[Fulltiming]

I know that most of you are aware of the issues that one tank of bad diesel can cause but I thought you might like to see the visible evidence.

Back in 2008, when we were living fulltime in our coach, we left Austin on our way to Yuma, Arizona. We filled up at the Flying J in Anthony, TX. We drove on toward Yuma. After the 8 split near Casa Grande, I noticed that the coach seemed low on power. By the time we got to Wellton, it was really low on power and I thought the Fortuna Hills east of Yuma were going to be unmanageable. Got over the hills in 1st gear. Had the fuel filters changed on the engine and the oil and oil filter and fuel filter changed on the generator. I cut open the two engine fuel filters to see if that was the likely issue. The photos show what I found.



After our visit in Yuma, we drove to Newport Beach and I had a marine service company come out and filter all of my fuel and return it to the tanks. Of course I changed out the fuel filters again.

These filters had been in the coach less than 5 months and about 8,700 miles.

[Erniee]

My 88 with 8v92 had fuel contamination issues. I always kept extra Racor and engine filters in the bay- plus a gallon of diesel to top off the filters. I sold the coach last week, and as a nice gesture, I changed the Racor- it looked just as black as your photo, and the engine filter.
Now the new owner can get on the road and be trouble free. I included a couple of filters in the bay for him.

[Chester Stone]

Looks to me like algae contamination which is similar to coffee grounds. This frequently happens in boats that sit for awhile with untreated fuel. Most large marine service firms can polish the fuel to clean out the dead algae. I treat my fuel with Fuel Prep 1000 anytime my coach sits for more than two weeks in a hot climate.

[prairieschooner]

Our '82 had been sitting for 7+ years and since I was concerned about just this I took a different approach than "polishing". Polishing is simply filtering. Most of the companies will then clean the tank by spraying the sides of the tank to knock off any debris with the filtered fuel.
Since my '82 has Black Iron Tanks I chose another solution, one that was effective on our sailboat. 1st I replaced the Filters, then I replaced them after the first couple of hours and then after a few hours. Each time I would look at the Filters to see the condition and soon was going at 8 hours or so. When we got back from the Creede Rally the Fuel was normal.
The reason that I took this approach was that the 92 Series Detroit returns so much fuel and so is constantly "polishing" the fuel by design being "Military".

[whatsnewell]

Our '82 had been sitting for 7+ years and since I was concerned about just this I took a different approach than "polishing". Polishing is simply filtering. Most of the companies will then clean the tank by spraying the sides of the tank to knock off any debris with the filtered fuel.
Since my '82 has Black Iron Tanks I chose another solution, one that was effective on our sailboat. 1st I replaced the Filters, then I replaced them after the first couple of hours and then after a few hours. Each time I would look at the Filters to see the condition and soon was going at 8 hours or so. When we got back from the Creede Rally the Fuel was normal.
The reason that I took this approach was that the 92 Series Detroit returns so much fuel and so is constantly "polishing" the fuel by design being "Military".

Steve, thanks for sharing. I knew that a lot of fuel is returned to the tank, but never thought of the process as "polishing the fuel"....good to know. Hope all is well with you and Patricia. Enjoying the cooler temps up here in Northern Idaho!