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chuck28f · 10-01-2020, 07:25 PM

Sorry about filter housing picture being sideways. The first picture was algea hanging out of filter base when I removed primary fuel filter. The second picture is some of what I sucked out of the fuel tank into drain pan. Thanks, Chuck

Lowflyer1 · 10-02-2020, 01:38 AM

Thanks for the pics Chuck, that looks nasty.
At the next opportunity I plan to inspect the tank on mine to see how bad it might be.

Bigd9 · 10-02-2020, 06:52 AM

Those pictures are amazing! What an eye opener. Thanks for posting them even though I had to turn the monitor on its side to see the one!!!!!!!

AITG · 10-02-2020, 08:15 AM

For the record: algae will only grow in the interface between diesel fuel and water. If you could keep water out of the fuel, nothing would grow. Unfortunately, handling, storage, condensation all create contamination opportunities.
The "gold standard" biocide is Biobor. It will prevent growth and kill the existing algae BUT the dead crud still exists so regular fuel filter changes are a must.
In my prior life I owned a couple of hundred diesel engines and bought fuel ten thousand gallons at a time. I learned the above information the hard way.
Water=bad.

chuck28f · 10-02-2020, 06:32 PM

Bigd9

If you knew me better, You would be amazed I could upload my pictures at all. I suffer from SFB. ([Moderator Edit] for brains!!!)

Luckily, this is my only experience with algea and I hope it never happens again!!! I always top off the fuel tank before I park it any length of time.

Luckily, my lovely young bride of 44 yrs hung in their and helped me work thru it!

Ray,IN · 10-02-2020, 08:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chuck28f

Bigd9

If you knew me better, You would be amazed I could upload my pictures at all. I suffer from SFB. ([Moderator Edit] for brains!!!)

Luckily, this is my only experience with algea and I hope it never happens again!!! I always top off the fuel tank before I park it any length of time.

Luckily, my lovely young bride of 44 yrs hung in their and helped me work thru it!

With that severe problem you may have to have the fuel tank professionally cleaned, or you may be replacing fuel filters monthly for a long time.

Bigd9 · 10-03-2020, 05:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chuck28f

Bigd9

If you knew me better, You would be amazed I could upload my pictures at all. I suffer from SFB. ([Moderator Edit] for brains!!!)

Luckily, this is my only experience with algea and I hope it never happens again!!! I always top off the fuel tank before I park it any length of time.

Luckily, my lovely young bride of 44 yrs hung in their and helped me work thru it!

Don't feel bad Chuck, we all have out strengths and weaknesses. Now, while I don't think I have any weaknesses, my copilot of 47 years will and does most vehemently disagree with that assertion!

chuck28f · 10-03-2020, 08:03 AM

I worked extremely hard to suck all the contaminates out of the tank that I could. Luckily my fuel tank ran crossways of the motorhome with a fuel fill on both sides so I could see into the tank a little bit. After using the algea killer and flushing out the tank again, what I could see with a flashlight looked pretty good. Baffles looked extremely clean. I then took a boroscope and looked into tank. Not perfect, but it was as good as I could get it. With the two baffles in the fuel tank, that means basically three compartments, to clean it out perfectly, I would have had to cut three holes in the top of the fuel tank for access. Then weld plates over holes after I pressured washed it out. The fuel tank was aluminum. Welding on the fuel tank, since it is about square and flat on top would be hard to do without alot of warping. Wire welding, not as much warping, is not possible due to significant chance of pin holes in welds. I would have had to TIG weld it to get a good weld, in my opinion.

I have shortened several aluminum fuel tanks over the years, all but one being round. Worked great. The one square fuel tank I shortened didn't look near as good as it had some warping. I was not satisfied, but customer was satisfied, that was most important!

After cleaning out and draining the tank, I changed the fuel filters a couple of times to be safe. No more problems.

A complete different scenario putting about 10,000 miles a year on the motorhome after being used to putting 120,000 to 150,000 miles on an over the road truck a year.

I would prefer not to bring up all of my weaknesses as I would get tired of typing. Chuck

gregb2781 · 10-04-2020, 03:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by grindstone01

The OP never did say how old the fuel filters were? I would remove the fuel filter each 500 miles for a inspection and if more residue shows up, then consider a tank removal and cleaning.
I try to run my vehicles low on fuel before refilling just so any accumulation of contaminants do get filtered out vs accumulating in the bottom of a fuel tank.

500 miles is often just a day of driving. The paper is most likely from a filter that was not changed. I would run a few tanks through the vehicle and then replace the filter and make sure you are using a quality filter and not a cheap piece of garbage.

Larrikin · 10-04-2020, 03:28 PM

From my boating days, you can find services that "polish" diesel fuel. That is, they pump it out of the tank and run it through filtration and then dump it back into your tank. That might get the crud out of your tank and let you determine what it is.

marenn · 10-04-2020, 03:29 PM

Another thing to be careful of...

We now get our annual service at the Freightliner Custom Chassis service center in Gaffney, SC. We carry a box of the correct replacement filters with us that they provide in case we ever have a filter emergency on the road. Each year at our regular service they use the filters we've carried around for a year and give us fresh replacements.

One year we were going to reach our 3 year Cummins warranty before we could get to SC so we found a generic Freightliner center to do our regular service -- just in case anything bad was discovered it would be covered by that warranty. We gave them the filters to use, but some of the replacements they gave us were not the same part numbers, even thought they fit perfectly. Turns out they gave us the filters they install on commercial trucks, which get changed far more frequently than our motorhome long-life filters. We called Cummins to double-check and sure enough, they said we should ONLY use the long-life versions since we only get service annually.

Moral of the story... Make sure you are using the right parts. Using shorter life filters could very well cause problems too.

wallynm · 10-04-2020, 03:41 PM

I am a dumb one we carried spare filter both oil and fuel, 150 psi compressor , mounted spare, 20 ton jack, torque wrench, Cheater bar, spare oil and transmission fluid, antifreeze oil - antifreeze sample kits, and ground cloth.

grindstone01 · 10-04-2020, 04:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gregb2781

500 miles is often just a day of driving. The paper is most likely from a filter that was not changed. I would run a few tanks through the vehicle and then replace the filter and make sure you are using a quality filter and not a cheap piece of garbage.

Makes sense. My point is that 500 gallons on a MH might be 100 gallons of fuel being run through the filter. By doing the first filter inspection at 500 miles (whatever is convenient mile wise), you should get a good feel for what is going on contamination wise. I would put the old (500 mile used) filter back on if it still looked clean.
If I observed contaminates at any filter inspection, I would then consider another plan like doing a tank and fuel line cleaning.

bobfrommaine · 10-04-2020, 04:45 PM

First, all diesel fuel can have water in it. There is no way to prevent it. It comes from condensation in all the tanks used to store it from initial distillation to delivery. Normally the water is distributed and will stay so until the container (rv or tank) stays still for a period. Your coach has a fuel water separator and should also have a water sensor which will illuminate a lamp on your dash. The white stuff could be anything, but if it was algae, it would smell like dead fish. I'm guessing it is possibly parafin that separated after sitting over a winter in sub-freezing temps. Algae and parafin can plug a fuel filter, and neither can be effectively removed from the tank wtihout dropping the tank. If your rig runs well after a filter change, buy some spare filters, learn how to change and dispose of them and keep an eye on the system. Racor makes a real decent filter/water separator which has a clear plastic bowl to allow you to see if you have water. If your engine quit, it was because the filter(s) did their job and can be counted on to continue to do so as long as you replace them on a reasonable schedule. It is not time to panic.
Bob '14 Winnebago 37F Adventurer; Jeep toad