This is a question many of us have asked more than once. And what we really want to know is: “Will the stuff damage my engines?” Engines are expensive, ruining an engine is costly and operating an engine on “bad fuel” is not wise.
We all know that most engine failures start in the fuel tank. When all mechanical parts are in good operating condition, the cooling and lube systems are working, the lube oil is clean and there is a sufficient supply of clean air getting to the combustion chamber, a diesel engine or turbine could almost run forever. The only limiting factor is Fuel Quality. Dark fuel is symptomatic of poor quality and even though, in most cases, it can be used, fuel in this condition will provide poor combustion and filtration problems. Continue…
December 11th, 2009 | Posted by Steve Richardson
Filter plugging can have several causes. For example, low temperatures can cause wax crystallization, which can lead to filter plugging. An example would be using summer diesel in cold weather. Wax or paraffin is part of the diesel fuel. A proper preventative additive with an Anti Gel agent is the answer to that problem.
Chemical incompatibility may cause dramatic filter plugging. This may happen when fuels with incompatible additive packages are mixed.
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Contaminant build up resulting from excessive microbial growth and bio-degradation of fuel can cause filter plugging. Micro-organisms, bacteria and enzyme activity, fungus, yeast and mold cause fuel degradation and the formation of waste products. The process is similar to milk turning into cottage cheese, a different form of milk. Of all the microbial debris and waste products in the tank only about .01% is bugs. Even though microbes may cause and accelerate the process of fuel degradation, it should be clear that the waste products clogging your filter are not the microbes but fuel components which have formed solids. Continue…
December 5th, 2009 | Posted by Steve Richardson
Diesel fuel is a very complex mixture of thousands of individual compounds with carbon numbers between 9 and 23 (number of carbon atoms per hydrocarbon* molecule) Most of these compounds are members of the paraffinic, naphthenic or aromatic class of hydrocarbons (HC). These three classes have different chemical and physical properties. The different relative proportions of the three classes is one of the factors that make one diesel fuel different from another. It influences fuel properties and affects its performance. Continue…
December 1st, 2009 | Posted by Steve Richardson
