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Bugs in fuel? Filter plugged beyond reason.

WarWagon

WarWagon

Well it hits on 7 of 8...
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1995 Starting a little hard all of a sudden.

Open water drain to take a sample. Pump is slowly clicking. Then click click and some fuel starts to come out slowly. Then clack clack and a bunch of black appears in the line and clears up.

There was a 1/2" of muck in the bottom of the filter housing.

2nd round with this. Filter plugged nearly solid.

Do I need to drop the tank to clean this out?

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Must have got a really bad tank of fuel, looks like rust and snot mixed.
 
Ugh. Find yourself a good Biocide. That's kind of nasty...

I bet you'll have snot in your sock, WW.

The Biocide will kill the snot, but won't do anything for the rust.
 
How does the fuel smell? Does it smell bad something like a rotten egg? Just curious tell us about where you think you got bad fuel and if you at the time had any suspicions? The time I got some bad fuel (mostly water in fuel) I did not know it until a day later and would not have suspected anything. From WIF light the last fill up was a full size truck stop (not huge) but had a filter on pump seemed to have enough big truck traffic to be safe and no other truck stops at interstate junction.

I bought some biocide for my tractor that sits sometimes and it says if you mix it too strong it can precipitate? some solids??? Yours looks bad enough that if you biocide there is going to be appeciable fall out of the fuel and settle in the tank. Probably should drop it after letting the biocide kill and clean the stuff some else its going to continue to plug filters at somewhat random and be hard on LP.

I don't know but I'd back flush the fuel lines with some clean fuel and biocide from fuel manager back then drop tank after biocide has had little bit to work. Clean tank out and fuel truck up with recommended dosage of biocide and run the truck continuously for a while and keep adding the maintenance dosage of biocide for a couple of tanks (its just a small amount). You'll probably have to add to a small jug then shake it up and then put in tank and top off.
 
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Yuck. That looks ugly. It will probably take a couple of early filter changes to clear it all up as well. And switch where ever you are getting your fuel if you can.

On a positive note, your truck will run like a raped ape when you get the new filters on and that fuel cleared up. ;)
 
This likely was from sitting with the blown engine. Figure there is enough water in the tank to be an issue. That and the pickup has a plugged sock as well as a bad tank lining. Thought I had it cleared up. Fuel I am getting isn't the problem. It may just be leftovers from the episode I did have. In any case the tank is coming out.
 
Pickup in the above means my 1993 PU that also had this bug issue with a bad fuel tank... I assume the fuel sock in the burb will be just as bad as the truck was.
 
Rusty tank... Aluminum paint lining just eaten through everywhere. Looks really bad in the bottom of the tank with a rusty sludge on the bottom of the tank. Almost like someone poured sand in the tank - but it isn't. Fuel filter looks bad after a week and ~100 miles. The biodiesel is cleaning the fuel system, but, also cleaning the rust out of the tank...

No cleaning it - just need another tank. Here we go again.
 
Check with Eastwood or other restoration products company, IIRC they sell a chemical that passivates the rust and recoats inside of the tank with a corrosion barrier not sure of the cost make be cheaper to replace it, tanks-to-pans.com at one time had good prices on replacement fuel tanks.
 
I put a new tank in the pickup because the lining was pealing off. It was not as bad as this tank. The silver bumps in the bottom are parts of the tank coating coming off. The coating was not causing trouble, but, the bugs and rust were.

Pics of the burb tank bottom. Sides have missing coating and rust.

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At less than $200 for the burb tank and around $100 for the pickup tank, new aftermarket, I don't see a demand for a plastic tank.
 
The plastic, like the ones for the Duramax, will not get the rust and will not have a lining that peels off. Also lighter and probably safer. Inside and out. Also probably helps out a little as far as "freezing and gelling" of fuel in the colder temps goes. Maybe even a little cheaper as well.
 
Has to be the nastyest filter Ive seen. You going to remove the sock and add a pre LP filter?
 
Burning oil said:
Has to be the nastyest filter Ive seen. You going to remove the sock and add a pre LP filter?
Click to expand...

No, I am going to replace the tank, replace the float with your unit, and put the screen back in the Walbro after ditching the tank sock. I am also going to have to clean out the muck in the FFM. Hopefully the IP survived. This mess in the tank was 10x worse than the pickup. It only takes 1 filter to plug and indicate you have an issue. No sense in having more than one filter, cost, leaks, guess the plugged up one game, to deal with other than to protect the lift pump with a screen. When the filter plugs it is too late for a bug problem. If I ever replaced the FFM - I would leave it out and go with a single filter solution.

Main filter, Walbro screen, and then tank sock plugged up. The plugged up only one each week on the pickup before I had to drop the tank and replace it.

Must have been from sitting with the blown engine that helped it along with the high temps this past summer. A bug problem got out of control due to zero parts stores and trucks stops stocking anything specific to a biocide around here. Had to special order it and by then the small problem was huge.
 
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