anyone here have Asphaltenes in their fuel ?

[botaskinner]

was out moving some dirt yesterday when my 2320 started bogging down, losing lots of power.
After cleaning the air prefilter, which did not help, I pulled the sediment bowl and found it to be half full of a sticky, reddish brown gum that only shellac thinner or brake cleaner could dissolve.

I was able to soak the fuel filter element in denatured alcohol enough to get it going again.

I've never seen this before in 20 years of diesel ownership.

It is NOT algae.

Funny thing was, my local Kubota service guy hadn't seen it either.

Looking on the Internet I saw that it could be what is referred to be Asphaltenes, which precipitate out of diesel fuel after a time in a humid atmosphere.

There is a company called Penray who has developed a fuel conditioner just for this situation, but it is not available locally.

Has anyone had this happen, and if so, is there another fuel conditioner that you have successfully used to dissolve this?

 

[Tooljunkie]

May be a good idea to drain tank and see whats in your tank. And if you use jerry cans take a close look. Seems to me that same goo forms in gas jugs that sit in the sun with a cup or two of fuel left in them.

I had to tear a near new snowmobile down to the chassis one time due to improperly handled fuel containers. I know we are talking apples and oranges,but when fuel of any kind evaporates something is always left behind. Thats not the worst case i have seen.

 

[botaskinner]

I scraped the bottom of the tank (which I just filled, doggone it),
And found just a bit of it.

Further investigation shows that Xylene can dissolve it, but you can't buy it in California.

Toluene also works, so if I can find a fuel conditioner with those solvents I'll try to dissolve it that way.

 

[Tooljunkie]

Try gas?i know, never in a diesel. Extenuating circumstances.

 

[mattwithcats]

B20, 20% biodiesel, should help clean that tank.

Biodiesel comes in three general "percentages",
1% to 19%,
20%
And above 20%...

Most equipment can run up to 20%,
the known problems are a higher freezing point, around 32 F is when B100 starts gelling,
and a higher cetane, 50 (vs 40), which has a cleaning effect, but slightly less power..

Have a spare fuel filter around, when the gunk starts breaking down, it has to go somewhere...

B20 also has a lot less emissions, but should not eat fuel lines or gaskets on reasonable modern equipment (1990's and later)

http://www.kubotaengine.com/assets/documents/KEI-162.pdf

 

[Repair]

Cummins has started recommending Power Service Diesel additives, here is some information.

http://www.equipmentworld.com/from-...r-diesel-fuel-contamination-are-ever-present/

http://powerservice.com/products/

 

[KennedyFarmer]

was going to say winter jelling but...based on your location, it cant be!

 

[Gundoctor]

You could try this K-100 diesel. I use it all the time You can get it from Amazon.com if you can not find it local. Great products.

 

[botaskinner]

@ gundoctor,
K100 diesel treatment is sold at our local Kubota dealer.
I decided to give it a try because it contains butyl cellosolve.

Back in my precision sheet metal days, it was used to clean silkscreen ink from the screen frames after each production run.

It is very agreesive towards any gummy substance, so it should work.

I'll keep everyone posted.