Pickling and flushing of diesel pipe

[magmath76]

Hi All,

I am doing pickling and flushing of fuel line to gensets (diesel and heavy fuel oil). Attached are the photographs taken after each stage. The pipes were clean and free from rust after pickling. Flusing is done with diesel and I am getting a brownie sludge type thing in the pipe after flushing. Is this normal and acceptable. Any feed back or comment would me much appreciated.

Thanks

 

[MikeHalloran]

My then company rented a freezer trailer for use by employees' families affected by Hurricane Andrew. I occasionally got to refill the trailer's fuel tank, pouring Diesel from a 5 gallon plastic carboy. The Diesel was purchased at retail locally, nothing special about it. I assume it's representative of what is sold nationally here.

The carboy made it possible to inspect the contents.
I estimate it was about 5 percent water, and 5 percent dirt.

Whoever specified flushing with Diesel got what they asked for; now there'll be none of that clean steel attracting the sludge and feeding the engine with fuel that's too clean. Think of it as preconditioning.

Seriously, I'm aghast at what passes for 'normal' Diesel fuel, but on balance it supports a robust Diesel filter industry.



Mike Halloran
Pembroke Pines, FL, USA

 

[magmath76]

Thanks Mike you are absolutely right. We have improved the results by addition around 10% of engine oil on the diesel.