It Must Be Hay Season (Contaminated Diesel)

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  I made this tank about maybe 24ish years ago, and I regret to this day, not putting a drain plug in it.  Dunno what I was thinking at the time, but I completely spaced it out I guess.  So...........the only way to get water out of the bottom is to use a siphon hose.  PITA.Anyways  

I can't be sure, but I'd estimate I got close to 3-5 gallons of free water out of it.  Hasn't been drained in probably 3 years...dunno.  I do know that it might be at least 2yrs since I hauled any diesel in the tank.  Haven't cut hay for that long, what with the equipment problems.  So...this diesel is completely contaminated with solids.  The bottom of the tank is very rusty from all those years of water sitting there.

  After draining the water, the remaining diesel looked like this.The water was drained in the driveway until diesel started to come out.  Then I moved the trailer down past the back gate to drain all of the remaining diesel.

  Backing the short distance to the back gate stirred up a ton of rust sediment.

  In the time it took to completely drain the tank, I took another sample.  This shows just how much of the suspended sediment dropped out of the fuel in the half hour it took to drain the remaining fuel.I'd like to completely clean the tank, but I need to get in the field by Monday at the latest, so it has to wait.  I only filled the tank with enough fuel to run the tractor for maybe 3 days.  I'll find out if the tank pump filter will cope with the rust burden.  I assume it will, because it always has.  The Goldenrod filters seem to do a very good job.We were sitting on the bumper while the tank drained.  It was nice and cool in the shade.I was talking about how hard it's going to be to clean the tank.K'kins didn't skip a beat........................................."You shoulda put man holes in it when you built it"Simple, no-nonsense, to the point.  It's why I'm crazy about her.She works in the oil patch, and there isn't a tank out there that doesn't have a man entrance for cleanout.If I had this to do over, I'd put a bolted cover in each of the 3 bays to allow arm access.  About halfway down to the bottom on the side of the tank.  The tank is divided into 3 bays due to the baffles.  Would have added a bit of work, but would have been the proper thing to do.Diesel and WaterI tried to find some honest information about the effects of water suspended in diesel.  It took nearly an hour to find something that wasn't a stinkin' advertisement for snake oil, or magic fuel filters.  Although the following are still sales pitches to some extent.https://www.cenex.com/about/cenex-in...minated-dieselhttps://www.cenex.com/about/cenex-in...-out-of-dieselhttps://www.cenex.com/fuels/faqsArticle explaining the hygroscopic nature of diesel, which is like Ethanol blended gasoline.  It's a matter of saturation.........and at some point the water drops out to the bottom of the tank.......but only to the point of maximum saturation.  Diesel will always have some emulsified water in it.https://www.the-triton.com/2016/03/w...s-worst-enemy/All of my diesel powered equipment has a bottom drain in the tank, a water separator filter ahead of the fuel filter, and the final fuel filter.  These have always seemed to take care of any free water in the fuel.  So I see no need for the snake oil stuff.  If it was necessary, the engine manufacturer would recommend it.  And, I figure all the necessary additives are included at the refinery.Last edited by farmersammm; 3 Hours Ago at 12:44 AM.Reason: changed one word
Reply:I suppose the tank hasn't rusted through because I made it out of 10ga

  Heavy booger..........around maybe 300#.  Then fill it with 150gal of diesel, and you gots one mildly large bit of weight

  But she ain't rusted through in almost a quarter Century.Reason I used heavier material was the fact that I didn't own a wire welder back then


Reply:10 gauge steel... Drain it out and cut out some access holes in the top. I'd use a grinder or a plasma cutter. Maybe an oxy-fuel cutting torch, but I know how you are with those things... Don't wanna have BOTH hands f'd up at the same time

Anywho, I'd cut it open (AND EXPECT A FIRE). Cut to L shapes with the torch or a grinder to make a square. Leave the corners so the off-cut doesn't fall. Extinguish the fire before the off-cut falls loose. That way, the fire in the tank can't get as much oxygen and it'll be easier to extinguish. WEAR YOUR WELDING GLOVES. Don't wanna end up like one of them dudes that scorched the back of their hand with an oxy-acetylene torch!

