Question for Pat McCartin, et al
I've put about 1400hrs on my '01-420 going back and forth from Norfolk to the Keys for the past 4 years... so I've fueled up quite a bit. I've always used a Baha fuel filter and the several addatives recommended by Yanmar. I do have an Algae-X, although I can't really say that it has done much good. At commissioning in '01, I installed a Racor duel fuel filter manifold that allows switching between either of 2 Racor filters... its come in handy several times as one Racor has begun to become clogged. This Spring, on the way back North, the valve failed on the manifold ( the internal plastic part galled). I called Racor, and to my pleased surprise was told that they had realized that the part was poorly engineered and volunteered to send me an entire new manifold unit... kudos to Racor... When I changed the units out, I was dismayed to find so much fine black particulate crud in the entire assembly despite all of my precautions (and obviously never having any signifigant amount of old fuel in the tank). Asking around, I was told that diesel fuel has small amounts of asphalt suspended in the fuel and over time the asphalt percipatates out of suspension. This creates the crud found in every fuel tank and filter assembly.... So, to the question... is this actually true about diesel fuel? I've never heard of people w/ diesel powered vehicles complaining of this problem. If it is true, is the only solution periodic fuel polishing??? Buck Harrison s/v L'Attitude
I've put about 1400hrs on my '01-420 going back and forth from Norfolk to the Keys for the past 4 years... so I've fueled up quite a bit. I've always used a Baha fuel filter and the several addatives recommended by Yanmar. I do have an Algae-X, although I can't really say that it has done much good. At commissioning in '01, I installed a Racor duel fuel filter manifold that allows switching between either of 2 Racor filters... its come in handy several times as one Racor has begun to become clogged. This Spring, on the way back North, the valve failed on the manifold ( the internal plastic part galled). I called Racor, and to my pleased surprise was told that they had realized that the part was poorly engineered and volunteered to send me an entire new manifold unit... kudos to Racor... When I changed the units out, I was dismayed to find so much fine black particulate crud in the entire assembly despite all of my precautions (and obviously never having any signifigant amount of old fuel in the tank). Asking around, I was told that diesel fuel has small amounts of asphalt suspended in the fuel and over time the asphalt percipatates out of suspension. This creates the crud found in every fuel tank and filter assembly.... So, to the question... is this actually true about diesel fuel? I've never heard of people w/ diesel powered vehicles complaining of this problem. If it is true, is the only solution periodic fuel polishing??? Buck Harrison s/v L'Attitude
