Old Diesel Fuel in used Tank Trailer

[ericscher]

NOTE: I did a search, but could not find anything that really fit my question well.




I bought a trailer last winter that has a 125 gallon tank on it with a 12v pump.

It has some old fuel in it, not sure of the age, and I can't tell how much, but it could be 10 or more gallons. Draining with the tiny petcock is... not really efficient.

I have yet to try pumping it out through the main pump, although I will be doing that later.

Still, there will be a few gallons left and removing it would be a challenge.


If I dumped in 100 gallons of fresh diesel, perhaps adding something to the tank as well...
Would that be a sufficiently large amount to render the small amount of diesel in the tank harmless?


This is for use in off-road diesel equipment, nothing newer than 2004. In fact, I think EVERYTHING is 2004. (coincidence)


What does the group think?

 

[sheepfoot]

I would get the tank leaning and pump the mess out, let it settle out and use it on a burn pile, heater. If you don't know what is in there, why make a 100 gallons of (I don't know) and put trash in all your equipment. Once out you can better make a choice what to do with it.

 

[Nige]

IMHO I'd get it completely drained and flushed before I'd even think of putting fresh fuel in it.......

 

[Delmer]

I'd slosh the tank back and forth and then lean it like sheepfoot said, then REMOVE the petcock to let it drain quicker, and with more of the gunk along with the fuel. If you have to destroy the petcock to get a six point socket on it to get it loose, they're easy to find, or just replace it with a 1/4" NPT plug. Let the buckets settle and siphon off the top half and use that to flush it again, repeat until you're satisfied that no more junk is coming out. If the tank is rusty inside or coated with "burnt chicken skin" then more drastic measures are called for. You'll be able to tell by what comes out.

 

[lantraxco]

In any case once you've gotten it as clean as possible, get yourself a big hydraulic filter spin-on head with the no bypass or disable the bypass valve for the outlet of your pump. Buy the 3 micron aquasorb media filters so you're not only filtering out 3 micron and larger contaminants, the media will also trap water as it passes through. The first filter will probably plug quickly and flow will slow to near nothing, change the filter and carry on. You may cry a bit at the price of the filters, but then just gaze fondly at any nearby machine, blow a kiss to the injector pump an dinjectors and smile.

The usual clear plastic bowl filters you see on these pumps, if it has any at all, are basically useless for anything built after the turn of the century.

I use Zinga filters and heads because that's what my local supplier carries, there are similar brands out there, Cross and Gresen for example.

 

[repowerguy]

I would go a little further and say to steam clean it out and get it hot enough to be painful to touch so it will dry quickly, this will also kill fuel algae,

 

[repowerguy]

I would go a little further and say to steam clean it out and get it hot enough to be painful to touch so it will dry quickly, this will also kill fuel algae, something hard to kill any other way. It's best to start out with tank, your inj. Will thank you!

 

[CaptainAnalyzer]

Mix ATF and a little bit of fuel for viscosity characteristics. Use those engine cleaning wands from harbor freight and rinse that crap out!

 

[LT-x7]

I'll be the odd man out on this. A few years back I did exactly what your considering except on a larger scale.
I purchased a 500 gallon tank that had maybe 75-100 gallons of fuel in it, I actually thought it was empty until I got a couple friends to help me throw it in back of my pickup. The fuel in it had to be at least 3-5 years old. I got the tank from a widow who's husband had been gone several years and sick some time before he passed. I drained some fuel out of the drain on the bottom & it didn't look all that bad. So I put a bottle of some additive that supposedly helped with algae then had the fuel man come top off the tank. I strained and filtered it when I pumped it into the machines and had 0 issues. That was about 7-8 years ago.
I'm not saying it was the right or wrong choice but it worked for me.
I might have gone a different path if it was only 10ish gallons to deal with like in your case. I can remember thinking what am I going to do with 75 gallons of fuel I cant put in a machine?! Burn pile fuel for the next 10 years, & then I cant use this tank I just bought until it's gone!