March 12, 2025 • 36 mins
Erik Bjornstad continues the discussion on diagnosing generator problems, focusing on when and how to test fuel before accepting a technician's diagnosis that "bad fuel" is causing your generator failures.
The episode covers proper fuel testing procedures, sampling techniques, visual inspection clues, and how to interpret lab results to save potentially thousands in unnecessary fuel replacement costs.
Erik emphasizes the value of proper diagnostics and consulting with true fuel experts when generator technicians (who often lack fuel expertise) blame fuel quality for system issues.
What You'll Learn:
- Why generator service technicians often blame fuel for problems when they can't find mechanical issues
- The specific properties of diesel fuel that can legitimately cause generator problems (flashpoint, cetane rating, viscosity, lubricity)
- How to properly sample fuel for testing without contaminating the sample
- Why pulling samples from the "dead bottom" of tanks provides misleading results
- How to use a "bacon bomb" fuel sampler to get diagnostically functional samples
- What visual inspection can (and cannot) tell you about fuel quality
- Why gasoline contamination in diesel is hazardous
- Which laboratory tests provide the most valuable diagnostic information
- How to interpret fuel test results to make informed decisions
- When to consider consulting with a specialized fuel expert
Ideas Worth Sharing:
Here are three notable quotes from the podcast episode:
- "Most of the generator service technicians, they know a lot about generators. They do not know that much about fuel. Most of them that conclude that the condition has to be due to a fuel problem, they don't really know enough to say that for sure, to make that diagnosis for sure."
- "Before you commit to dumping thousands of dollars worth of stored fuel over a technician's hunch like this, you need to take some diagnostic steps to confirm whether the fuel actually is bad and is causing the problems that they think it is."
- "If all of the tests come back in spec, then that means your fuel's normal. Your fuel meets the minimum requirements in all of the areas that have been determined by the industry to have to do with supporting the minimum operating functions of your engine and your generator and not contributing to component damage."
Resources Mentioned:
- Bell Performance testing kits
- ASTM D975 specifications
- Erik Bjornstad: LinkedIn
Show Notes:
[00:00:00] Introduction and recap of Part 1
[00:02:00] Why generator technicians blame fuel problems
[00:04:00] What kinds of problems can out-of-spec fuel cause?
[00:05:00] Combustion characteristics and their impact
[00:06:00] Fuel lubricity ratings and biodiesel impact
[00:07:00] Particulate contaminants and filter problems
[00:08:00] Real-world example: municipality generator problems
[00:10:00] Debunking filter damage claims from fuel
[00:11:00] EPA registration of fuel treatments
[00:13:00] Importance of fuel testing
[00:14:00] Third-party laboratory testing explained
[00:15:00] Which tests to use based on suspected problems
[00:17:00] Proper fuel sampling techniques
[00:20:00] Using a "bacon bomb" fuel sampler
[00:22:00] Visual inspection - clear and brig
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to the Fuel Pulse Show podcast.
I'm your host Eric Bjornstad.
I'm your guide to the everchanging world of fuel.
So here at the podcast, we talkabout all things related to all the
different kinds of fuel that youuse both at work in a professional
capacity and at home for personal use.
And then in addition to that, we also talkabout all the things that use that fuel.
(00:24):
Again, both at work and at home.
That means the Fuel Pulse Showpodcast is really for everybody.
What are we going to talk about today?
Last time we were together, we introduceda scenario where you at your job
might have a backup generator system,maybe an emergency generator system,
and it runs on stored diesel fueland your generator system shuts down.
(00:49):
It won't start, perhaps that's ano start situation, or it starts,
but when you try to bring it up andmaintain the load, it will shut down.
Something is wrong.
It has a no run situation.
Something's not right with it.
The generator service technician looksthings over and declares a solution.
(01:10):
Your fuel is the problem.
Your fuel is bad.
Maybe it's even so bad that itwrecked some important components
of your system and those aregoing to have to be replaced.
Sounds pretty serious, doesn't it?
We floated the idea last time thatthere are things that you can do from
a diagnostic standpoint that can end upsaving you a lot of headaches by making
(01:33):
sure before you commit to spendingthousands on replacing things, making
sure that the solution isn't actuallya relatively simple mechanical fix,
like fixing a stuck check valve orreplacing the primary fuel filter.
