diesel bug

[smithw]

Re: diesel bug

Ths biocide did seem to help I'm getting much less gunk on the fuel pick up. Ive pulled out the pump twice more and seems to be getting less and less. Hopefully no more problems.

[Tony From West Oz]

Re: diesel bug

How did the biocide go?

[smithw]

Re: diesel bug

thanks Alga, I put some biocide in the tank, Ill do another 100 kms or so and pull the pump out again, just to see if anything has changed.

[Alga]

Re: diesel bug

Can't help you there, stopped making bd when dino prices dropped and use less than 1lt to purge the engine. BD take a lot of time and energy, but will start again when dino prices go up. My old 50's cruiser ran on bd/vo and still had black crap in the filter, but never tried to clean the tank as it never blocked.

My neighbour runs her series 60 12ht sahara on bd/vo and has cleaned the tank twice but still gets the black crap, she just changes filters, but now is having blockage problems and wants me to check it out. Will do that next week and let you know what the situation is and whether it will help you, I'd say its just slackness on her part as she tends to avoid car problems until it's to late. I used her car one day a couple of weeks ago and found almost no brakes, been telling her to bring it round and will bleed them for her, will do that if and when she turns up next week.

[smithw]

Re: diesel bug

Thanks, Alga, do you know if biodiesel kills the bug or makes it worse? I replaced the intake prefilter this time rather than just cleaning it. I also bought some biocide which I'm hoping will help.

[Alga]

Re: diesel bug

Thanks, Tony, It got a lift pump in the tank, and its the filter on the end of that get blocked, It supplies about 30 psi to the common rail pump. the main filter is clean, this crap just keeps coming back, I had to pull the pimp out again this morning. I'll see if I can post some photos.

Had a lot of problems with diesel bug over the years, tried everything and finally came across a solution. Bought a truck which had been sitting for years and it was fine for a couple of weeks, then out came the dead bugs from the VO reaction. Drained the tank and flushed it with dino then vo but still had the black stuff. So drained the tank and filled it to half with 50% dino and 50% vo. then ran for the next week on dino from the starter tank and on the tuck, that is a 20lt jerry can. Flushed the tank again and out came this brown sludge, so put 20lt of dino in it and ran it again for a week, then drained it. What came out was a light coloured brown dino and when I shone a torch into the tank, it was sparkling clean. Since then haven't had any problems. Did the same with my 80 series cruiser and got the same results, the fuel is now as clean as what's coming out of the new long range tank.

When the flushing fuel had settled, on the bottom was a brown orange sludge, so strained the dino into the fuge with vo and that's it. I took all the filters out of my tanks, they tand to block to easily and some are very hard to access, on the cruisers you have to tale out the back seats to get to the pickups, so I prefer to do it once and remove the in tank filter, the inline throwaway picks up anything.

[smithw]

Re: diesel bug

Thanks, Tony, It got a lift pump in the tank, and its the filter on the end of that get blocked, It supplies about 30 psi to the common rail pump. the main filter is clean, this crap just keeps coming back, I had to pull the pump out again this morning. I'll see if I can post some photos.

[Tony From West Oz]

Re: diesel bug

Can you use the return line to get fuel to the engine? Swap the fuel delivery and return lines and disconnect the power to the in-tank fuel pump. Install a cheap inline fuel pump and a fuel strainer (see photo) so you can see the crud in the fuel strainer. Use butterfly hose clamps to secure the fuel strainer, so you can swap it on the side of the road.
Carry several spare fuel strainers in a ziplock bag and have another ziplock bag for blocked strainers.
when you get home after each run, check the strainer and swap out if necessary. Back flush the strainer using compressed air and then some petrol, to help remove the crud from it. When clean, put into the bag with the other clean fuel strainers.

The fuel strainer I recommend is a fuel prefilter for a Mercedes 300D '78 - '85

The prefilter is a Mann WK 31/5 and costs about $5 - $6 each. I have a couple that have been cleaned over 20 times each, 1 or 2 that have been used a couple of times, plus another 3 or 4 that have not been used yet.

[smithw]

Hi I bought a Peugeot 306 hdi that had been sitting outside for more than 5 years broken down, I suspect it has the diesel bug as I keep getting this black-brown sludge blocking the in-tank filter, I have cleaned the tank and it running 100% bio, but Ive had to pull out the in-tank pump twice now after it been blocked again.
Has anyone had anything to do with diesel bug... any advice?