Mystery Fuel Contamination

55TBird said:

What would have happened if I had fuel injection? Those injector nozzles have almost microscopic holes to atomize the fuel. And they aren't cheap.
I bought the 35 hp Briggs Vanguard engine because HP was more important than fuel economy to me and I'm leery about complexity in a mower. I figured that there is less to go wrong with a carb.
And yet....

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Your fuel injection system would probably be up a creek...with no paddle.

Have you considered the possibility that someone, be it ornery kids or someone who has it in for you, may have fixed you up with an 'additive,' such as sand, sugar or whatever?

cpurvis said:

Your fuel injection system would probably be up a creek...with no paddle.

Have you considered the possibility that someone, be it ornery kids or someone who has it in for you, may have fixed you up with an 'additive,' such as sand, sugar or whatever?

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I thought about that — briefly. But there is little chance anyone would come onto my property, into my garage, into my storage room....with a large Akita/German Shepherd keeping watch. I also paid at the pump, never left the cans alone, went straight home and filled up the mower...so chances of sabotage are slim to none.

I just bought some clear mason quart jars and have poured up several jars full to get a look and let them settle. All the cans seem to have some particles. In the near empty cans it's so concentrated you can't see through it. In the half-empty can, it is sorta cloudy, about like lemonade. In the full cans, it is pretty clear but still not as clear as I think it should be.

Did you fill up your truck at the same time? If so, it should be dead already. Is it also possible that the station had someone put foreign material in their gas? Not all stations lock their tanks.

Find out where the gas came from. You'll have to ask the station owner, not the clerk. Clerks will say "it came on XYZ truck" but that doesn't tell you where the fuel came from as there are usually several sources of fuel any geographical area and the truck could have loaded at any one of them.

The places where the trucks load are called 'loading racks.' Proper terminology is 'fuel distribution center' but the drivers and fuel suppliers call them loading racks.

These places have chemists who can analyze your fuel. They would be very interested in seeing your fuel.

cpurvis said:

Is it also possible that the station had someone put foreign material in their gas? Not all stations lock their tanks.

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I retract this one. Gas station pumps have filters that would never pass foreign material of that size.

Yes gas stations have filters, but it seems according to the OP that things do point to the gas station as the source of contamination.

Fuel filters don't have a bypass. When they clog up, nothing gets through.

I have my doubts that it's the station or fuel supplier or ethanol, even though I despise ethanol.

Got my mower back. Was about $180 worth of repair time to clean out that crap. They cleaned the tank, which had to be wiped out....wouldn't just rinse out. The fuel line up to the fuel filter was full of it. Replaced it. Fuel filter was clogged and replaced. No trace in line above fuel filter or in carb. Fuel filter was so clogged that no gas was getting through.

Mowed Friday night and it ran great.

Just to clarify, the contaminant particles were very very fine, despite how the pic looks. It was not gritty like sand but very fine like talcum powder. So fine that when dried out it clumped together to look like it was larger particles.

Also, there is no question that it came from the gas station. It was in all of my cans and they went right from the gas pump into my mower. I think the gas station tank was down to the bottom and the very fine particles were concentrated.

The dealer says my truck's filtration is much more robust than on a mower and nothing would have got to my injectors.

I'm not going to bother trying to get the gas station to pay my repair bill. 4 cans (20 gal) is about what I put in my truck when I fill up anyway—so a receipt only proves I bought gas, not that it was contaminated. And, I don't need the frustration.

I'm back to mowing so I'm happy. I bought 4 new cans and filled up at a different place. Since this happened once in 13 years here, I'm not going to worry too much about it. But I will keep a close eye on my fuel filter.

55TBird-

Thanks for the update, best to move on. I agree with you about the station possibly pumping the bottom.

Good you are back to mowing with your New Hot Rod. :thumbsup:

The "bottom" never gets pumped at a gas station. The pipe which draws fuel out of the tank is suspended above the bottom; there will be anywhere from 4" to 6" of gas remaining in the tank when the station runs out of gas. That's to collect water at the bottom of the tank where it can be removed and the stations and delivery trucks have tank dipsticks and a water-detecting paste to tell if how much water has collected.

There would have to be that amount of 'solids' for it to get into the pump lines at the station, where the pump filter would have stopped it, just like the mower's filter did.

cpurvis said:

The "bottom" never gets pumped at a gas station. The pipe which draws fuel out of the tank is suspended above the bottom; there will be anywhere from 4" to 6" of gas remaining in the tank when the station runs out of gas. That's to collect water at the bottom of the tank where it can be removed and the stations and delivery trucks have tank dipsticks and a water-detecting paste to tell if how much water has collected.

There would have to be that amount of 'solids' for it to get into the pump lines at the station, where the pump filter would have stopped it, just like the mower's filter did.

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Should have clogged and stopped.
More than one station operator down here has been done by the Standards Association because when they come to do a random pump volume check they find all sorts of contaminants in the fuel and in many cases the filter elements missing.
The cut the stations make is around 20¢ / gallon and filter elements cost near a grand to buy and almost the same to dispose of ( contaminated waste ) .
Older stations that are not hooked up to the refinery electronically are renown for buying "fuel" from unknown truck drivers cash, nudge nudge wink wink.
More than one truck driver has been done for picking up waste solvents that never seem to have arrived at the appropriate waste station or reprocessing depot.
Any guess where they end up?
Times are tight, things are tough, I have a lease payment coming up that I can not meet and some one offers me 2,000 gallons "reject fuel " for 50¢ a gallon.