I'd add a drain, pressure wash the tank, dump in a bunch of rust remover (vinegar might work... it's cheap, anyway), then pressure wash it again. Add a reservoir below the tank. Maybe a piece of 2" pipe? Cap it, drill a hole in the cap, and put a 1/2" ball valve. That way you have somewhere for water to collect other than the actual tank. Personally, I'd weld a threaded bung onto the tank versus drilling and threading it. Again, I'd go for some big diameter pipe to hold all that water and sediment. Might wanna add a couple filters to your fuel pump. too!
Reply:So you buy this stuff..................  https://www.napaonline.com/en/p/CRC05670Where does the water go........................  To the bottom of the tank.  Which, unless you have a drain provision, sits and ruins the tank over time.  Or, you suck up slugs of it through the pump intake.I believe the only real solution is a water separator.  Free water will drop out all along the fuel route from fuel fill, to final run through the injector pump.  All you can do is try to get rid of any free water all along the way to the pump.
Reply:

Originally Posted by 52 Ford

10 gauge steel... Drain it out and cut out some access holes in the top. I'd use a grinder or a plasma cutter. Maybe an oxy-fuel cutting torch, but I know how you are with those things... Don't wanna have BOTH hands f'd up at the same time

Anywho, I'd cut it open (AND EXPECT A FIRE). Cut to L shapes with the torch or a grinder to make a square. Leave the corners so the off-cut doesn't fall. Extinguish the fire before the off-cut falls loose. That way, the fire in the tank can't get as much oxygen and it'll be easier to extinguish. WEAR YOUR WELDING GLOVES. Don't wanna end up like one of them dudes that scorched the back of their hand with an oxy-acetylene torch!

I'd add a drain, pressure wash the tank, dump in a bunch of rust remover (vinegar might work... it's cheap, anyway), then pressure wash it again. Add a reservoir below the tank. Maybe a piece of 2" pipe? Cap it, drill a hole in the cap, and put a 1/2" ball valve. That way you have somewhere for water to collect other than the actual tank. Personally, I'd weld a threaded bung onto the tank versus drilling and threading it. Again, I'd go for some big diameter pipe to hold all that water and sediment. Might wanna add a couple filters to your fuel pump. too!
Reply:Tisk tisk.  Come on Samm, fighting cancer and handling fuels bare handed?  Do I need to send you a box of rubber gloves?  Oh anyway hope you are feeling good and getting stuff done that needs to get done.Lincoln, ESAB, Thermal Dynamics, Victor, Miller, Dewalt, Makita, Kalamzoo.  Hand tools, power tools, welding and cutting tools.
Reply:

Originally Posted by farmersammm

When, and if, it starts to leak...................it's going to the scrapyard if they'll take it.  I have absolutely no intention of ever doing any kind of hot work on an old fuel tank.They replace tank bottoms where K'kins works...........but only after steam cleaning the interior, and burning the tank out with a pile of cedar trees inside it.  It's extremely dangerous work.For me, it's easy enough to build a new tank after 25yrs.  Small as it is, it's not worth the risk to reclaim it.
Reply:

Originally Posted by 52 Ford

Fine! Don't take a torch to your fuel tank! Be all sensible about it!

When you make another one, try to design the floor of the tank so that it slopes to a single lowest point, then cut that out, add a fairly large NPT fitting at that point. That way you can add a length of pipe under the tank to capture any water and sediment. At the end of the pipe, get a flat cap to thread onto the pipe and drill and tap it for a small-ish ball valve offsetting it so it lands at the very bottom of the big pipe under the tank. When the tank is empty, you can drain what's in the pipe reservoir into a bucket, then unscrew the cap to scrape out any sediment that's settled out, rust, dirt, etc. That's prolly what I'd do, anyway. Just the first thing that came to mind.Sent from my Lincoln Buzzbox using Tapatalk