive it up to Montana and after the water freezes use ice tongs or drain the tank all the way by tipping over or siphoning/pumping it out. Additives to remove water are bad for your fuel system because they contain alcohol.

 

[merryman]

I you sure the cap leaked or might you have the result of condensation??

When I had an in-bed aux. fuel tank in a past truck, I had significant problems with water, and always wondered whether it was from service stations or from condensation.



Vaughn

 

[rrausch]

Illflem, I was counting on you to save me... :{



Merryman, the fact that I've had the tank for 7 months, and I have never seen any water in it makes me think it leaked during the last rain, about a week ago. But you may be right. Also I just today noticed fuel leaking out the top of the cap!

Now this is an aftermarket cap I got at Napa. The one which came with the tank (Aero tank, Corona, Ca. ) would not leak, but was non-locking also.



Bummer.

 

[Deezul1]

Why is alcohol a bad thing? I had a guy parked his motor home under the eves of his house and the water ran down the side of the MH right over his fuel filler cap. I pulled the fuel line from the carb and pumped out 3 large coffee cans of water before getting gas and then dumped in a quart of alcohol to absorb the water and burn it and he never had anymore trouble. Wouldnt this work with Diesels, that much alcohol in 45 gallons of fuel doesnt seem like much.

 

[stevegeorge]

Park on an incline that slopes to the tanks outlet. Pump as much fuel out as possible, then take a shop vac with a long extention wand, and run it down to the bottom of the tank. Eureka!!!! All the water is gone. Be sure to put some rags in the bottom of the Shop Vac to catch the diesel. I f you ever get rust in the bottom, leave a bout 2 gallons in tank, pour about 2 lbs. of B-B's in the tank, drive around for about a week, then shop vac B-B's out. Bottom of tank is brand new again.

 

[rrausch]

Stevegeorge, you are a genius!

 

[rweis]

Could you make up a water seperator / filter and pump with a long pipe pickup, and recirculate your fuel through the water seperator using the long pickup like a vacuum cleaner wand to get the water droplets?



Just an idea. In a previous job we had a problem with water in fuel and built a recirculation pump that ran continuously and continuously refiltered the water out of the fuel.



You could just recirculate / repump it when ever you wanted to.



Bob Weis

 

[illflem]

Originally posted by Deezul 1

Why is alcohol a bad thing? ... a quart of alcohol to absorb the water and burn it and he never had anymore trouble. Wouldnt this work with Diesels, that much alcohol in 45 gallons of fuel doesnt seem like much.

Even small amounts of alcohol destroys the lube qualities of diesel, even though 12 valve pumps are mostly oil lubed it's highly wearing on the parts that aren't. A 24 valve is much worse since it's entirely fuel lubed. Alcohol probably won't hurt for emergency one time use but to use it long term is asking for trouble. Avoid Power Service 9-1-1, it's mostly alcohol, it will get you going though if water in your fuel freezes. Alcohol is no problem on a gasser since they aren't fuel lubed.



I thought of the shop vac but didn't want to be the one who ruined your vac. At the least you will never get the diesel smell out, worse case is that it will melt the plastic and rubber parts. Just cleaning it out would probably be more work than turning the tank over. If I ever used one to vacuum up diesel I'd plan on throwing it away after I'm done. Get one of those cheapo pumps that attach to an electric drill and throw it away instead. 2¢

 

[rrausch]

My Girlfriend's grandad died last March, and he left an old Craftsman wet/dry from probably the early 1960's. Maybe earlier. It is from when they still make steel tanks. It is held together with duct tape & wire... the plastic parts (there aren't many) all broke off back about in the 1970's. It smells like cr@p already and I've been wondering what to do with it. This sounds like a perfect way to send it to Vacuum-Valhalla.

 

[krabman]

This brings up a question I had... How good is the seperator that comes on the truck? We always have at least a little water in our fuel in AK and between the centerfuge and the Ray-cores we get most of it out. We dont however get all of it out. Thats just not possible when your burning a couple gallons a minute. The conventional wisdom is that what little gets past wont hurt anything and it seems to be true. I have never had a problem with anything in the fuel system except for stuff like the governor's on some engines like Cat 3406's that have a few parts that need to be changed every few thousand hours. In fact most engines will go through several in-frames before we even open up the fuel system for an inspect and repair as needed session. Im just curious. If the water is a small amount, you would only be picking it up a little bit at a time, the seperator should be taking care of most of that, would it hurt anything?

 

[Deezul1]

illflem

Thanks, thats what I needed to know. Prolly not worth taking a chance unless your stuck somewhere.

 

[illflem]

Originally posted by krabman

This brings up a question I had... How good is the seperator that comes on the truck?

I think it's plenty good enough. All diesel has water in it and when mixed with fuel passes right though and is burned. Problem is when the water freezes it can clog filters and when it's warmer grow algae.