maintenance overkill?

   / maintenance overkill? #1  

big bubba

Elite Member
Joined
Mar 7, 2007
Messages
2,753
Location
arkansas
Tractor
M8540
been known for a lot of dumb things, yet another....fueled up my M8540 & brush hogged for an hr or so. when i returned, i saw that i had neglected to replace the fuel cap (laying close to the fuel inlet)....so w/all that dust, etc. an uncovered fuel tank !!!!! tank was around 3/4 full about 15 gal. debating what to do, i finally decided to drain the entire tank :-( clean the strainer bowl, & replaced fuel filter. flushed out tank w/about 1 gal fresh fuel. the fuel looked clean but......is it possible for very fine dust particles to slip by the fuel filter? not good. all a question of microns i guess.....did i throw my money away? feel confident it's a clean system now....:2cents: thx
 
   / maintenance overkill? #2  
The price of confidence and piece of mind cannot be calculated.

I've done the same gas cap thing when discing and clouds of dust are everywhere. But I figure the fuel filter is there for a reason, like the air filter, so just put the cap on and left it.

If you have ever looked at the bottom of a diesel can that is used for storage it makes one want to strain the fuel before it even gets near the tractor. In fact, most commercial diesel stations have a pre-filter to get some of that yuck out. Some of the hand-held pumps for pumping diesel out of a 55 gallon drum or larger overhead tank have a filter right by the nozzle.

Racor Fuel Filter Funnel

ww.pall.com/pdfs/Industrial-Manufacturing/Pall_Diesel_Fuel_Filtration_-_IMDFFENb.pdf
 
   / maintenance overkill? #3  
I did the same thing with my ZTR mower mowing in a lot of dust. It had a bit of trash on the bottom when I found the cap missing, so I removed all the gas by removing the tank (2 bolts) which wasn't be a few gallons and using a vacuum sucked out all the dirt and grass from the tank. Replaced with clean fuel and 2 years later, still no problems and I still haven't replaced the fuel filter.
Diesel fuel filters are by far superior to gas filters and I am thinking that you probably wasted time and fuel by draining it out and disposing of it. The worst that could have happened is fuel filters stopped up. but all likelihood, not much trash got into the tank. At most I would have ran it down low as I dared and then vacuumed out the remaining fuel and any gunk then refilled it.
 
   / maintenance overkill?
  • Thread Starter
#4  
I did the same thing with my ZTR mower mowing in a lot of dust. It had a bit of trash on the bottom when I found the cap missing, so I removed all the gas by removing the tank (2 bolts) which wasn't be a few gallons and using a vacuum sucked out all the dirt and grass from the tank. Replaced with clean fuel and 2 years later, still no problems and I still haven't replaced the fuel filter.
Diesel fuel filters are by far superior to gas filters and I am thinking that you probably wasted time and fuel by draining it out and disposing of it. The worst that could have happened is fuel filters stopped up. but all likelihood, not much trash got into the tank. At most I would have ran it down low as I dared and then vacuumed out the remaining fuel and any gunk then refilled it.


hey thanks, good advice. don't think much debris got down there being so high up, but did wonder about fine particulates, the perfect abrasion! still glad i went with it but the more info, the better. thx
 
 
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