What's rotting Banana's and your fuel tank have in common?
Winter Layup
So it’s come around to Autumn and everyone is thinking of laying up their boat - what you are going to do about all that expensive diesel in the fuel tank?
First off, DON'T TOP UP YOUR FUEL TANK... here's why.
For decades the general consensus was to fill the fuel tank 100% full in an effort to reduce as much as possible the exposed tank area above the level of fuel which gave rise to condensation that would sink and lie as free water on the bottom of the tank, that's the water you can see under the diesel, so leading to the very real potential for diesel bug to proliferate.
So topping up the tank made a lot of sense given that diesel bug live in water and like all bacteria, double their number every twenty minutes!
You could return in the spring, fire up the engine and head out for a days cruising only then to find all the dead diesel bug and their excrement stirring up from the bottom of the tank the minute you hit the breakwater, blocking the filters, stopping the engine and certainly ruining your day. Even more so if you have to call out the RNLI, we hear this scenario a lot.
So why don’t we recommend topping the tank up any more?
All the oil majors collectively agree you should not store diesel longer than 6 months but lets face it that is totally impractical on a boat. Especially given the time it takes to get to you, the end user, it is often up to 2 months old anyway.
Modern diesel is highly unstable, it’s been refined to within an inch of it’s life to remove the sulphur and now has min 7% plant oil along with animal and cooking fats.
It degrades very quickly producing sludge that ends up on the bottom of your tank.
The stability improver and antioxidant we blend into Marine 16 Diesel Fuel Complete (DFC) helps slow some of the degradation - but it cannot be stopped!
Imagine a banana in a bowl, it degrades and turns black because it's organic, so is the bio in your diesel. When it degrades it rots and collects as sludge on the bottom of the tank. Of course it's a lot easier to deal with a rotten banana in a bowl than rotting sludge in your tank!
So here at Marine 16 we recommend running the fuel tank down to as empty as possible. Get as much water out as you can, if you can, and put in a kill dose of Diesel Bug treatment (DBT) to kill any bug over the lay up that might try and take refuge in your tank. You can stop the moisture entering the tank by fitting a desiccant breather on the vent. This will dry the air as it is drawn into the tank so it cannot condense on the sides.
Additionally add a dose of Diesel Fuel Complete (DFC), even if you have been using it. From our research with fuel testing laboratories we have improved DFC with an additional antioxidant in the blend in an attempt to mitigate the continued degradation of the FAME (The bio bit in the Diesel) which leads to carboxylate acid.
We can’t stop the degradation, see above about the banana, but along with the dispersant in the blend this will help reduce deposit formation on the bottom of the tank.
When you return in the spring, drain any water from the drain cock or push a pipe down the filler to the bottom to try and draw off any accumulated water, or fit a diesel dipper over the winter and relax while it removes the water for you.
You should now be able to fill up the tank with clean fresh diesel but don’t forget to add, and keep adding, Diesel Fuel Complete (DFC) which will help mitigate the problems of storing it longer than 6 months, which is inevitable as you enjoy the summer, especially if you’re sailing.
Any questions? feel free to contact us.
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