Now busless, and stale fuel

[Sean]

Well, we finally did it -- sold the Neoplan. I'm very glad to no longer be paying storage and insurance on a bus I'm not using, and even more glad it will no longer be rotting away in a storage yard, but I would be lying if I said I was not very, very sad to be driving away from it.

In a somewhat related vein, the last thing we had to do before handing it over was to throw away 160+ gallons of stale diesel and re-fill the tank. I would never have believed it had I not experienced it first-hand; our 17kw Kubota-powered generator ran just fine without a hiccup on the very same fuel, but the big Detroit just would not make power on the stuff that had been sitting in the tank for three and a half years. Detroits, so I believed, would run on almost anything (and many have run away on their own lube oil), but ours, it seems, was picky about its diet.

Full story of the sale and the fuel issues are in this blog post:
http://ourodyssey.blogspot.com/2016/08/farewell-odyssey-and-thanks-for-epic.html

I will continue to lurk here from time to time, and I am always happy to lend my expertise to fellow bus nuts. I don't think they'll throw me off the board for being busless. Some day, when the boat becomes too much to handle for our tired old bones, we'll go back to living in a coach conversion, although I am thinking our next one will be more along the lines of a Sprinter than a parlor coach.

Y'all know where to find me, over on my blog.

-Sean
http://OurOdyssey.BlogSpot.com

[Melbo]

Congratulations Sean

I'm sure the mixed emotions will change with time

Melbo

[chessie4905]

Add fuel conditioner to it

[Sean]

Add fuel conditioner to it

Tried; did not help. And it's too late, now -- the bad fuel is long gone.

-Sean

[robertglines1]

upside/ price for fuel is much less now.

[Scott & Heather]

I would have gladly taken the bad fuel. Excellent fire starter


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[Oonrahnjay]

       Sean, was there any indication of filter clogging or other algae symptoms?  Or just loss of power?

[tom120]

Pumped a full tank of bad premium gasoline last year in western NY. Bus ran like crap on 50 octane. Waste of almost $200.

[luvrbus]

The bio mixed fuel of today just goes bad in a few years,the fuel of days past could set for 20 years and never go bad.There is nothing you can put in the bio/mixed to save it Sean did the only thing you can do with the stuff is dump it

[Sean]

upside/ price for fuel is much less now.

Small consolation... I probably paid over $500 for what I threw away, and they charged me $40 to take it, to boot. We dropped $300 on fresh fuel, which, thankfully, the buyer reimbursed.

I would have gladly taken the bad fuel. Excellent fire starter

And I would have been happy to give it to you, or anyone else. But we were under the gun, at almost $250 per day to be hanging around in Virginia, so we did not have time to cherry-pick a solution. The joint that took it was the closest place, and given that we had to limp in on the bad fuel, our other options were limited.

There is also a distinct possibility that only the bottom-most part of the tank was bad, where the dip-tube was located. The lack of generator issues would point in this direction -- the generator dip tube is significantly higher in the tank (by design, so that the genny can't run the tank empty). Also, the first 55-gallon drum seemed more cloudy than the next two. So we might have got away with pumping out, say, 50 gallons, and trying again. But again, that would mean a possible second trip to the truck shop, with a second disposal charge, and perhaps a whole other day on the ground in Lottsburg. So just replacing the whole lot at the same time was the most expedient and possibly the least expensive option.

Sean, was there any indication of filter clogging or other algae symptoms?  Or just loss of power?

There were some brown deposits in the filter housing, and the fuel was "cloudy" and dull yellow when compared to fresh fuel, with a bit more neon green tinge to it. But the filter was not plugged -- the Davco let's you see visually as the filter starts to clog. The fuel appearance was one of the factors that led us to suspect stale fuel to begin with, and you may remember we dumped a bunch of biocide in the tank two months ago when we first had the problem of the engine not running at all (turned out to be a bad check valve in the Davco).

The bio mixed fuel of today just goes bad in a few years,the fuel of days past could set for 20 years and never go bad.There is nothing you can put in the bio/mixed to save it Sean did the only thing you can do with the stuff is dump it

I think Clifford is right... modern ULSD additive packages are incompatible with long shelf life.

-Sean

[DoubleEagle]

It's too late now, but if there were drain plugs on the bottom of the tanks, it might have been better to drain the bottom until the color improved. On Eagles, at least, there are some. The danger is not getting it back in quickly enough (or fumbling it and losing it). A protected drain valve with a hose might be handy for some.

[luvrbus]

It's too late now, but if there were drain plugs on the bottom of the tanks, it might have been better to drain the bottom until the color improved. On Eagles, at least, there are some. The danger is not getting it back in quickly enough (or fumbling it and losing it). A protected drain valve with a hose might be handy for some.

What's not to like about diesel fuel running down your arms soaking your shirt and back trying to get the plug back in  BTDT

[lostagain]

Keeps the horse flies off you though.

JC

[Iceni John]

It's too late now, but if there were drain plugs on the bottom of the tanks, it might have been better to drain the bottom until the color improved. On Eagles, at least, there are some. The danger is not getting it back in quickly enough (or fumbling it and losing it). A protected drain valve with a hose might be handy for some.

I thought of installing a Fumoto valve in my fuel tank's drain port, but then I realized it would be almost the lowest point of the whole bus.   Not a good idea!   Imagine it getting knocked off and losing all your fuel onto the road while you're driving.

John

[luvrbus]

Keeps the horse flies off you though.

JC

Around here it will get you a cold shower outside with Dawn (the soap) famous words "you are not coming in the house with diesel fuel all over you"