Diesel Fuel Filtration for dodgy African fuel (1 Viewer)

[nate dogg]

Hi Guys,

I'm have a friend that will have a HJ60 in Liberia, West Africa. I have been there and diesel fuel is siphoned out of gallon pickle jars on the side of the dusty road. Needless to say every diesel vehicle has comprimised fuel system and belches, and misfires it's way down the road. I would like to know if anyone has experience with aftermarket filtration on their cruiser. I don't know what the factory system filters down to, but if it is (hypothetically) 15 micron and there's a ton of 14 micron schmegma crap going through your system, you are not going to last very long.

Thanks- Nathan

 

[cruiser_guy]

I have spent the last nearly 5 years in Central America. Granted, we don't siphon the diesel out of drums on the side of the road but I doubt the tanks are very clean at the gas station either! I would simply make certain that the fuel filter is changed at least as often as recommended in the service manual and with a GOOD quality, NEW, plastic wrapped filter and if it begins to act, up change it again! A fuel conditioner would also be helpful but I doubt he'll be able to find it and he won't be able to bring it on a plane.

I bring my own filters (a dozen at a time, Fleetgard from Cummins in Port Kells or Donaldson from Finning in Langley) just to be sure of a quality filter. I know here in Guatemala there seems to be a race to the bottom as far as quality of parts goes.

 

[nate dogg]

Yeah, it's good to know people are making it by with the stock filtration. He has the capability to send filters/ supplies in a container every once in a while. The fuel in Liberia is worst out in the countryside where it sits in pickle jars, sometimes with a lid, sometimes whatever covering it. It looks pretty dark, I suspect it's dust that turns it to it's shade of brown. Part of the solution may be to try to by as much fuel in the city as possible, as it comes from underground tanks.

 

[jaymundy]

Check out Mr. Funnel We use these things (in Africa) to filter our aviation gas. Bad fuel in an airplane is, well, bad. You can't exactly pull off to the side of the road if the engine chokes on you. The main thing we're concerned with is water and larger particulates, but this would be a good first step to at least prolong the life of the in-line filters in the vehicle. The pic is me fueling in Korr (Kenya) we don't have a pump there at our fuel dump so we pour into buckets and then into the plane through the filter funnel. Not a great pic of the funnel, I'm afraid, but the best I had handy.

 

[canucksafari]

I'd add a CAV type 10 micron pre-filter assembley with a glass bowl and maybe a an aux electric fuel pump. Tapage has one on his truck. I have one (stil not installed). These CAV style filtes are cheap to replace and easy to find. The glass bowl makes it easy to spot water and grime accumulating.

 

[RHINO]

i was going to suggest Mr funnel also,,, i also installed a NAPA universal filter mount with 2 micron filter/water separator.

 

[jaymundy]

The CAV type filters are great too...I should have thought of those. Alot of older aircraft have the like, called a gascolator, with a glass bowl so that you can see if water has gotten in to the fuel (usually through condensation in a plane). At places we have hand pumps witht our fuel dumps we have the napa filter installed like Rhino talks about They work very very well. Mr Funnel's big two bonuses are that it's not expensive and that it's light and easy to toss in the rig somewhere.

 

[seapotato]

there used these things available called , " baja filters" for all the bums hanging around mexico on sailboats...

sound a lot like mr funnel. just 3 layers of fine mesh in an aluminum housing that you poured the fuel through

after that, some sorta big primary filter that has cheaply replaced elements. ( not like the small racor I used to have that had 40 dollar filter elements.)

 

[rchalmers3]

Hey nate,

Something to keep in mind if you add extra filtration, the added restriction of additional filtration works against the suction of the fuel created by the IP. This added restriction could cause hard starting, priming and high speed operations.

Don't have definitive values or measurements to include or support my statement, but I'm a vote for pre-screening your fuel and to carry some low to mid cost spare fuel filters in your kit.

The down side to the screened filler funnel is where to put the stinky thing after use!

I have experience with ex-military Unimogs. These diesel trucks come with a fuel inlet screen fitted into the filler neck. It drops in for removal and cleaning. Maybe you could fab up something that stays in place and doesn't require carrying in the vehicle.

Cheers

Rick

 

[lowenbrau]

Hi Guys,

I'm have a friend that will have a HJ60 in Liberia, West Africa. I have been there and diesel fuel is siphoned out of gallon pickle jars on the side of the dusty road. Needless to say every diesel vehicle has comprimised fuel system and belches, and misfires it's way down the road. I would like to know if anyone has experience with aftermarket filtration on their cruiser. I don't know what the factory system filters down to, but if it is (hypothetically) 15 micron and there's a ton of 14 micron schmegma crap going through your system, you are not going to last very long.

