Will Diesel fuel go bad????

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Will Diesel go Bad?

A guy brought me a truck yesterday, 2000 Ford 7.3L. The truck Idols fine runs ok? But when driving it, and it gets in a bind(Like pulling a Hill/Passing a Car) It falls on it's face. Speed Drops power Level goes down...No Check engine Codes....Nothing?


Now to the bad Fuel... The truck has a Factory tank, Plus a Alternative tank in the bed..The guy he bought it from filled both tanks up a year ago, and never drove the truck...It had less than 200 miles on it in a year.

Fuel filter has been changed.
 
To answer your question, yes diesel can go bad. I would first suspect fuel tank delamination.

Remove the fuel filter from the canister, look at the fuel in the canister and see if there is fine dirt in the bottom or floating. You'll find plenty of info about this on the web.

If it's an algae issue you should find black goo in the filter.
 
The easiest way to tell diesel has gone bad is the long curely mustache, a top hat, and a habbit of tying young women to train tracks.
 
Drain the tank and replace fuel. Screw on a new filter with 1/2 fuel and 1/2 power service of any color and drive away. 911 works great but I just threw in some white bottle and hit the road. Dump the old fuel on the driveway to kill the grass in the rocks so at least you get some use out of it.
 
And depending what algae it is it may not even be black, but you will feel the slime. I take the tanks off and fuel lines and clean them.
 
Bio Kleen and a few tanks for new fuel are a hell-u-va lot easier than droppin' the tank....but that'd work too. :D
 
Thanks Guys...The Algae is what I suspected..It was Dark last night and I wasn't able to check it out much...Just getting My Ducks in a Row.
 
Cut the cover off the filter first. If it don't look like pond water, you got other issue and buyin' fuel treatment will be a waste of time and money.
 
4x4dually said:
Bio Kleen and a few tanks for new fuel are a hell-u-va lot easier than droppin' the tank....but that'd work too. :D
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Deff easier but it just doesnt clean it all out then dealing with the dead algae flaking off and clogging up again. I fought it with algae killer and bio kleen for months and wouldnt clear it up. Never a issue after the tank drop and didnt have to buy anymore additive or killer.
 
TMONEYDIESEL said:
Deff easier but it just doesnt clean it all out then dealing with the dead algae flaking off and clogging up again. I fought it with algae killer and bio kleen for months and wouldnt clear it up. Never a issue after the tank drop and didnt have to buy anymore additive or killer.
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I agree. I was taking for granted the filter would catch all the dead stuff. It would take a few more filters to get clean. :D
 
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ok the one i used to see if i can rid of the water in my tank (which im still fighting) was the red 911 and the white clear diesel.


ive ran the white and grey on normal driving.
 
We had a customer come in with pretty much the same proble. It turned out to be rust from the top of the tank. Chunks of it had collected in the fuel pick up screen in the bottom of the tank. We removed the screens from the intank pick up, cleaned the tank out as best we could and intalled an external inline screen that could be cleaned before the fuel pump.

Customer only had about $2500.00 into the truck and at this point was ready to drive it off a cliff.

Problem solved...

Hope this helps.
 
Torque Monkey said:
We had a customer come in with pretty much the same proble. It turned out to be rust from the top of the tank. Chunks of it had collected in the fuel pick up screen in the bottom of the tank. We removed the screens from the intank pick up, cleaned the tank out as best we could and intalled an external inline screen that could be cleaned before the fuel pump.

Customer only had about $2500.00 into the truck and at this point was ready to drive it off a cliff.

Problem solved...

Hope this helps.
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Ford calls it fuel tank delamination because the coating inside the steel tank separates and plugs the filter. Rust happens after the coating comes off and creates a whole other array of problems.
 
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