Water in fuel? Or?

Cflanery88

Cflanery88

New member
So I put 5 gallons in my fuel cell a couple days ago and today when I went to check my fuel level I noticed I couldn’t see the bottom of the tank. So I took a sample from my water seperator and this is what came out. Hasn’t changed after 12hrs of sitting in the bottle. Temperature got down into the mid 40s but fuel was warm when I drained it after running. I realize water is separated at the bottom but why so cloudy? Bad fuel from the station? Wax separation?
cb5c42b2df193d8d2bae842d11ed6c35.jpg



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
To add it has been raining the past 4 days. And I don’t think my fill cap leaks but I haven’t ruled that out.
 
If your fuel cell has the air craft type locking cap, I don't trust those out in the weather. I went thru this with my race truck when I had it at the house for a couple weeks out in the weather, I went to add fuel and noticed water droplets under the cap when I took it off. Drained fuel tank and had some water in it. This was also an expensive 3gal fuel cell and not that old.
 
jasonc said:
If your fuel cell has the air craft type locking cap, I don't trust those out in the weather. I went thru this with my race truck when I had it at the house for a couple weeks out in the weather, I went to add fuel and noticed water droplets under the cap when I took it off. Drained fuel tank and had some water in it. This was also an expensive 3gal fuel cell and not that old.
Click to expand...

Yeah I noticed moisture and condensation but didn’t think it was getting past the O-ring. I will probably just replace it with a Billet cap style fill.
 
I filled it up with fresh clean fuel and treated it. Still no difference. Bottle contents haven’t changed. And I’m not getting any more water out of my seperator. I’m beginning to think I got contaminated fuel unless this is some winter fuel thing. Its my first time in cold weather where I can actually visibly look at my fuel in the tank. It’s been clear up until I noticed it yesterday.
 
Is that what gelled fuel looks like, maybe gets cold easy in the small fuel cell? Is it aluminum or plastic? I'm from Fl, never seen fuel gell so don't know.
 
Saw Ml and figured it has already gotten cold, just saw you said mid 40's. I assume you looked at the fuel before you poured it in?
 
SixOhh said:
are you loosing any coolant?

bud, im pretty sure only water makes diesel "foggy"
Click to expand...
No coolant loss, and there is no doubt that there was some water in the fuel. And at 32 degrees the wax in liquid form will crystallize and leave the fuel tank clouded or “foggy”. At 10-15 degrees, it will finally start to gel and clog the tank and fuel filters. The fuel cell is aluminum so maybe it did get cold enough along with not having any sort of antigel or winterizer in it to prevent it from breaking down. It’s looking better now after being treated and a couple fresh tanks run through it.

I’m thinking it had a lot to do with the 4+ inches of rain we received over a couple days of non stop raining and the fuel fill cap leaking water into the fuel cell.
 
Last edited:
that was a brain dead post... ugh.

i was on the other thread about transmission coolers and coolant temps v.s. trans temps. no more drinking and posting on a saturday... :(
 
OP, what kind of fuel additive are you using? i did a lot of reading on additives and water emulsification (sp?) years back and it was quite informative.

However, being a Texan, I have no experience on what #2 fuel oil looks like as a winter mix, or what it looks like when it is gelling over.

I assume you have an airdog of some sort? I assume this is not a daily driver... might i suggest leaving it idleing for a few hours, stopping it every 30 mins or so and checking the water seperator along the way... letting the airdog do its job till the water is gone at least.

maybe someone can educate me on what winter diesel looks like and what gelled diesel looks like.

a Texas boy don't know nuttin' bout dat:shake:

i drained my separator out of bordem and just had a little pinky thumbnail sized drop of water in there. i run optilube religiously to promote water seperation...
 

Attachments

  • diesel.jpg
    diesel.jpg
    125.8 KB · Views: 0
SixOhh said:
OP, what kind of fuel additive are you using? i did a lot of reading on additives and water emulsification (sp?) years back and it was quite informative.

However, being a Texan, I have no experience on what #2 fuel oil looks like as a winter mix, or what it looks like when it is gelling over.

I assume you have an airdog of some sort? I assume this is not a daily driver... might i suggest leaving it idleing for a few hours, stopping it every 30 mins or so and checking the water seperator along the way... letting the airdog do its job till the water is gone at least.

maybe someone can educate me on what winter diesel looks like and what gelled diesel looks like.

a Texas boy don't know nuttin' bout dat:shake:

i drained my separator out of bordem and just had a little pinky thumbnail sized drop of water in there. i run optilube religiously to promote water seperation...
Click to expand...

I just run diesel kleen additive for summer and then there winter blend when it gets colder out. Truck has an Airdog 165 and is daily driven but stored in the winter lol. I don’t let the truck idle very long maybe a couple minutes tops if I have to run into the gas station or something. And this is also my first experience with actually visibly seeing the fuel in cold weather now that I have a fuel cell. I’ve ran 2 fresh tanks through it (30 gallons) and it’s better but still cloudy and I noticed the fuel from 2 different stations look foggy but nowhere near as bad. Thinking i had a lot of water in it and the haze I have now is probably just the winter blend, because I’m not getting anymore water out of my seperator.
 
Well my fuel cell formed a crack leaking half of the fuel out but luckily a good friend tig welded it back up the next day. While it was out I went out to The Chassis Shop/Pro-Werks and picked up a new Billet fill cap to stop water from getting into the tank.
d38ec49961b7ab9af339f87ccd2c3ab5.jpg
e2067a8709d3d7ff9f029861df58ce88.jpg
08cc62678b92879ad46e8212129d76be.jpg
5e4bb497d95ce485f39e09b5af7f8eaa.jpg



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top