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Diesel fuel water trap - what's a good one?

Posted: Wed May 21, 2003 9:32 pm
by Big-Stu
Howdy all,
I'm just after a few comments on what types/brands of water traps are available for diesels.

I've just got my Daihatsu Rocky injector pump back after a $840 :!: (wife not happy) rebuild and the comment was - you've had water in your fuel and that's what buggered it up. I replace my factory standard fuel filter with inbuilt water trap regularly and when I checked it today - no water.
It may have been poor maintenance by the previous owner but I don't want to take a chance.

The repairer said the best fix was to keep the fuel tank as full as possible.
The fuel returned to the tank is hot and gradually warms up the fuel.
When you stop the fuel cools down sucking the moisture out of the air and contaminating the fuel.
Doesn't matter if you go through the fuel regularly, but in my case I don't do many miles and my vehicle can sit for 2 weeks without being used.

Thought if I fitted a good quality water trap it might help.
I had a good search through the list and there's a few comments on fuel filters but nuthin on water traps.

Any comments?

Posted: Wed May 21, 2003 9:55 pm
by ToNkA
Thought of using an aditive with the fuel that eliminates water or similar?

Posted: Wed May 21, 2003 10:18 pm
by Area54
If you go to your local diesel repair shop they should have a range of adaptors to accept a DELPHI 296 (old LUCAS) fuel filter and water trap combined. These are the go because they have a glass or clear plastic trap so you can monitor the water contamination and drain it off early.

A word of caution using diesel additives - some of these will combine minute water droplets into the fuel. Now pretty much all injection pumps rely on the fuel for lubrication (most important) and for cooling the working parts of the pump. When small water droplets displace the lubricating ability of the fuel, wear/damage will occur to the pump. This can be very expensive to fix, depending on the pump, although most will need a rebuild.

Posted: Thu May 22, 2003 6:01 pm
by Big-Stu
Thanks for the feedback.
I did ask the mechanic about additives and he said they were pretty useless for water contamination.

Thanks for the info on the clear water/filter trap.
That's the sort of thing I was after.

Posted: Fri May 23, 2003 9:46 pm
by DAZZ
We use Diesel Power Aditive in our work Hiluxs. But this is only good as a biocide. Racore fuel filter\ Water seperators work well on trucks....