I am an aircraft mechanic in the military. We take samples on the aircraft every 24 hours if the aircraft is scheduled to fly. Before we ever fuel the aircraft we take fuel samples from the truck bringing the fuel.

Now I know that people would look at me crazy if they see me at the fuel pump putting fuel in a mason jar and giving it a good spin to check for contamination.... so....

For the big old helos I work on we drain less then a gallon and then take a sample, after it has sat for a period of time (2 hours) is best.

I am gunna apply the same concept to my chariot, except i am only gunna take samples on the 1st of every month.

What is everyone elses practices when it comes to fuel samples?

AMC

 

We sample incoming fuel and take weekly fuel samples from our above ground tanks. We lost so much money and downtime to contamination its unreal. So new policy is fuel must come from the yard as we got rid of fuel cards completely. Had over a million dollar loss in fuel contamination in 2016 and it's never going to happen again according to upper management.

Believe it or not only one of these occurrences was from emulsified water and it killed several pickup trucks. We lost 3 CAT 385 C18 engines in a row because of E85 laced fuel from a supplier and those things are right at 60k from CAT plus labor and downtime. Jump forward 2 months and fire season is in full swing and two rural use generators with CAT C27 engines melt pistons. Ultimately human error prevailed here and 87 octane was pumped directly into the 2k fuel cell and left to run for the next few hours.With those engines costing over 120k used the quick choice for brand new C32 powered generators totaling 530k was made.

I'm personally paranoid about fuel quality so I always do a sniff test before pumping and always pump into my transfer tank. Out of the transfer tank is a 10 and 2 micron fuel filter with water separator.

 

Side question, why do you need 750KW's in fire season?

Our guys like pulling up to the gas, and pump the gas right in the diesel. Took one guy 2 hours to pump diesel in to a gasser, click,click, click,click....then he called before he started the rental.

When it comes to drop tanks, we tend to put diesel them, (when empty and makered GAS only).....kills me!!!!

The best is diesel in 5 gal gas cans!!

 

Are you going to sample your truck's fuel once a month? Seems like that might be too late if you have bad fuel. Why not sample it at the pump; although how would you dispose of the sample? We are not even allowed to dump the small sample of avgas (which evaporates quickly) from a light plane on the ramp; at least if someone sees us. I'm also a little paranoid about fuel, but this seems like a lot of trouble. Don't know what the answer is; insurance? I always inspect the fuel when I drain my separator; I think I've seen a little water only once or twice in the past 20 years of running PSD's.

 

I only fill up once a month, I have only had my PS since December. I have had no issues to date, and I want to keep it that way. I was just curious as to what everyone else does. How insane some get and others just let it take its course. I will say that with the sample I got today it was debris free.

-AMC

 

On my '14 I installed an additional filter/separator; not yet on this one.

 

You can check the fuel /water separator all you want .....it’s a crap shoot if you will find water there.

most of the cases of blown fuel pumps involve zero traceability across the water separator, water monitor, water related stored codes , etc.

the water separator will never collect emulsified water.

technical people do not agree that all these fuel pump cases are cases by water in the fuel.

the root cuase is the fuel change that occurred in 2007 resulting in lower lube value in the fuel.

furl pump manufactures have not caught up to this yet .


in the mean while, let’s blame it on emulsified water .

 

after 30+ years of helicopter maintenance I have never found water in a helicopter fuel system. but they still get sumped every morning. I have driven diesel trucks almost as long and have had water in my fuel 1 time about 10 years ago, totaling all the miles in all my diesels I am over 1 million miles, having said that i am still gunshy about the fuel in my 19 F450 and only fuel at one local station and high volume truck stops when traveling and have every receipt for every drop of fuel put in my truck. I have only checked the water separator once and it was clean and no water.

 

This is why I buy all my fuel locally at a new Costco, keep all receipts, and when on the road I fuel up using my commercial card lock. If I have to get fuel from a non card lock, I keep all receipts.

main thing is to drain the separator after the tank up has settled over night. If you fuel up and check it right away it’s not going to show anything. And make sure your using the proper DP ford filter with the water block membrane.

and it’s true, any additives that emulsify the water, will not be caught by the filter, will not be drained in the separator, and will not trigger a WIF. So, be sure to buy fuel from a reputable source. If they have old tanks and water issues, they can stretch the use of their tanks by adding emulsifier, but eventually they will end up with claims against their insurance.

 

Are you referring to a Motocraft FD-4625?

 

nice 30 years!!! that is awesome.

I will say that I have found fuel in the helicopter a few times, of course that was when I was on the ship and THE SHIP was giving us crappy fuel, go figure!!

-AMC

 

Even doing powerline work in Puerto Rico after the hurricane we never got any water in our samples, our helicopters lived about 200 feet from the beach.

 

Next tine ask the Ship Engineer to run the fuel first through the onboard Alfa Laval.