And we said that for a business likeyours, a no start or a no run condition
(01:54):
for the generator is a pretty seriousmatter, but the answer to why it's
not happening is you just have toknow the right approach to take.
You have to know the right answersto the right question to ask, right?
And it is important to take theright approach to finding out
the true answer to your probleminstead of relying on assumptions.
That might prove to be wrong.
(02:15):
Many times could prove to be wrong.
See, most of the generator servicetechnicians, and you don't really think
about this, but this is absolutely true.
Most of the generator service technicians,they know a lot about generators.
They do not know that much about fuel.
Most of them that conclude thatthe condition, has to be due to
a fuel problem, they don't reallyknow enough to say that for sure,
(02:40):
to make that diagnosis for sure.
But they will blame the fuel anywaybecause it is the easiest thing to do.
It makes something else the culprit.
And so what we want to talk about inthis episode, this part two episode is we
want to shift our focus, having alreadygone through the mechanical things now
(03:01):
we want to shift our focus to the fuelitself, to what that technician may
have originally blamed for your problem.
Now, if you followed the steps thatwe outlined previously, you examined
some of the fuel system elementsthat are commonly overlooked when
diagnosing operational problems.
And you also addressed whethermicrobial contamination might
(03:23):
be a contributing factor.
Now, if you haven't gotten asatisfactory answer to your problem
by now, This is when you want to putthat fuel is bad diagnosis to the test.
But that doesn't meandumping the fuel quite yet.
Because we still don't know ifthat diagnosis is actually right.
And so before committing to sucha solution that's going to cost
(03:45):
us thousands of dollars, we havea little more due diligence to do.
As I said, generator servicetechnicians are not fuel experts.
So it's easy, even for professionalslike them, to misunderstand the role
that bad fuel can or cannot playin a no run, no start situation.
(04:07):
It is a real temptation to use the fuelas a fallback culprit when the technician
is unable to find the real problem.
Many cases, when they conclude thatthe foundation of the problem the cause
of the problem is that the fuel's bad.
They cannot actuallyexplain how the fuel's bad.
They cannot explain why it'ssuspected, subpar condition is
(04:30):
causing the overall problem.
They just make thisgeneral blanket diagnosis.
And that's a problem.
The question is, okay, forfuel, what kinds of problems
can out of spec fuel cause?
Okay, because if the fuel actuallydoes have a problem, there will
be things, problems, that it cancontribute to, and it's helpful to
(04:54):
know a little bit more about that.
Let's start out.
If the fuel that you have doesn't havethe proper combustion characteristics,
meaning its flashpoint could be toohigh or too low, its distillation
curve could be off significantly, notslightly, but significantly, if its
cetane rating is too low, the enginemight have trouble starting, or the
(05:18):
engine might have trouble maintainingload while it's trying to use that fuel.
If the fuel's basic viscosity hasbeen compromised for some reason,
that can have an effect on how thefuel is metered by the injectors.
All of those things do soundlike something significant.
Now, another thing that's sometimeslooked at is if the fuel's lubricity
(05:39):
rating is catastrophically low, not justmarginally, but significantly, that can
cause damage to fuel pumps and injectors.
However, the thing to keep in mind,having said that, the thing to keep
in mind is that it's pretty rarethese days to find diesel fuel that
has such a low lubricity ratingthat it causes, catastrophic damage.
(06:02):
And that's because almost alldiesel fuel available today contains
a small amount of biodiesel.
And that actually fixes any existinglubricity deficit that it had
when it came out of the refinery.
Still, lubricity rating couldmatter in this context, and
(06:23):
so that's why we measure it.
Okay, another problem.
What about, beyondCombustion characteristics.
What about contaminants?
What about if there's excessparticulate that's in that fuel?
So much excess particulate thatit leads to filter compromise.
In that kind of situation, you couldtheoretically have fuel that contains
(06:45):
so much particulate So much sedimentthat the fuel filters get plugged in
their effort to, keep contaminantsfrom reaching critical engine parts.
In that kind of situation,the filter wasn't damaged,
wasn't eaten up, so to speak.
It simply reached its load bearingcapacity and it needs to be changed.
And until it is changed, therewould be a possibility that excess
(07:09):
particulate might get past it andreach places that it's not supposed to.
And we all know That's not a good thing.
Those are some of the basic fuelcharacteristics that, if they're off
by enough, they could, in theory,contribute to a problem in your system.
