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In the early years of this ‘03 I did, it was a normal occurrence and I drained at 1 to 2 month intervals. I had the WIF light come on a few times, and I had to clean out the water chamber when I finally shut down the fuel heater. The frequency was what motivated me to move the HFCM to behind the transfer case.
As the fuel changed, very little.
So is there the same amount of water in the fuel, just dispersed, or not. And I don’t have a definitive answer to that.
I would bet that the water content in typical diesel is less than 200 ppm (assuming it has not been stagnant in an open tank somewhere). At one time I believe that was an ASTM requirement. I considered having Polaris do an analysis (Karl Fisher) on our local fuel back in the early days. Never did - it would have only been "out of curiosity".
I don't have links to all the work George Morrison did back then. Maybe if I installed an old hard drive I'd still have it, but it was quite extensive.
I would bet that the water content in typical diesel is less than 200 ppm (assuming it has not been stagnant in a tank somewhere). At one time I believe that was an ASTM requirement. I considered having Polaris do an analysis (Karl Fisher) on our local fuel back in the early days. Never did - it would have only been "out of curiosity".
I read something this morning (IIRC it was another article on the bell performance website) that said water content can go as high as 270ppm. It began with the reduction of sulfur content, but the addition of biodiesel along with different additives makes it worse.
My experience has been the same regarding the lack of water draining from the HFCM. I've never seen my WIF light come on except at start-up. I was originally thinking that the gunk sits on the bottom of the tank because that's where the water settles, but if it's true that diesel fuel has become more hydrophilic, it's probably sitting at the bottom for no other reason than being heavier than the solution.
When I was digging this morning I found a sailboat blog where a guy set-up a "fuel polishing" system using a Racor water separator/filter and a little fuel pump. I may go this way to clean-up my stored fuel. I called tech support at the Racor store and he said it would work for diesel or gasoline, and that I should pre-filter all the gunk out, and run it through a couple of times. It would also be a good idea to mix new fuel with the old before cycling it through my truck.
I was thinking about a return regulator set-up, but maybe a higher priority should be placed on an inline filter like the Racor filter/separator with the proper flow rate specification. Yeah, you could say that article is pretty scary.
One thing I try to avoid is filling up when a supplier is unloading fuel into the tank. Obviously you can't know when it has just recently been done, but I will go elsewhere if I see a truck unloading. At one time I carried a jar w/ me to use for collecting a sample out of the fuel pump nozzle -- just to get a visual of the fuel before putting much into the tank. Easy enough to dump the sample into the tank after filling up. I lost interest in that fairly quickly though.
I saved some information on fuel from the early days. One bit of information is that diesel fuel will start to look "hazy" at 150 ppm water. I have to say I have not ever seen hazy fuel except for the biodiesel that I used to buy in 5 gallon containers to add to each fill-up (emphasis on "used to").
These couplers were galvanized. I cheaped out instead of spending $20ea on stainless. I asked on here if it would be a problem before I did it (3 years ago) and it was either Jack or Randy iirc that said it would probably be ok. Well, we now know for sure not to put galvanized in a diesel fuel tank.
On another note, does anyone have any idea why fuel sending units are so flippin' expensive for what they are? Napa and O'Reilly are outrageous, some upwards of $800!
You had already made the decision, done the work and had the truck running down the road.
My comment "I've not heard of anyone who had issues" referred to "copper and brass".
And for the guys who have not used stainless as I have recommended, including heated debates with Hutch back in 2002 as to why it should be stainless, this is the first I've seen an issue when not following my recommendation of stainless. I agree 100% it should not be used, I've always told people to use stainless when they are contemplating any fuel work. That includes the $15 x2 stainless Swageloks I used on relocating my HFCM.
Thanks for setting the record straight. It wasn't meant as a shot, Jack, but merely general consensus as I remembered it. Also to set the record straight, I said earlier that the couplers were galvanized, but apparently they were zinc plated.
Obviously you aren't the only one around here that doesn't always remember.
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