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Old 21-12-2011, 19:42   #46
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Re: Accidentally put water in diesel tank ...

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I am staggered,reading this thread, how quickly the 'misinformation' shows up!!
Its almost amusing,but,in reality, a little scary !!!
here is your chance which misinformation? otherwise us doobies are confused. real advice and experience please.
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Old 21-12-2011, 19:59   #47
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Re: Accidentally put water in diesel tank ...

Its the little 'gems' like water floats on diesel, and 'water will blow your engine apart' or heads apart. Hey sabray, I do like peterson 44's,I looked after a couple on charter many years ago, built rugged !
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Old 21-12-2011, 20:01   #48
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Re: Accidentally put water in diesel tank ...

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You'd be surprised how effective the hose on a stick method is at getting all the gunk out. I've done some plastic tanks which you could see through like this (gasoline in small powerboats), and it's interesting to watch when you can see through the tank walls. The trick is to make sure it's had time to settle out nicely and don't agitate it at all. I agree with this post, polishing is probably overkill. Unless it already needed to be done.
I've even done a long 1/4" hose on an electricians fiberglass flexible "fish" to go in the deck fill when there was no inspection plate. Works great!

I used copper refrigeration tubing when I was checking for water in my tank. Easy to bend to get into corners. Available at any hardware store.

John
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Old 21-12-2011, 20:36   #49
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Re: Accidentally put water in diesel tank ...

pump out as much you can and add 20%alcohol it will diluate the water into the diesel witout damage to your diesel pump ,but of course its must not be amix of 50%diesel 40water and 10%alcohol it would be great if diesel could run on that mix ,that is only ok for small water in diesel tank ,to be removed if there is no access to the tank ,cheers (do please reseach about it on the net)
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Old 22-12-2011, 00:17   #50
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I did this last year,,it happens. my tank had a drain on The side. I drained as much water as I could, then I purchased a small electric fuel pump from napa. I added diesel fuel water remover, used two five gal gas cans,hooked up the fuel pump after my water sep, hooked the fuel pump to a battery, every 3 or gallons I drained my water seperator poured the diesel back in from the fuel jug, after an hour, no more water. I did change my filter at the end and added more watrer remover for safe measure,, 30 gal tank with about 6 gal of water. Never a prob.
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Old 22-12-2011, 05:17   #51
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Re: Accidentally put water in diesel tank ...

Google Pecuniary......interesting name for a company.

I love the disclaimer....WE ARE NOT ALGAE-X
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Old 22-12-2011, 06:12   #52
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Re: Accidentally put water in diesel tank ...

This is more common than the average boat will admit. We are called on the average of once a week to remove 'cross contaminations'. Water in gas, gas in diesel, diesel in gas, gas in the fishing rod holders, bilge clean ups and even water in diesel.

Too bad you are not closer to Tampa Bay.
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Old 22-12-2011, 08:32   #53
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Water in the diesel is not a big problem at all. On diesel-electric submarines they put seawater in the tanks on purpose, to replace the diesel that is used.

Just drain the water from the bottom or pump it up like described. Keep a closer than normal eye on the water seperator.

I love having two tanks plus the capability to completely empty a tank from a bottom tap legal or not.

cheers,
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Old 22-12-2011, 10:49   #54
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Re: Accidentally put water in diesel tank ...

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I used copper refrigeration tubing when I was checking for water in my tank. Easy to bend to get into corners. Available at any hardware store.

John
What would cause water to only be in the corners??

I'd suggest pumping everything from the fuel tank, Then remove and clean the pickup tube, fuel lines, and all filters. If water is found in the fuel line running from the engine fuel filter to the injector pump then the pump needs to be flushed also.
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Old 22-12-2011, 10:58   #55
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Re: Accidentally put water in diesel tank ...

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What would cause water to only be in the corners??
If it is a flat bottom tank... then the cause would be a little something called "Gravity".

Water is heavier than Diesel and will seek the lowest point in the tank. In a flat bottom tank the lowest point will mostly likely be a corner since it would never be absolutely, perfectly, precisely level.

Of course there are exceptions: There could be the chance that your tank bottom is sagging, if not supported, and creating a bowl where water could pool in the center. There are some tanks with small sumps at the bottom. There could be irregular shaped tanks.

It is up to you to determine the lowest point in your tank.
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Old 22-12-2011, 11:21   #56
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Re: Accidentally put water in diesel tank ...

It's only about $100 worth of fuel here. Just pump out the tank and dispose of the fuel and consider it a lesson learned. It'll certainly cost more than $100 to call out someone to professionally "polish" the fuel and refill. Just not worth the hassle imo.
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Old 22-12-2011, 11:23   #57
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Re: Accidentally put water in diesel tank ...

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What would cause water to only be in the corners??

I'd suggest pumping everything from the fuel tank, Then remove and clean the pickup tube, fuel lines, and all filters. If water is found in the fuel line running from the engine fuel filter to the injector pump then the pump needs to be flushed also.
Sorry to be so brief as to cause confusion. The bottom of my tank is flat and is at the bottom of the keel. It is not obvious from looking at the top whether the front or back is the lower end, or whether port or starboard has a low side. Since the water is more dense than the fuel it will sink. The last of the water will be found in the lowest part of the tank. A rectangular tank, unless mounted perfectly flat will have one corner lower than the other three. Since I don't know which corner is the lowest I wanted to check each corner. Additionally I was sweeping the pickup around the bottom to see if there was any debris or detritus accumulating.

I used the corners of the tank as the reference point in my post thinking that those might be the hardest places to reach in the tank, therefore making any other place in the tank easy to reach by comparison and so not worth mentioning.

Hope that clears up any confusion.

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Old 22-12-2011, 20:20   #58
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Re: Accidentally put water in diesel tank ...

Been there

Use a oil pump to pump out the water from the bottom of the tank, plus some additional diesel.

Add an emulsifier to the diesel. (Fairly expensive purchased from a Caterpillar dealer.)

Check the water separator religiously.
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Old 22-12-2011, 22:45   #59
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Re: Accidentally put water in diesel tank ...

Friend of mine pulled up to the fuel dock. Attendant says "diesel?" He says "No gas" He goes off to attend to something else while crew fills tank. A few minutes after leaving the dock the Atomic 4 starts smoking and running rough. Attendant had taken "no gas" as no he didn't want gas, and the crew didn't know enough to correct the mistake.

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Old 23-12-2011, 07:18   #60
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Re: Accidentally put water in diesel tank ...

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You need my scrubber now. Just bypass the filter until the water quits flowing, then back to the filter.



Nice setup Del, and aesthetically pleasing. (Particularly the teak and holly base for your pump and drive assembly!) I should only be so lucky to access to our fuel tank like that.
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