But, when a generator technician, who,keep in mind, is not a fuel expert,
(07:31):
when a generator technician blamesthe fuel, they are very likely not
thinking about those specific things.
What are they thinking about?
We would ask, what are the kindsof things that the fuel might
falsely be accused of causing?
For one, let's talk about filter damage.
There's a real world situation thatI came across, where there was a
(07:56):
municipality in the area here in Florida.
And they had multiple generators.
Let's say they had 20 or more.
They got a bunch of generators.
And out of that pool of 20 plusgenerators, they have four of them.
That are all the same type ofgenerator, same manufacturer,
but different from the rest.
In other words, they don't have 20generators made by the same people.
(08:18):
They have 16 that are made by onemanufacturer, and then they have
these 4 that are made by another one.
These 4 is where theywere having problems.
What they were seeing was that theykept having injector pumps going bad.
in all four of those.
And because of the age of thosegenerators, this was a warranty situation.
(08:41):
So the generator service companysends a technician out to
them, looks over the situation.
What do you think theservice technician concluded?
They concluded that the fuel was bad.
The fuel was to blame for their problem.
And furthermore, they doubleddown in odd specifics in this.
(09:01):
They claimed that what washappening with the fuel was that
the fuel was eating up the filters.
That's exact words fromthe technician's diagnosis.
The fuel was that was supplying thesegenerators was eating up the filters,
which then was leading to continual damageto the fuel injection pump, leading to
(09:21):
them having to be replaced at the cost ofthousands of dollars, of course, because
they're not going to honor the warrantybecause it's not their fault, right?
It's the fuel.
So that's the situation.
That was the situation.
It's probably not that atypicalfrom situations that other
people have had as well.
The more you know about the fuel, themore you know about fuel in general,
(09:44):
the easier it is to see that this kindof claim by the technician in this
particular matter just is not supportableby the facts found in the real world.
Now here's several reasonswhy we can say that.
One, fuel filters tend to useCellulose paper filter mediums.
(10:04):
For a couple of reasons.
First of all, becausethey work pretty well.
So they're good enough to do the job well.
But also, second, because cellulosepaper isn't something that's really
susceptible to damage from chemicals.
It's a pretty inert material.
It's pretty impervious to damagefrom chemicals in the fuel.
Unatatized fuel simply does not containanything in that would be expected to
(10:32):
eat up paper filter medium in the waythat this technician was describing.
Okay, so you present that real worldfact situation, and the tech counters.
He says You don't haveun anodized diesel fuel.
You put stuff into that fuel.
You treat with biocide, andyou treat with stabilizer.
It's the biocide and the stabilizer that'sdamaging and eating up these filters.
(10:56):
That's what did it, okay?
Except, that explanation doesn'tcorrespond with reality either.
See, all fuel treatments, whether they'rebiocides, whether they are Injector
detergents or detergent packages Fuelstabilizers like oxidation retardants,
cetane improvers, other things, all fueltreatments that are going into on road
(11:21):
fuel have to be registered with the EPA.
Now, Realize that generator fuelisn't on road fuel, but there are many
times there's crossovers with that.
They'll use the same type.
And many times the types of fueltreatments that are used in on road fuel
are also used in off road fuel becausethere's no reason for them not to.
(11:42):
We can basically say, all types offuel treatments that are going into
the fuel that's likely going to bein your generator system or in their
generator system in this situation.
They have to be registered withthe EPA and they have to have
their formulation disclosed.
And the EPA can tell from the formulaswhether those treatments contain anything
(12:04):
that might cause damage to not just theengine components but things associated
with the engines like those filters.
That means As long as you're usinga properly registered fuel additive,
not something that somebody cooked upin their garage, but something that
is legally registered with the EPA.
As long as you're doing that, theidea that fuel additive is causing
(12:28):
the fuel to eat up the filters, ordamage the filters in the way that
this technician claims, that simplydoes not correspond to reality.
And it's very likely, That thetechnician in saying what he's saying
doesn't actually know any of this.
So before you commit to dumpingthousands of dollars worth of stored
(12:49):
fuel over a technician's hunch likethis, you need to take some diagnostic
steps to confirm whether the fuelactually is bad and is causing the
problems that they think it is.
What does this mean?
This means fuel testing, which mightseem like overkill, but it's definitely
not in this kind of situation.
(13:10):
Because remember, this is a situationwhere you're facing thousands of
dollars being at stake at a minimum.
