Diesel fuel, how old is too old?

[Carl Bert]

I sometimes leave my Kubota B26 with the same tank of gas for 2 years or so. How long can you keep the same fuel in a tank before it goes bad? I use the best fuel additive on the market, just not sure how long that extends its life. Thanks in advance

 

[JasG]

I've seen machinery set 3-4 years. I just finished off a storage tank this year that was 6-7 years old.

All depends on the amount of moisture it is exposed to from what I have read.

 

[Midniteoyl]

Until algae grows enough to eat it all..

 

[dragoneggs]

I was always taught with gasoline engines to run them dry of keep them topped off completely so there is little air to condense and cause moisture. Since you should never run a diesel dry I keep my tank full as much as possible. How does that sound? I never use additives.

 

[Midniteoyl]

Heard that too - Full tank, but add a biocide..

 

[Fastowl]

Newer ultra low sulphur diesel is more prone to algea growth than the older stuff. I typically run through my 250 gallon tanks about every 3-6 months and have not had a problem yet. But a biocide is something to consider.

 

[Gary Fowler]

My fuel tank holds about a years worth of fuel now that my major projects are done and I have never had an issue with water, rust or algae. The tank is inside a closed building so no rain can get to it and the tank caps seem to be pretty air tight. I have been working in the shop at nights and scared the beejesus out of me when the tank walls suck in from the slight vacuum, sounds like someone hit the tank with a hammer. I do have a 10 micron filter on it that all the fuel goes thru before it hits any of my equipment. I changed out the filter after about 3 years when the fuel flow got weak but it turned out that it was just the battery going bad and the new filter was the same way so I don't think my filter was plugged up at all after pumping only about 400 gallons.
If you can believe those reality shows, the Gold Digger in Alaska supposedly got a dozer running after setting 10 years with the same fuel. I don't think he even changed the oil, not that I would try something like that. I do know that the USA has millions of gallons of emergency reserve fuel setting in underground salt dome storage that may be 50 years old. They released some of it for domestic use during the Gulf War because of the oil shortage.

 

[Midniteoyl]

I thought the reserved was changed over every so often? And that it was crude, not refined..?

 

[Z71]

Some years ago (10+) they were installing new sewer lines in my area. The contractor hit a buried fuel tank along side a party store (in alley). The store used to have fuel pumps back in the 50's-70's as a Greyhound Bus Stop. Anyhow the local contractor pumped out the several 100's gals of fuel and used it in his equipment in exchange for not charging the property owner to remove said tank. I know the owner of the store for the last 30 yrs and he did not know there was a diesel tank buried there as the pumps were gone when he bought the store in early 1980's.

 

[Midniteoyl]

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is exclusively a crude petroleum reserve, not a stockpile of refined petroleum fuels, such as gasoline, diesel and kerosene. Although there are small-scale (2,000,000 barrels) heating oil reserves in Connecticut, Rhode Island and New Jersey under the aegis of the Department of Energy (DOE), the federal government maintains no gasoline reserves on anything like the scale of the SPR.

Strategic Petroleum Reserve (United States) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia