Valvetech fuel additive got the job done.

After one of my recent runs for the big squirts my motor started to bog down. Popped the hood and saw my lift pump pulling more vacuum than I thought it could against my primary racor, 20 inches of mercury. Thought to myself no problem I've got two spares. Slapped one in and away I go...... for about 1 mile and my rpms start dropping again. This got me worried so I made a u turn back to the jetties and dropped it down to 6 knots hoping to stretch out the distance I could travel before the filter plugged again. Two miles later the motor just conked. With 5 miles to go to the jetties and only getting 3 miles out of the last filter it was looking to be a really long night. Gave my last filter a kiss and said a prayer and started off at 6 knots. That lasted for about a half a mile and the rpms dropped to 3.5 - 4 knots and the motor wasn't happy. I couldn't believe I made it all the way back to the ramp like that but I did.

The next day I put in what I estimate was a shock dose of the valvetech fuel additive for "dispersing algae" and bought a case of primary filters for my racor since I figured I would be going through more than a few before I got my fuel cleared up. A week later I took Old Blue out again. I changed the filter before launch and made sure my case of spares was onboard and the anchor was handy. I was shocked to find out that my entire trip I didn't have to change the filter once and at full cruise I'm pulling zero vacuum on the primary. I expected that the additive would help but can hardly believe that it took the fuel from a condition where less than one gallon would plug the filter to completely dissolving all of the algae in the tank. WOW I love it when something goes right! :D . If your thinking of having your tank polished because of algae, I would definately give this stuff a try.

Brian on Old Blue, out.

Very interesting. Was that a diesel fuel additive? How much did you put in/how much fuel was in your tank?

Does the algea dissolve or does it die and sink to the bottom of the tank?? If the primary Racor is clogging, what about the secondary on the engine?? Where did yo buy the case of Racor's??

Just got back from Fort Bragg where Biodiesel is the rage. Supposedly the BD will keep the fuel system (tank to injectors) spotless but you will be changing a lot of filters until the system is purged. All I can say is that when Daryl hammered the throttle open on a beater 6-71, no smoke and the aroma of french fries. I am thinking about adding a gallon of Mazola to the tank. Maybe I will try it out on a tractor first.

RT

Jeff, yes it is a diesel additive. I don't know how much fuel is in the tank. It's a 100 gal tank and I had about 180 nm on it when the trouble showed up but the tank hadn't been topped up since last july just before my trip to the 43. I would guess about 20-30 gallons were left. I put the remainder of the bottle in which was about 4oz, then before I took it out again I stopped at the filling station and my buddy put 10 gallons in just to be on the safe side. I don't know why it happened on this trip and not on either of the two trips just two weeks before. Maybe the fuel level got low enough and the weather was rough enough to give the tank a good sloshing around and stir it up. This last trip was rougher than the previous three so I'm confident that nothing just settled out. I had this same problem when I first bought the boat and used the same stuff but it probably wasn't as strong of a shock dose last time and I remember changing my filter a few times. I usually use the recommended maintenance dose but probably forgot the last fillup or two.

Brian

Richard, I think it dissolves it, the bottle says it will "dissipate" the algae. I'm pretty sure that close to the same fuel level combined with significantly rougher water safely rules out any likelyhood that it just sank to the bottom of the tank.

I bought the filters at Oil Filter Service co 619-239-6622 it was right about $80 for a dozen of the racor 2010 filters.

The guy down there seemed to think that the block mounted secondary was probably a 5 micron. I use the two micron filters in my primary but to be on the safe side I had him change out 3 or 4 of the dozen with 10 micron filters.

Yeah I've heard about the biodiesel but don't know anything about it. Can it be bought down here? How much is it? Ive been thinking about adding some type of lube to my fuel but not sure what if anything to use. Yeah you might want to try that mazola out on a tractor first! ha ha.

Does your boat have the TMD40A in it? I remember you telling me about how your rear eisenglass knocks down alot of the noise. Do you have the Outer Banks or an Albacore Special? If you have the Special I'd llike to see how you did it. I've never had any great ideas about how I'd like to set up Old Blue (an Albacore Special) and would like to see how other folks have set theirs up. I'm thinking of hanging my new Icom 502 from the hard top right above the helm chair. I dont have a radar yet but I think it would have to go on the dash in front of the passenger chair angled towards the helm. Beyond that, I don't know.

Brian

$80 for a case is a good price. I buy 4 or 5 at a time from Oil Filter Services and pay just over $7 each.

I alway thought the engine mounted filter was a 2 micron, so I use the 10 micron (blue) filters in my RACOR. They also make a 30 micron (red) and a 2 micron (brown).

Mike

EDIT: Just did research and found the Wix 33373 engine mounted filter is also 10 microns.

Wix 33373 and Baldwin BF587 cross over to the original Volvo number, so I would bet they're all 10 micron. Makes me think I should be using the 30 in the RACOR and letting the 10 on the engine catch the rest of the crap. Every enging mounted filter I ever cut open looked like new after 100 hours.