Diesel bug

Just cleaning and flushing isn't going to get rid of the diesel bugs, as you've already learned.  YOu have to clean everything ruthlessly with brushes and pipe cleaners and scouring pads and lots of changes of solvent and then treat everything with HUMbug biocide and let that sit for  a while in the whole system.  After that you can refill the fuel tank with new, clean fuel that has been treated with biocide/HUMbug preventative.  YOu will need to similarly clean and treat every fuel container you use, funnels, hoses, etc.  It only takes one (1) live HUMbug to start a whole colony – it doesn't even need a girlfriend to reproduce, the little deviant.

Bob Rooks is the resident expert on dealingwith HUMbugs; hopefully he'll chime in here and add anything that I have missed.

Rich

Trucking companies are having far more problems then in the past with Diesel bugs.  Lack of sulfur adds to the problem.  Sulfur helps hold water in suspension.  Without it the water collects at the bottom of the tank and hence a breeding pool for the bugs. 

Menthol alcohol simply makes water float  to the top.  Isopropyl alcohol actually absorbs the water.

Larry

ok you got me is that something like snipe hunting?  i have been running diesel for years and never heard of it; 

it could be that i run AMSoil diesel conditioner in mine,  or that i have only used BP offroad fuel ;  but for what ever reason i have never heard of it

leon

Diesel bugs, aka HUMbugs (Hydrocarbon Utilizing Microbes) are a very real problem.  They're a bacterial that lives in diesel storage tanks right at the interfacxe of the diesel fuel and any water that is present.  They make a really nasty sludge that not only gums up things but also can corrode metal and cause rubber to break down.  Some diesel cnditioners have biocide (bug killer) in them and others don't.  If you have the bugs in your tractor then yhou need to do the whole nine yards to get rid of them, and you may wnd up having to replace hoses and even your injector pump or lift pump.

Suppliers that don't turn over their fule stock fast enough are subjec tto getting th ebugs as are end useers who let fuel sit around for extended periods without biocide additive it it.  You can pick it up form a fuel station and bring it home in a five gallon can and wind up cnotaminating your vehicles, your storage containers, etc.  They're really nasty things, those diesel bugs.  You can Google “diesel bugs” or HUMbugs to learn more about them.

Rich

Being involved with Chinese tractors forums as long as you have, I'm very surprised you never saw this being discussed before. The phrase “diesel bugs” is a colloqualism for actual microbes and bacteria that very commonly contaminate diesel fuel and similar petroleum products (kerosene, jet fuel, etc). They can't live in clean fuel, they can't live in water. But when water gets into a fuel tank, that's when you've become vulnerable. They live/eat/shit/die in the layer between the water and the fuel. As the fuel level drops, their residue coats the exposed insides of the tank. Carcasses and excrement sink to the bottom as sludge. That's what plugs up the filters – and injectors if it actually gets to that point.

Of 5 previous diesel tractors, only one was ever afflicted. Caught it quick enough to where there was no tractor downtime. After that, I made it a point to keep the fuel tank full when the tractor was idle. Condensation can't occur in a full tank, condensation makes water. Water breeds diesel bugs. No water, no diesel bugs (unless you're unfortunate to buy fuel from an infected fueling station).

//greg//

Mailman wrote:

ok you got me is that something like snipe hunting?  i have been running diesel for years and never heard of it.

Offhand I'd say you've been pretty fortunate. Snipes are only found in engine rooms.

it could be that i run AMSoil diesel conditioner in mine,  or that i have only used BP offroad fuel ;  but for what ever reason i have never heard of it.

If your fuel additive contains a biocide then that could explain your luck. Bugs don't care if it's off-road fuel or not, and the fuel/water inteface only has to be about .002″ to get the ball rolling, which isn't much.

sounds like a baaad  bug;  i get my fuel directly from the bulk plant which probally doesn't hurt i don't need that kind of a headache

leon

Nope, nobody does. I've witnessed them bring a 1,200 hp Deutz diesel engine to it's knees, and have seen the damage they can do to a LM2500 marine gas turbine fuel system.

You callous murderer!  How could you???

What's going to happen to the world if we wipe out these poor defenseless little microbes?  What about the next organism up the food chain that depends on diesel bugs for its dinner?  And the one after that?  Pretty soon the elephants will be dropping off, all because people though it was necessary and appropriate to kill off those annoying and unimportant little humbugs. 

Bug huggers of the world unite to stop this senseless slaughter now!

I'm ruthless. I'll kill a billion before breakfast and not give it a second thought.

If you'd stop all the senseless killing, maybe Ruth would come back? 

She turned toxic.

I'll stick to killing bugs.