Lucky bugger! Thats the posh version . Haha.

Some of the tanks around here can have a fair amount in. And of course the tank outlet is just above the bottom. So its the cause of a fair few break downs and resulting in knackered fuel pumps.

I shall get my OFTEC one day. Its just getting the gas safe thats meant me leaving it for a good while and getting the hours in on natural gas

I just drain the things and remove the tanks then de fumigate and weld then spray, we then take them back and refit! I then have to call a qualified lad on the firm to do the rest of fitting up as I'm only really a tank repairer

I think we're on about different tanks fella!

Im talkin green plastic tanks (or the old steel ones mind) for 28 second keresene used to power oil boilers, aga's or rayburns etc where natural gas isnt available.

Usually out in the sticks!

I think we're on about different tanks fella!

Im talkin green plastic tanks (or the old steel ones mind) for 28 second keresene used to power oil boilers, aga's or rayburns etc where natural gas isnt available.

Usually out in the sticks!

My bad! I'm on about the metal tanks used for heating oil!

Kerosene with an o!

My bad! I'm on about the metal tanks used for heating oil!

Now im interested!

You repair those? I thought they were just scrapped and replaced with plastic?

Obv its inevitable that the steel ones let in water eventually isnt it. Its a pain in the bum haha.

Goodnight gentleman, I'll leave you to discuss in peace... besides the hot n spicy prawns are nearly ready!

Goodnight gentleman, I'll leave you to discuss in peace... besides the hot n spicy prawns are nearly ready!

Haha.

Sorry mate. You're probably getting notification after notification.

Enjoy the prawns!

Night fella!

Now im interested!

You repair those? I thought they were just scrapped and replaced with plastic?

Obv its inevitable that the steel ones let in water eventually isnt it. Its a pain in the bum haha.

We try our best if it is viable to repair them then we do! If it's covered in rust then they just get binned if it's beyond repair if not I weld up the patches sadly there isn't a huge demand for them due to the amount of plastic tanks being made! Which is where I've recently been attempting to fabricate metal tanks for other purposes such as water tanks!

We try our best if it is viable to repair them then we do! If it's covered in rust then they just get binned if it's beyond repair if not I weld up the patches sadly there isn't a huge demand for them due to the amount of plastic tanks being made! Which is where I've recently been attempting to fabricate metal tanks for other purposes such as water tanks!

Ah. Its a shame you arent a little more local. I coulda thrown some work your way mate.

Hmm i think plastic is taking over isnt it. Especially with the bunded ones their producing now. they arent cheap though.

Ah. Its a shame you arent a little more local. I coulda thrown some work your way mate.

Hmm i think plastic is taking over isnt it. Especially with the bunded ones their producing now. they arent cheap though.

I know I'm looking to move more into panel beating and welding as works getting slower because of plastic!

I know I'm looking to move more into panel beating and welding as works getting slower because of plastic!

Ah. Im sure i coulda thrown a few jobs your way too. I know all the local OFTEC engineers.

Although. Its a case if whether the customer would want to spend money in the old tank or just buy a new one that will never corrode.

Hmm. Im sure youll manage it.

So. Is your trade welding then? Or metal work in general? Or?

Metal work I've been looking around for jobs working with cars I'll see how it goes as many people don't repair now!

Metal work I've been looking around for jobs working with cars I'll see how it goes as many people don't repair now!

Well good luck mate! Im sure you wont have too many problems. Metal workers are defo still in demand though.

Im sure youll sort something!

Theres a guy round here thats a top metal worker. Hes always really busy.

I think if you're good at what you do, you wont struggle. N you obv take an interest in it! I think youll be alreet (:

Well good luck mate! Im sure you wont have too many problems. Metal workers are defo still in demand though.

Im sure youll sort something!

Theres a guy round here thats a top metal worker. Hes always really busy.

I think if you're good at what you do, you wont struggle. N you obv take an interest in it! I think youll be alreet (:

Cheers! It does come in useful when working on the cars

Plastic tanks don't rust, they split.

According to the company which supplied my neighbours new steel tank, the formulation of the plastic has been changed and they suffer from UV degradation too. They flog both types and a sale was inevitable.

The guarantee has been reduced from 10 to 3 years on the plastic for whichever brand they sell.

Plastic tanks don't rust, they split.

According to the company which supplied my neighbours new steel tank, the formulation of the plastic has been changed and they suffer from UV degradation too. They flog both types and a sale was inevitable.

The guarantee has been reduced from 10 to 3 years on the plastic for whichever brand they sell.

Sounds about right mate, yeah.

They do a lot of the bunded ones now though. Which is basically a tank inside a tank. They have a decent guarentee on them, cant remember how long though.

