Well I knew this could happen to OTHERS, but didnt really think about it actually happening to ME .
Had been putting B-20 in the Oliver when its uses dried up, after sitting all spring and summer started her up to move her and the sediment bowl looked like muddy water. Cleaned it out and restarted, looked good unitll I moved the tractor, then the brown gunk reappeared. Took the sediment bowl off this am and preceeded to drain the tank while moving the tractor back and fourth to keep things stired up.
About 1/2 gallon later, no flow anymore. Looks like its time to remove the tank and wash it out, any suggestions on what to wash it out with besides H2o. If you think you have more to do than you can possibly do, just wait, you'll find out you have more to do than you could possibly think.

DuaneW.

 

How about thinning with straight diesel?

 

I am having the same problems with my bike after a few years of sitting.They say you can put a short piece of chain in the tank and slosh it around then flush it to loosen the sediment.I was thinking a short piece of bowden cable housing chucked in a drill might work as well but I may end up taking the tank to a radiator shop to do it properly and having the tank repainted.Ouch!!
I have taken my carbs off 4 times now to clean them (or was it 5 times?),not fun on a Virago and that is getting old fast.
There are chemical solutions (Kreem?) but they are a little spendy in my estimation.Ron G

 

AFAIK, Kreem is an epoxy coating designed to coat the inside of a rusty motorcycle fuel tank, locking the rust in place permanently. I don't know if it would work on a tank with biological sediment.

 

I meant solution as in "solution" to the problem.I understand what it does but was hoping to find a cheaper way to do it.There are additives that are supposed to deal with mold and fungus I have heard but I have no experience with them.Hope you have good luck with the pretty Mack you just bought)Ron G

 

Sounds like you have the living crud that can grow in a diesel tank under the right conditions, the so-called 'algae.' I wonder if bio diesel is more susceptible to it than dino diesel.

The additive that I like for killing the bugs is Biobor JF.

The crud grows at the water/diesel interface, so the last thing you want in your tank is water. Large tanks are sometimes cleaned by jetting them with the tanks own diesel fuel that is run through a pump and filter. The crud is removed by the filter, which may have to be changed several times before the job is done.

 

I'm having a similar issue. Too much poorly filtered WVO. Tried dilution...now I've got 20 gallons of useless fuel @ 3.00/gallon. Dropping the tank today. Here's the sending unit:

 

I was running a mix equal to about B30 in my boat. I let it sit for some months and had a strange sludge or coating that I've never seen with straight diesel. It wasn't algae or dirt. Just a hard to disolve coating of some sort. I decided to not run bio in a system where it might sit for a long time.

John

 

Having never had alge, I cant say for sure, but to be more honest, the sediment bowl screen looks more like G1625S's system. Got the flow going today, and got amost 5 gallons out of her. Gonna have to get a fire started because this stuff even smells funny, more like a paint thinner than diesel. If I can get another 5 gals out I will probably just try to dilute it down with some good diesel and run it all out. Will have to try a biocide just in case it is the alge stuff. Shoulda took some pics to post, but I didnt.

DuaneW.

PS. Sorry for making the Admins move this, thought other was ok. (was thinking diesel tractor, not fuel)

 

One thing about Bio-Diesel is that it tends to clean up the fuel system, ie. loosen up all the old scum in the tank and lines. I learned this back in the late 90's when a local bus company started using bio-diesel. The buses would stop running and changing the fuel filter would cure the problem. Its a know issue when you first switch. The issue of growth of algae has also been come up several times when the fuel sits. My take is that the bio-diesel promoted the growth just like water.