I have water in my diesel what should I do

[stevenf]

bill ordinarily I'd think you were right but in this case. I got the tank, diesel, hose,valves,regular can filter (not water trap) and everything Installed by them and from them, all in November and the Owner of the company came out to meet me and help with the install. They are the only ones to touch it other than me to dispense diesel twice and so its probably in his best interest to do the right thing and it sounds like they are going to. We'll all see pretty quick as they are coming thursday morning. I did stop by TSC on the way home and got a Goldenrod water trap filter with a see thru canister with a drain cock on it that I'll install after the diesel guys get thru so that they can't give me any grief about having messed with it in any way.
My tractor book says to refill the tank after every use in order to keep the tank full to avoid condensation do any of you folks do this or are they CYA'ing? I can't believe anyone would do this but I'd love to hear ya'lls thoughts maybe I'm wrong it just seems silly on a 23 gallon tank to refill it everyday that I start it since it only uses a gallon a hour I can easily go 3 days and still have at least a 1/4 tank when I've fill it just to be safe about not getting down someplace and running out.
Steve

 

[Darren]

Steven that's why I suggested installing a Racor water separator before your injection pump. I suspect what you're calling a water trap on your tractor is just the sediment bowl below the fuel filter.

 

[stevenf]

Darren on the M9000 it really does have a stock water seperator connected in the fuel line with a white line on it about half way up on the bottle and a red float to indicate the amount of water in the trap. When it gets to the white line you need to stop and dump it out before it gets to the injector pump.
Steve

 

[Darren]

Do you have to check for water or is there an instrument panel indication that tells you when the water should be drained?

 

[Bird]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( My tractor book says to refill the tank after every use in order to keep the tank full to avoid condensation do any of you folks do this or are they CYA'ing? )</font>

Yes, I did do that with my tractors; partially to avoid condensation although I didn't expect that to be a problem at my location. So the other reason was simply so that I knew the tractor was ready to go anytime I needed it.

 

[stevenf]

no instruments panel indication. On the right side of the tractor mounted I think after the sediment filter is a plastic jar canister its not very big about 6" long and 2" across and halfway up the jar is a painted white line in the bottom of the seperator is a red ring that sinks in diesel and floats in water when it floats up to the white line its time to dump it and if you have my problem and it keeps happening its time to figure out why. Tommorrow is the day hopefully the Diesel distributor owner is meeting me at the ranch at 9:30 to do his paste check of the tank to see if there is really water in the storage tank or not.
What I'm sweating now is if there is not then what I can't believe that the tractor tank would sweat as many ounces of water as I've drained out of the seperator in the last week. Can a tractor somehow be putting water in the fuel like a leaky water jacket or something and if so how?
Does anyone other than Bird fill up their tank everyday when they are through working and getting ready to park it for the night?
Steve

 

[billbill1]

Steven, I hope the supplier can give you some answers, I know how frustrating the water thing can be, been there-done that. There has to be a simple explanation. Good luck!!

 

[Darren]

There's nothing wrong with your tractor. There's no way for water from the cooling system to get into your fuel tank. I'm curious why Kubota added a separator when they've built and sold lots of tractors without them. Having one is a good idea. The floating ring deal strikes me as a pita. As I've said a couple of times, most Racor units have a provision for a sensor that will energize a lamp when the water needs to be dumped.

Ford used to install a separator on the light duty diesel trucks that also lit a warning on the panel when the water got too high. All you had to do was pull a handle on the floor and it dumped the water. I replaced it with a Racor.

 

[kozak]

Yeah...I am just starting to keep the tank full. Had starting problems earlier in the fall but think it was more related to summer fuel. With all the snow we already had cannot afford to have tractor not start so is cheap insurance.

 

[stevenf]

Darren after looking at it I certainly agree that it is a PITA but in this case it did keep me from running water into my injectors. I think I'm going to look for a replacement bottle with a drain cock then with the tractor running I could slowly open it and drain the water out the bottom without loosing fuel pressure. The way it is now you shut the tractor down unscrew and dump the bottle which puts air in the system and then have to screw it back on open a relief valve midway up the engine compartment go around to the left climb back on the tractor reach all the way under the hood on the right on the hinged end do some contortions and a little dance while pumping the manual fuel pump up to repressurize the fuel system climb back off shut the relief valve and restart at full throttle then slow it down to half way and let it run of course in my case I get back off now and go look at the seperator only to find its full of water again. Boy that drain cock is sounding better and better. They probably don't make one that will fit.
Steve