Rain water in diesel tank

[sailingelana]

I recently deft my fuel filler cap off after adding fuel on my Oceanis 34. It rained shortly afterwards and I suspect that a few hours worth of drizzle has contaminated my diesel. My fuel tank is about half full and I haven't tried to run the engine since.
Can anyone suggest the best course of action.
Regards, Les.

 

[Don S/V ILLusion]

If you live in hope ( optimistic approach), you can try:
1. suck out as much water as you can through the fuel level indicator hole with your lube oil extractor;
2. open the fuel line at the primary filter and allow sufficient fuel to discharge into a container [this may be futile if your pickup tube is high but at least worth the try];
3. run the engine at idle a while watching the separator bowl for water.

Frankly, none of the above will likely work and even if you think it works, you'll never know for sure unless you empty the tank and clean it out which is the "right" thing to do.

Depending on how much water actually got in, using any of the so-called "dry gas" or water absorbing methanol compounds can create an even bigger problem as they are not intended to be used with significant amounts of water and can turn the entire content of the tank bad.

 

[sailingelana]

Thanks for the advice. I might go with run at idle and watch the separator first ( I don't think we are talking about much water).

 

[sailortaylor]

I had water in the tank and I use one of those fuel polishing companies. ( polishing really means running it through a 1 mic filter) Cost 150.00. The good thing it got rid of all the years of storage gunk. You can see what comes out. I was ther when they did it.