Significant water go into my diesel tank during a recent storm. If I let it sit can I siphon off the water or the diesel? Or is the contents of tank toast.

Peter

 

How did the water get in there????

 

The fill spout on my truck isn't perfect and some water accumulated and worked its way in. We had 50 mph winds for a while.

Peter

 

Are you talking a truck worth of diesel, or a large holding tank? If is a truck worth of deisel, I would most likely drain it out and put new in. I wouldn't be pushing it with water, and I think DC has invalidated warranties of bad diesel. Just my .02

 

Since the water should go to the bottom of the tank where the pickup is couldnt he open the filter drain and use the fuel pump to get it out. Just a thought.

 

If it's clear rainwater, you could siphon the fuel off into clear containers, watching for any water - stop when the fuel level nears the bottom and you see water - drop the tank, remove the fuel module, pour the rest out, dry the tank with warm air, go back in with it.

Dropping the tank is not too difficult, long as it's near empty

Pour the clear fuel back in the tank and use it - water does not mix with Diesel fuel - being heavier than the fuel, it immediately collects on the bottom of the tank, making it easy to separate into containers for reuse

Water does not mix with Diesel fuel - it gets to the filter WIF section because the lift pump pulls fuel from the bottom of the tank - however, don't use the lift pump to pull the water out, or you'll ruin the lift pump

If you're planning on replacing the lift pump, then you could jumper the pump to the battery, open the fuel line before the filter, pump it out like that

 

Thanks, that's exactly what I wanted to know. I'll siphon off what's good and then drop the tank. I am going to replace the tank anyway, so dropping it is part of the plan. I just hated to throw away all that fuel at $3.50 a gallon.

Peter