It could be multiple tens of thousandsof dollars being at stake, depending
on how long the problem might go on ifyou pick the wrong solution to chase.
Like it or not, you're going to needto do some fuel testing if you haven't
(13:32):
found the solution up to this point.
Now, most of this fuel testingthat we're talking about is done
at a third party laboratory.
Now.
You stop there, that starts to scaresome people, and it starts to scare
some people because, not becausethey're opposed to that kind of
thing in principle, but because theydon't really know how to get it done.
(13:52):
We're going to tellyou how to get it done.
From a best practice standpoint, whenwe say fuel testing in this context,
we're talking about, Taking a fuel sampleout of the tank in question and then
sending it off to a lab to be tested,where the results will be accurate.
able to tell us something meaningfulabout the fuel's condition with respect
(14:15):
to whether it is actually likelycontributing to this problem or not.
Now there are hundreds, literallyhundreds of kinds of fuel tests that
can be run in a lab, but many of themwon't actually tell you what you need
to know in this specific situation.
We're going to tell you the ones that dotell you something that you need to know.
If the question at hand is whether thefuel's condition is preventing that
(14:40):
generator from starting or preventingit from maintaining load, that's
going to be confirmed by documentingeither its combustion properties or
whether it has any contaminants in it.
Combustion properties, teststhat shed light on those are
the ones like flashpoint.
distillation value, cetane rating,those ones that we mentioned earlier.
(15:03):
Now, if the question or the accusation,if you want to put it that way, is
whether the fuel or something in thefuel is damaging filters, such that
system components normally protectedby those filters are being compromised,
like What was the accusation inthis particular example we gave?
Then the tests that you're goingto want are going to be the tests
(15:26):
that measure contamination or levelsof contamination in that fuel.
Some of those are Water by Carl Fisher,the Water and Sediment Content Test.
There's also one called anISO Particulate Count Test.
That can be useful for documenting thespecific particulate content, which
(15:46):
means how much of Particular sizeof particles that are in the fuel.
For example, in the situation we describedearlier, where excess particulate
matter from the fuel was thought tohave compromised the fuel filter,
you could run an ISO test alongside,let's say, a water and sediment test,
and those two results together wouldtell you Probably everything you need
(16:09):
to know about whether the problemwas being caused by the fuel or not.
Those are some of the teststhat you'd want to have run.
Many labs will offer test slates,groups of tests, that have all
the important ones together at a,essentially at a discounted price, right?
Because it's more cost effective for themto do a bunch of tests together as opposed
(16:31):
to charging out each one individually.
Now, one thing to remember though,a big truth that one should always
take into account when you're doingany kind of fuel testing is only
as good as the sample being tested.
You want to make sure that yourtest has what they call the
highest diagnostic value possible.
(16:52):
That means that you're going to needto keep a couple things in mind while
you're getting the fuel sample thatyou're going to be running that test on.
Thing number one first.
The issue of where or how deep in thetank you should pull your sample from.
That's important, andwe're going to explain why.
Most generator fuel supply tanks,they have the fuel pickup lines
(17:16):
are positioned about 3 to 4inches off the bottom of the tank.
In most cases If that tank haswater in it, many of them do, it
has water, it has sediment that hasdeveloped over time, it has emulsified
fuel which can develop over time.
(17:37):
In most cases, all of that's goingto be located below the pickup line.
Because if you think about it, ifyou've got more than 3 or 4 inches
of that kind of stuff at the bottom,you've got a lot and you probably
need to do something about it.
So in most cases, all that waterin particular contaminant stuff is
already located below the pickup line.
(17:57):
And that means it's not goingto be drawn into the engine
system by that pickup line.
It's not going to becausing a direct problem.
It's just sitting there.
Most fuel storage tanks have at leastsome amount of this, if you don't disturb
that, then in most cases it's not goingto create any filter plugging issues.
Or, a better way to put it, ifyou don't disturb that It's not
(18:22):
going to be something that's goingto be causing a problem for you.
The reason why we bring thisup relates to that question of
where, how deep to sample from.
Because if you take a sample from thevery bottom of the tank, what they
call the dead bottom of the tank, whatare you likely to get in that sample?
(18:44):
You're likely to get a sample that'sgoing to pull in a whole bunch of
that water and that particulate.
And that lab does not distinguishbetween what they see in that sample.
