Large block of solid fuel in my tank, blocking pickup

[Egon]

Hopefully the tank will be clean after your latest endevours.:thumbsup::thumbsup:

Your kitchen may have a strainer with quite small sized mesh.

 

[Don87]

I used a T-shirt to filter fuel a few weeks ago, quicker than paper. Worked well.

 

[Skyco]

I use coffee filters all the time to run stuff through...do a pretty good job. Hard part is finding something to put them in that works like the one on the coffee machine, ridges to hold the paper up etc...save your old one if you ever toss a coffee maker. What I use now is a reuseable coffee filter basket with fine brass mesh, put the paper filter in it to catch smaller stuff...

 

[Egon]

There are fine mesh filters which will hold hater but let gasoline through. They should work for diesel?

 

[DonnieP]

The best filter you can get is an old felt hat, fits right in a funnel and won't let water through. My father never put a drop of gas in the tractor without putting it through an old hat. The hat and funnel always hung on a nail in the garage. Don't know how fast diesel will go through, it might take a while.

Donnie

 

[jlrsn]

Regarding Felt Hats as Fuel Filters:
I always carried old felt hats when I flew my personal airplane (C210) out of the country. I had to refuel in Esmeralda, Equator at an old jungle airstrip back in 74 when fuel supplies en-route were scarce and I filtered the fuel from an old 55 gallon barrel which filled the hats with rust. Problems started an hour North of Lima, Peru when the engine quit without warning. I was at 9,500' MSL and finally got the engine going and continued to Lima, Peru (Callao) where I drained the remaining fuel and cleaned the filters. Next problem was downwind for landing at La Serena, Chile for fuel when the engine quit again and I dead-sticked to the runway. After arriving in Santiago, Chile where I stayed for a month, I drained and scrubbed the fuel tanks and cleaned the fuel filters. I never used felt hats again!!

 

[Zephrant]

The coffee filters are a great idea- Unfortunately I don't drink coffee, so didn't have any around. I like the idea of finding a metal coffee filter and fitting it to a funnel though.

After I got the 3 gallons of fuel from one can in the tractor at the rate of a quart every 15 minutes or so I was feeling good, so tried some fuel out of the 5g can I originally drained the tank in too back before I found the big block of junk. I got about a pint in then it clogged up the paper towel, such that it didn't finish even when left overnight.

So I think I've got about 3g of slash pile starter in one of my cans now.

I've not had any run time on the tractor since latest clog was removed. Might get some snow this weekend though, so we'll see.

 

[redharley]

I would not put that used fuel back in the tank.Use it for brush fire's or something.Get your self 5 gallons of new fuel,remove fuel line from tank and plug tank fitting.add fuel to tank,Remove plug and allow some fuel to run into a container,Does it run a full stream? if so move down stream to where line goes into filter do same thing,then on to other side of filter. I beleive you still have a blockage somewhere.That crap could have filter head blocked also.Maybe get a cheap inline filter at Napa and bypass your filter alltogether for a test drive. That stuff no matter what it is was not in that hard block when it was put in there for sure. I would bet some made it down stream for sure. Good luck

 

[spruce Deere]

Yes, sounds like you have a small supply of slash pile remover. I would not try to reuse the stuff....

Bypass filter as redharley says with common inline filter, test drive and see.

Process of elimination

 

[WilliamTO-35]

That hard chunk is odd indeed. If it is something like epoxy, it would take a lot of it . Perhaps it is that fuel tank sealer that never got distributed properly. I'd be wary of running your engine from fuel from that tank. Pieces from the chunk may slowly dissolve or react with your fuel, and harm your injectors, injection pump, or engine. On my gasoline Ferguson TO-35, I gave up on getting my original gas tank clean and in good shape. I bought a steel 3 gallon gas tank that was used with a small Mercury outboard motor. I soldered a hose barb fitting onto the tank, and mounted the tank on top of the original tractor tank, along with an inline gas filter. This outboard tank has a screw air vent built into the cap. I may or may not ever get around to trying to restore the original tank, but for the meanwhile the outboard tank works fine.