[Colt]

We've been seeing a shit load of fuel issues lately.. Diesel in filters thats black ( basicly alge, has several names )..

At first we were seeing it off and on in offroad diesel, then it became a common sight.. Now we're seeing it in road diesel.

I cant say in what equipment I've been seeing it in, I've been told not to give any details to anyone right at this point. But it's becoming enough of a problem that it's causing major headaches... The majority of the black diesel I've been seeing has came out of California. We're worried that it's being transfered from storage, into the equipments fuel tanks, which wont be pretty if thats the case. We're talking over 3000 pieces of equipment in this 1 company alone.

I'm curious to know if it's just the particular equipment.. The equipment in question, California is one of it's fuel stops, and I'm just trying to pin point if it's a localized issue, or wide spread..

Yall might wanna keep an eye out for it.. Our stuff will shut down, then run several hrs, then shut down.. Will do this for days, always restarts.. When you check the filter, the shit is black. You cant get the shit off your hands, or tools. It stinks like a mo-fo too, hardly even smells like diesel..

 

[LilJohn]

Are these on road trucks? Are the buying fuel fromthe TA truckstops in Ontario/Barstow? This shit happened 3 years ago with them. Bad batches of their mandatory biodiesel blends and they ran the tanks too low at the rack.

 

[rexdibble]

Not seeing it in Colorado

 

[wrenchman]

Have had the same problem here in kentucky. I was told it was due to the low sulfur diesel being so clean that algea is growing in the storage tanks. We just change filters twice as often. Lol. Seems like its just something we have to deal with unfortunately. If you find a solution let us know tho.

 

[BIG CAT]

sounds like your supplier is using some real old shit fuel they pumped out of some ones tanks. they should have polished the fuel before reselling it. i would also have some one check the api. if its higher than 37 you will start having performance problems.

 

[Elliotb16]

Bad batches of their mandatory biodiesel blends and they ran the tanks too low at the rack.

This is what I've always heard, you don't want to pump diesel right after the fill the tanks up either. It stirs the trash and junk up
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[thrasher]

The Black slimmey stuff is usually Algae , we had it happen to our off road storage tanks a few years back. The only way to get rid of it is to buy a good quality Algaeside we got it from the local pump shop. It will drive you nuts changing filters, but if you don't kill it will keep growing and contaminate all the machine or trucks till you treat them. Changing filters wont make it go away.

 

[streetmonkey]

sounds like your supplier is using some real old shit fuel they pumped out of some ones tanks. they should have polished the fuel before reselling it. i would also have some one check the api. if its higher than 37 you will start having performance problems.

Yeah, sounds like they had some reserve tanks that have been sitting for a while and not being taken care of. I haven't seen anything in Kentucky. (yet)

 

[FuelFC]

First thought would be algae and as above posters have said a 'good' specific algaecide is needed not just 'some' treatment that says it helps. And filters (carry them with equipment now) after the treatment because you'll be changing them.

Big Cat is on with checking the fuel sample. The single best thing and fastest way to find out what is in each fuel stop and stock tank. Look for blend type of fuel and water. Could be some asphaltines in it as well which will exacerbate the situation if algae is present.

What does it smell like? Heavy deep stinky refinery type would lead to the apshaltines, just plain rotten almost fishy swampy algae.

 

[cwill]

It is pretty much the normal thing here in georgia.seen it alot in over the road trucks where the fuel gets super heated but never really saw this problem till the ultra low sulpur fuel came out,

 

[Mi.5.0Fred]

We had that problem when we switched to Bio Diesel. The supplier said their fuel was OK it must be our tanks. We have 15 locations with 5k to 15k gallon tanks. Some locations had more trouble than others. We tried some stuff called Bio Blast that was supposed to clean up the algae, I'm not sure if it did much good. I was told that the Bio cleans out all the scum and algae that are in the tanks.
I was talking to a mechanic from a large trucking company (800 tractors) they had that problem when they switched to Bio. They would send out a mechanic everyday with a pallet of fuel filters to meet drivers at truck stops to change filters.
Our problems finally stopped after 3-4 months, I guess all the junk finally got washed out.