It's getting time to pull the boat for the season. I filled my tank (38gal.) two years ago. When I pull my boat in October I will still have half a tank of two year old fuel. I have always read to keep clean fresh fuel in the the tank also to keep the tank full to prevent condensation. My dilemma is do I fill my tank before I pull out or do I keep running out the old fuel. Any advise
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Diesel has a short 'shelf life' .......
The following URl will help you determine the best course of action: http://www.bp.com.au/fuelnews/ADF1402.pdf Keeping a tank full implies storing of ageing fuel to minimize the ingress of water vapor. If you have a STRONG (pressure/vacuum rated) tank then the answer is simple simply lock out the vent with a valve to prevent moisture ingress while the boat is stored ..... most boat tanks cannot withstand such pressures/vacuums. Keeping the minimum amount of fuel in the tank is best with regards to fuel ageing, tank particles, degradation of the fuel. Sure, stabilizers can partly help with decomposiition, but cannnot address the volitization of the lighter fractions of fuel from simply going out the vent. If you buy your fuel from a high turnover source - ie: truck stop, or waterman's depot then you can be somewhat assured that the fuel is fresh to begin with. However if you buy your fuel from a marina ..... then the fuel is probably 'old' even before you put it on board. My personal solution is simple: only put onboard the fuel that I need plus some 'reserve'. To prevent water vapor condensation I applied a desiccant canister to the vent line to adsorb water vapor. Such a cannister is regenerable (350 degress for 8 hours) in your home cooking oven and are available from an air compressor supply .... or simply make your own housing and use silica gel as the desiccant ... also put in a small amount of 'indicator' gel that turns from blue to pink when disiccant is saturated. Both problems solved at the same time!
The following URl will help you determine the best course of action: http://www.bp.com.au/fuelnews/ADF1402.pdf Keeping a tank full implies storing of ageing fuel to minimize the ingress of water vapor. If you have a STRONG (pressure/vacuum rated) tank then the answer is simple simply lock out the vent with a valve to prevent moisture ingress while the boat is stored ..... most boat tanks cannot withstand such pressures/vacuums. Keeping the minimum amount of fuel in the tank is best with regards to fuel ageing, tank particles, degradation of the fuel. Sure, stabilizers can partly help with decomposiition, but cannnot address the volitization of the lighter fractions of fuel from simply going out the vent. If you buy your fuel from a high turnover source - ie: truck stop, or waterman's depot then you can be somewhat assured that the fuel is fresh to begin with. However if you buy your fuel from a marina ..... then the fuel is probably 'old' even before you put it on board. My personal solution is simple: only put onboard the fuel that I need plus some 'reserve'. To prevent water vapor condensation I applied a desiccant canister to the vent line to adsorb water vapor. Such a cannister is regenerable (350 degress for 8 hours) in your home cooking oven and are available from an air compressor supply .... or simply make your own housing and use silica gel as the desiccant ... also put in a small amount of 'indicator' gel that turns from blue to pink when disiccant is saturated. Both problems solved at the same time!
Storage
Paul is right, top the tank with fuel and use the amount of Sta-Bil recommended on the container. Been doing it for years, works great.
Paul is right, top the tank with fuel and use the amount of Sta-Bil recommended on the container. Been doing it for years, works great.
Top it up
I am similar to you in that I only use 1/4 to 1/2 a tank of diesel each season. I fill up before haulout and have never had a fuel problem. Last year I finally found a diesel stabilizer which I added for good measure. Check the labels because everyone sells fuel stabilizer, but I think most of it is for gas. I'm on Lake Ontario so the time on the hard and winter temps would be similar to what you get in Ohio. Kevin
I am similar to you in that I only use 1/4 to 1/2 a tank of diesel each season. I fill up before haulout and have never had a fuel problem. Last year I finally found a diesel stabilizer which I added for good measure. Check the labels because everyone sells fuel stabilizer, but I think most of it is for gas. I'm on Lake Ontario so the time on the hard and winter temps would be similar to what you get in Ohio. Kevin
Intresting story for ya.
Intresting story. I am pretty active on another site, (stink boat site) and since I plan to go back to my roots as I sailboater I figure I could kibitz with you guys. Right? Ok here goes-----------One of our members bought a 23 ft. power boat out in Santa Barbara this summer. He told us that the boat sat at the Marina for 10 yrs as a result of an estate settlement.The member kept us informed all through the purchase process. First time to look n' see, second time to install fresh batteries and to try and start the engine which BTW is a 6cyl diesel that did start after a fuel filter change. Another time for this and that and so on. Finally sea trials. The diesel exhaust was a dry type that came up through the cockpit deck with a wire type heat schield,and was very loud. Motoring out from the dock and into the channel they found it had a problem steering to port. As they throttled up the steering got worse, and at WOT it did about 7 Kts, and of course not up on a plane. Back to the dock and the next day was haul out. Now we see that there was some long stringey green stuff,some as long as 13 feet. After scrapping and a fresh coat of bottom paint the boat was put back to sea and ran good 15 kts GPS and steered real well,however no plane so the boat now had a new captian. So far two sea trials on 10 year old diesel. Soon we got a post about the first fishing trip started with topping off the fuel tanks and heading to the ocean. Boat is running just fine on 10 year old diesel. Amazing. Or is it they just don't make thing like they uss'ta ??
Intresting story. I am pretty active on another site, (stink boat site) and since I plan to go back to my roots as I sailboater I figure I could kibitz with you guys. Right? Ok here goes-----------One of our members bought a 23 ft. power boat out in Santa Barbara this summer. He told us that the boat sat at the Marina for 10 yrs as a result of an estate settlement.The member kept us informed all through the purchase process. First time to look n' see, second time to install fresh batteries and to try and start the engine which BTW is a 6cyl diesel that did start after a fuel filter change. Another time for this and that and so on. Finally sea trials. The diesel exhaust was a dry type that came up through the cockpit deck with a wire type heat schield,and was very loud. Motoring out from the dock and into the channel they found it had a problem steering to port. As they throttled up the steering got worse, and at WOT it did about 7 Kts, and of course not up on a plane. Back to the dock and the next day was haul out. Now we see that there was some long stringey green stuff,some as long as 13 feet. After scrapping and a fresh coat of bottom paint the boat was put back to sea and ran good 15 kts GPS and steered real well,however no plane so the boat now had a new captian. So far two sea trials on 10 year old diesel. Soon we got a post about the first fishing trip started with topping off the fuel tanks and heading to the ocean. Boat is running just fine on 10 year old diesel. Amazing. Or is it they just don't make thing like they uss'ta ??
I'm still running diesel from Canada bought in
2004. Seems fine. When we started the rebuild of our boat in 2000 my 69 Camaro was left parked in the garage. In 2005 I changed the oil and installed a two new batteries. (AG MS) Are you ready? Drum roll,,,, Yes, it fired up instantly and ran great on 5 year old gas. Ah, Chevy muscle cars.
2004. Seems fine. When we started the rebuild of our boat in 2000 my 69 Camaro was left parked in the garage. In 2005 I changed the oil and installed a two new batteries. (AG MS) Are you ready? Drum roll,,,, Yes, it fired up instantly and ran great on 5 year old gas. Ah, Chevy muscle cars.
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