Mystery Fuel Contamination

[cpurvis]

Totally different situation here in the States. There are very few refineries but a whole lot of 'loading racks' which dispense the fuel that came to them from the refineries via pipeline to delivery trucks.

Every step of that process is very closely monitored. The product that is put into the pipeline at the refinery is analyzed by chemists to make sure it meets specifications and when it arrives it is analyzed again to make certain mixing did not occur enroute . The boundaries between fuel products in the pipeline is called 'trans-mix' and is separated out and sent back to the refinery to be re-refined.

One crappy load of fuel that got by could contaminate a million gallons or more, as like product all goes into the same storage tank.

That's why they'd be very interested in analyzing that defective fuel.

 

[bertsmobile1]

Yes that is interesting.
We only have 2 refineries left and both are scheduled for closure .
Like a lot of things, fuel refining is all about volume and a population of 30,000,000 ain't enough to make one economic.
However the bulk of the stations are wired up to the company whose colours they wear thus the company knows how much has been bought from them and how much has been pumped so little chance for funny business.
However there are a couple of independent networks so no one knows how much fuel they have bought or how much fuel they have sold thus the ability of a few rogue truck loads of flamiable hydrocarbons of one sort or another to end up in their tanks.
We used to only have 1 company that did pump servicing and the kept tabs on the meters in the pumps and their records were made available to the relevant government departments.
Then we had to become like the USA and have a "free market with open competition" thus I could get any one of 5 companies to service my pumps and funny enough for a little brown envelope many of them will reset the counters.
Then there are things like 2 stroke mix & power Kerosene both of which are no longer sold, but the tanks are still there, usually not hooked up the the cash register so what comes out of them becomes "superannuation "
All fuel down here is delivered by road or rail with the exception of 2 short pipelines.
The EPA has banned lots of stuff like Solvent Benzene, & solvent Tolluene except for closed circuit processing and then the "dirty" solvents are supposed to be stored and sent to Singapore for reprocessing but from the smell of a lot of stuff I buy a goodly amount ends up in "fuel".
Only the government monitors all of this and every year we cut out more unproductive government jobs.

 

[55TBird]

I googled "gasoline contamination" and read an interesting article on knowyourparts.com

This is one quote from the article: "According to a release from BP, the fuel contained “a higher than normal level of polymeric residue” which contaminated 50,000 barrels of regular unleaded gasoline from its Whiting, IN, refinery. The fuel was shipped in mid-August to hundreds of gas stations in northern Indiana under the BP brand, as well as unbranded to many independent stations."

Apparently this is not unheard of. So, change your fuel filters...and thanks for a good discussion.

 

[cashman]

I've seen this happen many times. A guy buys gas for his lawnmower and pits it in a gallon plastic milk jug. He takes his gas home and sets it on the concrete floor of his garage. After several days of being stored on the floor, the milk jug can start sweating with moisture around the top of the jug. When he pours the gas into his lawnmower, the moisture goes right into the tank with the gasoline. After doing this for several times, his gas tank becomes contaminated with water and the moisture will eventually find it's way to the carburetor and the engine will quit. And this can happen with just about any type of container.

 

[55TBird]

I've seen this happen many times. A guy buys gas for his lawnmower and pits it in a gallon plastic milk jug. He takes his gas home and sets it on the concrete floor of his garage. After several days of being stored on the floor, the milk jug can start sweating with moisture around the top of the jug. When he pours the gas into his lawnmower, the moisture goes right into the tank with the gasoline. After doing this for several times, his gas tank becomes contaminated with water and the moisture will eventually find it's way to the carburetor and the engine will quit. And this can happen with just about any type of container.

Uh.........plastic milk jug?

As I said before, I bought the gas, pumped it into Eagle Safety cans (expensive metal gas cans with a spring-loaded seal and a built-in screen that are made for one purpose only — holding gas) and as soon as I got home, filled the mower from the cans. The gas was as fresh as I could have made it on my end. This was not moisture. It was a super fine contaminant in the fuel that plugged up my fuel filter solid by the second mowing.

The attached image shows three samples: the first jar is from the bottom of the first can I poured into my mower, the contaminant is more concentrated because it is from the bottom and there was not much gas left in the can. The second jar is from the second can from which I poured about half a can into my mower. So it is more concentrated than a can full of gas but not as concentrated as the first can which had only a quarter inch or so of gas left in it. The third jar was from one of the full cans, so I was pouring off the top of the can. Most of the contaminant had settled in the bottom. Thought you can't see it in the pic, I could see the tiny particles suspended in the fuel. It doesn't look anything like water in gas does. Also, after mowing this property for 13 years, this was the first and only time this has ever happened.

My mower is new. The gas was fresh. The cans are good quality metal gas cans that I bought about two years ago and have never had an issue with. The cans were not left alone before I put the fuel in the mower.

This was contaminated gas when I bought it from the local BP station. Checking online, I discovered that this has happened to other people...contaminated fuel in the gas station tanks is not impossible.

 

[cashman]

55Tbird,
I think you misunderstood me? I wasn't implying that's what you did and I apologize if thats what you thought I did. I was just recalling past events from what I've seen from being in the lawn and garden industry.

 

[55TBird]

55Tbird,
I think you misunderstood me? I wasn't implying that's what you did and I apologize if thats what you thought I did. I was just recalling past events from what I've seen from being in the lawn and garden industry.

No worries. You are right that fuel is something people don't always think a lot about though. A clean fuel filter is cheap, easy to change and can save you a lot of grief but some people never check or replace them until they have a problem. Having only 14 hours on my mower, I didn't really think about the fuel filter being clogged even though I did suspect some sort of fuel related problem when I took it to the dealer.

A lot of threads seem to start with "my mower just died" and sometimes the simplest answer is it.

Thanks.