Fuellish thoughts

As injection pressures have gone up, and the price of injectors with it, using anything but the cleanest and driest fuel is risky. Here are some tips to help keep your engine firing right:

Fill up at the end of the run. Today’s engines (depending on make) recirculate as much as 90 per cent of the fuel they receive. Each “trip” to the engine and back increases fuel temperature (we’ve heard that in-tank fuel can reach well over 100 F). Hot air in an nearly empty tank cools and condenses, forming water droplets that mix with the fuel. So tank up before you park for the night or weekend.

Sounds simple, but park your truck on a slight slope overnight or on weekends. Any water or dirt will settle to the low point in the tank where it can be drained off. Don Dawson, the late vice-president of maintenance at Roadway Express, went to the trouble of having tractor fuel tanks mounted with a 3-degree pitch to the rear. Water and dirt would settle there and could easily be drained off.

Ask your drivers to report any fuelling locations that don’t have in-hose filters at their fuel islands. Some stations remove the filters because they can slow down the pumping rate. Rather than replace a partially plugged filter, they remove it to get vehicles through service islands faster. At your own fuel islands, ask drivers to report any “slow” pumps so filters can be replaced, not removed.

To make life easier for your service personnel, spec fuel filter locations on a frame rail where they’re visible, easier to get at, and at a level where mechanics won’t get a diesel shower when they change them.

Ask that all fuel tanks be drained of all accumulated water at each truck’s PM service, and put your supervisors on alert to collect bad or failed injectors. If you suspect blown injector tips may be caused by water in the fuel, get them analyzed.

If your fleet has its own fuel storage tanks, make sure you know what’s being delivered. Some fleets take fuel samples at the time fuel is dropped, marking the brand, delivering carrier, time, and date. These samples are stored for at least three delivery cycles and regularly checked to see if any water has settled to the bottom of the bottles, or if the fuel itself is discoloured or cloudy. If fuel is suspicious, it’s sent to a lab for analysis and appropriate action is taken against the fuel provider and/or the delivering trucker.

Stick in-ground storage tanks with water-detecting paste, or make sure your delivering trucker does. This procedure will give a heads-up to any in-tank contamination. And if any is found, have it chemically treated and/or pumped.