I know a guy who has 4 diesel boats in a 3rd world country. The fuel they get always has water in it. I was just down there and they blew up an injection pump on one of the boats. They have water separators but you know how that goes. I was thinking of how to solve this problem and the only thing I could come up with is the following:

A 2 tank system. Fill the first tank with the fuel off the truck. Use a hand pump with some type of floating siphon hose to pump fuel in to the second tank (fuel floats on top of water right). If anyone can lend any help I would be grateful for the help.

 

If fuel does float on top of water, couldn't you just place a valve from a radiator in the 1st tank at the bottom of the tank. Then let it drain out a little until you see the fuel? I know it is not nice to dump crap on the road so at least bleed the water off into something. Something along that line might work.

 

Standard practice on a stationary storage tank is to tilt the tank slightly towards a water drain valve and get in the habit of opening it every once in a while.

I was reading in Machinery Lubrication Magazine that water contamination is a major problem in South America. It seems they wash out tanks and barrels with water then refill them before they dry out.

 

I guess I don't understand why they didn't catch it with the water separator. The diesel in my ex-boat had two filters in series. First was a CAV, followed by a Racor 500 with a glass bowl with alarm contacts.

It is also normal practice to have the tank pickup way off of the bottom of the tank, so that crud and water doesn't get sucked up. Both my 55 gallon tanks had ten gallons unusable as a safety factor. I also regularly dipped the tanks with a product called a stick-wick (I think I'm remembering the name correctly) that indicated the presence of water.

Also, and I have no way to verify this, a friend told me about putting into a third world port and noticed that half the local fishing boats seemed to be undergoing an engine rebuild. He became suspicious of the fuel, which he had no choice but to purchase, in order to get out of there. To him, it didn't feel slippery enough and seemed unusually clear. As a precautionary measure, he threw a couple of quarts of motor oil in his tank before he filled up. It seemed to work, as he did not encounter any engine problems after that.