DTCOOPER said:Okay guys,
I have always been a lucky one, never to worry about water in my fuel or some such horrors..
I had a 5 gallon can of diesel, that had sat outside for a week or so. During which time I think it rained. I thought, heck, that little bitty spout, surely not enough rain got into it to hurt anything.
Well, I should have known when I poured some into the garden sprayer and sprayed a bursh pile to burn it, and it was VERY SLOW TO LIGHT AND BURN.
Well, I poured the rest into the tractor (Case D33) since it was very low on fuel. I took off across the barn yard, to go push up some more brush with the FEL, and about 100 yards away, the tractor idled down very very low, spit a little white smoke, and had zero power, despite the throttle position.
It sat there idling about 500 rpm for 5-10 seconds, then died.
Any attempt to start it anymore, was met with it "trying" to start, and occasional puffs of white smoke. I tried for 15 seconds 2 or 3 times, and just stopepd and went inside for the night as it was already getting dark..
NOW that I have done this, what are my options? Is there a simple additive I can add to the mix? Do I need to drain the fuel tank, lines, etc, and start over with clean fuel? Is there a simple solution, or does any effective solution require much mechanic"ing" and down time ?
Help fellas !!
Daniel
Options? Well, first off you need to go to the local feed mill and find the guy with the biggest feet and ask him to put a boot up side your....! You really should have known better, especially once you saw it wouldn't even burn. Oh well, we've all been there and done that. No long term harm and it has taught a valuable lesson on fuel integrity.
Ok, that's out of my system. On to more constructive input.
There are many additives you can use to correct the problem with out draining the tank. (in fact, you SHOULD be using one of them normally to add lubricity as the new USLD has lost a LOT of lubricity) One of the most available is from a company called PowerService. They have a white bottle additive that has an anti-gel property and raises cetane, a silver bottle that improves lubricity and cetane and a red bottle called diesel 911. That's what you want, the 911. Use 4 oz per gal of fuel to get the water to go into solution where it can be injected and burned. There is one you find an many truck stops called Howes Fuel Treat. That's a good one too.
BUT, as you did have an almost empty tank, just drain it from the fuel filter housing back into your (fire starting) can. As others have said, new fuel filter, new fuel (full tank!!), put in some PowerService Silver, bleed the injectors and pump. Then it will fire up and run good.
Now, if you didn't have much water in the fuel, you can just add some of the diesel 911, fill the tank up all the way, put on a new fuel filter and it should start once the good fuel hits the injectors. It's a bit like playing chicken with a Mack truck - will the battery go dead or will it start ?
jb