Thanks- Nathan

He chose the right engine for those conditions. My African friend jokingly declares that the Denso inline injector pump will pump concrete.

I believe in using a fuel conditioner with an emulsifier but an effective water separator is probably enough.

 

[jaymundy]

Hey nate,

The down side to the screened filler funnel is where to put the stinky thing after use!

True. With the airplane since it's petrol it evaporates fast. For my truck I keep a rag and wipe it out real well and then put all in a plastic bag. Not ideal but it at least keeps the diesel fumes to a minimum.

 

[gilghana]

Well, I have worked in Ghana West Africa for 14 years - remote forest stuff, and we have been dogged by fuel problems with our diesel for years. Basically the worst problems are the long supply chains with contamination and theft (and 'hiding' the theft) with water/kerosene/old oil etc... The next problem is asphaltene sludge which forms in tanks as diesel breaks down over time. This is characterised as a blackish sludge which very quickly chokes filters but does not actually harm pumps or injectors. We run fairly complex filtration systems on our tanks - including a huge fabric bag type cannister filter before a Alfa Laval centrifuge that removes water and solid contaminations. This we put before our pumps so we know that the diesel is as good as we can get. This has reduced some of the probs but cannot completely eliminate the harmless but filter choking asphaltene. We tend to get about probably an average of 160,000kms from a Toyota rotary pump (Denso) before rebuilding them... Rover CAV last longer! In line pumps way longer (CAT and trucks - MAN/MB etc). Our fleet over the last 3 years has included forest CAT equipment with complex electronic high pressure unit injectors and over the last two years also Renault trucks with unit injectors. This modern equipment (say 25 units) has had ONE injector failure in the last three years - not bad! Consider that the bush equipment supply chain goes:
Vessel/Refinery - tanker - our tanks - our small tanker - bush storage tank - drum - bucket - vehicle tank!

We do have pump rebuilds (we have our own pump shop with test bench etc etc) but it's not an out of control situation. The centrifuge improved things, but to be honest so long as you are changing and buying GOOD filters and eliminating the water properly then the issue is not so bad. Let's face it teh equipment we use, whether it is HZJ Land cruisers or CAT D6Rs have been designed to tolerate pretty bad fuel. Filtration is the key.

As has been pointed out a small pusher pump can compensate for additional filtration - we also use them as the fuel lifter part of the IP tends to wear out first, so the pusher pump compensates - for a while!

So I would summarise that so long as you use some sort of basic pre-filter (Mr. Funnel or whatever) as well as water separator and OEM or equally good filters then everything will be fine. I don't use a CAV (but did on my LR) but what I do have is a good quality in line filter between my sub tank and main tank, and try as much as possible to fill the sub tank and then into the main tank to gain an extra filtration stage but without taxing my IP.
Gil

 

[nate dogg]

Thanks a bunch for the input fellas,

Rick- Good point about the added restriction. We'll definitely be considering this.

Greg- Another good point- That's part of the reason he is going 2H and not 1HZ.

Gil- Good to know that the situation is manageable with some diligence. I would imagine the fueling infrastructure would share many similarities between Ghana and Liberia. You guys are doing ALOT better than we are in the oilpatch here in Canada. If you drive a Ford 6.0L you need to throw a set of injectors in the glovebox. Usually all 8 are exchanged within 40,000kms.

I think the key is going to be to careful about fuel source- fuel up only from well used fuel stations.
Use some sort of a funnel filter
Use a separator/ filter that you can visually check and easily service
Do change the primary fuel filter regularly


Thanks again, Nath

 

[gilghana]

Nath,
that pretty much sums it up for me. Also if I am forced to fill from one of the bush guys with a couple of drums and a hand cranked pump then what I do is put the hose into the drum myself, touch bottom and then lift it up a few inches so not to suck all the crud on the bottom. And insist that he then moves on to a "fresh drum" if it is getting low. If the guy is using the good old bucket and funnel then I insist on NOT taking the dregs of the bucket again will all the debris. Okay you loose a few pennies worth of fuel... The diesel here is also an alarmingly dark colour, even after centrifuging. We sent off samples to a lab in Germany and the only comment they had is that the sulpher content is about 1000% higher than allowed in Europe!