55 gallon barrel... "full" of old diesel

[Hay Dude]

Do what Mosstoad tell you first an see what in barrel. No point to yackin till you know got water or not.

“Mosstoad”
lol

 

[lman]

I assume it was stored inside. If not, I would walk away from it.

 

[Richard]

Mosstoad

Can I quote you on this? Oh wait.....too late lol.



@MossRoad

 

[CoyPatton]

For 20 gallons of free burn pile fuel, I would go for it without delay!
That may be all it is good for, especially if it gas algae growth in it. If the plastic barrel has sat where it is subject to temperature changes, I will suspect some water simply from condensation. More if the plugs were not tightened the entire time.

 

[rocco611]

Where I work we have huge emergency diesel generators that run off a 5000 gallon tanks , these generators get very little use, some of the fuel is over 20 years old. a contractor comes out once a year, tests the fuel and puts an additive in. never had a problem with the fuel going bad.

 

[BruceLem]

Neighbor says he's got a 55 gallon drum of diesel that is "full of fuel" BUT is (I forget) maybe up to 10 years old.... maybe he said 5-8. None the less, it's not what you might call fresh from the pump.

I've never seen the drum
He's a good guy (so not trying to pull any fast one)
He does NOT have any use for diesel. Apparently it was left behind when they had a bulldozer out on their 40'ish acres doing work and it was left over from the job.

I could probably use that up between now and the fall just cutting the farm and/or doing backhoe work.

You know know as much as I know (forgot to mention the implication is it would be free to me if I could use it)

Side note, I could use the drum too, presuming it's metal and could work as a burn barrel.

So.... do you trust old diesel like this? Do you dump some conditioner in it and then look at it? I've never been faced with old diesel. I can use it to start my fires but it will last me 5 years or more so don't like that idea.

No idea how to approach this. Moving it might also be an issue unless the lid can lock down on it.

Thoughts?

I'd say to take a whiff and see if smells like diesel or more like varnish. If it smells like varnish I wouldn't use it.

 

[PaPaGill]

Diesel grows stuff in it when it sets and not used. As mentioned by someone earlier, it would be good for burn pile and I wouldn't put it in an engine.

 

[Industrial Toys]

Have had many, many thousands of litres of Diesel around here since 72. And mostly very little turnover. Nothing EVER growed in it.

I also guarantee you, every bulk tank I ever had or have today has water in the bottom of it and we have never made any attempt to remove it. We have large seasonal and daily temperature swings and humidity.

Just tripple mask and stop worrying about problems that don't exist.

 

[I Piddle]

I know our small airport gives or sells at a discount old jet fuel to farmers to use in tractors. Jet fuel is just a different grade of diesel.

 

[MossRoad]

Where I work we have huge emergency diesel generators that run off a 5000 gallon tanks , these generators get very little use, some of the fuel is over 20 years old. a contractor comes out once a year, tests the fuel and puts an additive in. never had a problem with the fuel going bad.

Last year at my employer we had a generator start acting up. It's got a 200 gallon tank-base. Running rough and surging. To make long story short, after much troubleshooting, they found the return fuel line back to the tank was plugged with crud. Camera inspection of tank showed algae all over the place. Fuel was last filled about 10 years before that. They dumped in a bunch of algaecide, filled it, circulated it, drained it, inspected it, filled it again and put algaecide in it again. All better. I run it for 30 minutes once a month. Apparently they have been doing that since it was installed in the 90s. Time and algae just caught up with it.