Sounds about right mate, yeah.

They do a lot of the bunded ones now though. Which is basically a tank inside a tank. They have a decent guarentee on them, cant remember how long though.

Yeah I've got to agree that's pretty spot on!

I'm surprised no one mentioned adding alcohol to fuel as a cheap and reliable way of getting water out of the system. Just make sure you use correct alcohol, it is fully miscible with both fuel and water, and will take small amounts of water out of the tank, cleaning the fuel system in the process.

 

For petrols, best to add 95%+ pure ethanol , methanol will also work but is poisonous. No more than 5%, just to be safe (so no more than 2-2.5l, though usually just 1l will do), and do make sure it is 95%+ pure (best 98%).

 

For diesels, only add isopropanol (IPA), it will also clean the injector nozzles as a bonus, again, at least 95% pure, best 98%+.

Definitely no more than 2% (so no more than 1l-1.5l to a full fuel tank) as you have to watch out for loss of lubricity and increase in nozzle tip temperature.

 

For diesels, isopropanol is also a good last resort anti-gel measure, I cary a bottle in winter and have added it to the tank on an odd occasion when the car was abroad and temperatures plummeted to below -25degC at night for several nights in a row the car was parked there (and -15degC during the day).  Car started without problems.

Edited 12 August, 201411 yr by dieselV6

I'm surprised no one mentioned adding alcohol to fuel as a cheap and reliable way of getting water out of the system. Just make sure you use correct alcohol, it is fully miscible with both fuel and water, and will take small amounts of water out of the tank, cleaning the fuel system in the process.

 

Do not do this!!

Gasoline, conforming to BS EN 228 already contains ethanol, which IIRC is upto 7%. When you mix water with gasoline it will also cause the ethanol to separate forming a two phase mixture, so just compounding the problem you already have (solubility of water in ethanol is 40 to 50 times that in gasoline).

Ah. Well. Luckily iv only just read this, and iv already bunged a bottle of that 'dry fuel' stuff from halfords in today already.

About 20 miles done so far. And its still cutting out :(

Need to drain the tank IMO then put some supermarket petrol in and another bottle and then run it for the whole tank! Also change filter again :(

Urgh :(.

At this point. Id rather drive it into a wall and claim off the insurance.

Seems less hassle

[qu ote name=Otaylor38" post="3894807" timestamp="1407879887]Urgh :(.

At this point. Id rather drive it into a wall and claim off the insurance.

Seems less hassle I'll give the Vivaro driver a call if you need help he's good at stuff like that grr

Do not do this!!

Gasoline, conforming to BS EN 228 already contains ethanol, which IIRC is upto 7%. When you mix water with gasoline it will also cause the ethanol to separate forming a two phase mixture, so just compounding the problem you already have (solubility of water in ethanol is 40 to 50 times that in gasoline).

 

No one wants to mix water, water is already in the solution (or rather under the petrol/diesel, and first to come out via fuel pick up from the tank) because of old petrol station fuel tanks seeping ground water in?

 

Please do double check your facts, you can run petrol engine on 100% ethanol if needed for short period of time, and what do you think E85 fuel is? (hint: 85% is ethanol), though at 60%+ ethanol it would attack rubber. But we are talking under 10%-15% in total here. The whole point of adding more ethanol to the mixture is to take the water into the combined solution (and eliminate the two-phase mixture), and you are welcome to do an experiment at home adding some water to a glass of unleaded, then adding comparable amount of ethanol and mixing the lot. 

 

For petrol engines, not exceeding 2%-5% extra ethanol (in addition to whatever is in the petrol station mix already) is recommended mostly so that octane rating is preserved (pure ethanol has 105 octane rating), but if you have stocks of pure ethanol, even 20% won't hurt the engine.

 

It is actually more important for diesels not to exceed single digit isopropanol percentage as there is a risk of excessive loss of lubricity and overheating injector nozzles (isopropanol burns off nozzle deposits, but only up to a point), plus cetane number drops. But again, at 2%-5% it has pretty much no impact other than taking water out, lowering gelling point and cleaning injector nozzles. It's actually best used together with some biodiesel, which makes sure cetane rating and lubricity remain high. Quite a few diesel fuel "additives" are in fact ca 50%-60% biodiesel, ca 20%-40% isopropanol and the rest kerosene (in order to still smell like dino fuel).

Edited 13 August, 201411 yr by dieselV6

For anyone interested further, here is a paper on petrol+vodka :p  miscibility tests, aside from some catchy diagrams, you can find in the appendix the actual results of mixing water, ethanol and petrol in various proportions.