If they see are given a sample thatis 50 percent water, they're not
going to kick this back and say,Hey, this is 50 percent water.
(19:04):
You sure you want to do this?
No.
Their job is to run whatevertest you contract with them on
the sample that you give them.
The problem is that if you givethem a sample that's full of this,
Contamination, you're going to getresults that don't actually reflect
the true condition of your tank.
(19:25):
You're going to get results thatfail in the contaminant department.
And that's a problem because inreality, your fuel does not have
that much contaminant in it.
It just happened, you just happenedto have pulled a sample that, as they
say, was not diagnostically useful.
How to get around this problem?
Most fuel testing labs, they know thatthis is true, and they recommend then
(19:49):
that fuel samples be taken not fromdead bottom, but between three to six
inches off the bottom of the tank.
And that's generally a good practice,and so that is going to be the first
thing you're going to want to keep inmind when you're pulling a fuel sample.
Now, Second question that comesis, how do you pull fuel samples?
How do you retrieve samples like this?
(20:12):
Okay, so to avoid disturbing theparticulate and contaminating
your sample, you need to havethe proper sampling equipment.
The best practice thing that is usedwithin the petroleum industry for sampling
like this is what's called a fuel sampler.
It's also known in the industrycolloquially as a bacon bomb.
It's a long cylindrical tube usuallymade of non sparking material and you
(20:38):
lower it down by a line to whateverdepth you want, whether it is three
inches from the bottom, six inches,maybe you want to do one up top.
You can control how deepyou take your sample.
It's going to pull a sample into itselfand You bring it back up, you put it
into, you decant your sample into asample container, and there you go.
(20:59):
If you manage stored fuel, you definitelyneed to have a bacon bomb fuel sampler
available to you because you'regoing to need to do fuel sampling.
So you need a bacon bomb.
You can get them from different companies.
Bell Performance has one that is comeswith extensions that actually enable
you to control the depth that youtake your sample in off the bottom.
(21:23):
So that's, relatively convenient to use.
And if you're unfamiliar with how touse a bacon mom we can actually give
you some guidance on how to do thatbecause it is important to know how to
take good fuel samples if you're goingto get a good answer to this question.
Once you retrieve your fuel samples.
Before you send them off to the labs, isthere anything useful that you can tell
(21:48):
about them simply by looking at them?
That's an interesting question.
A good rule of thumb to follow isthat when you're decanting samples,
put them in a clear glass jar.
Now, the reason we want to do that isbecause you can immediately look at them
and you can tell what they look like.
And what you're looking for is youwant to see if those samples are
(22:08):
what they call clear and bright.
You've seen clear and bright fuel.
You can see through it.
Doesn't look like there's any cloudiness,no haze, nothing that's not supposed
to be in there floating around.
It looks like clear, clean, bright fuel.
If your fuel sample is clear and bright,you can see through it, then the fuel most
(22:32):
likely does not contain a whole bunch ofexcess particulate that's going to cause
a problem on the contamination side.
Now, that doesn't mean that itscombustion properties might not be off.
You cannot tell from looking if a dieselfuel sample has a flashpoint that's off.
You can't tell by looking ifit's cetane rating is too low.
(22:53):
So you're still going to need totest, but you can get a good general
idea of whether on the contaminantside, that fuel sample is going to be
problematic simply by looking at it.
Now, too many times someone will pull afuel sample, looks visually clear, And
then someone else will look at it and saywe still need to polish that fuel anyway.
(23:18):
Fuel polishing, as you mayrecall, means fuel filtration.
Typically, if a fuel sample looks clearand bright like that, You don't need to do
fuel polishing because if there's nothingin the fuel as far as contaminant that
can be filtered out, then fuel filtrationand fuel polishing isn't likely going
(23:39):
to have that much benefit for that fuel.
Circling back to what I said a momentago, if you have a sample that looks
visually clear I did say, remember,That doesn't mean that combustion
properties are what they should be.
Combustion properties are somethingthat you cannot get a sense of
just by looking at the fuel.
And the reason I bring that up isbecause there is something very common,
(24:02):
or I should say, surprisingly common,that happens, that happens in diesel
fuel tanks, and that is if diesel fuelhas been contaminated by gasoline.
This happens much moreoften than you would think.
You've got fuel suppliersthat are switch loading.
They're using the same trucksto haul different kinds of fuel.
(24:25):
It happens.
Gasoline gets into the diesel fuel.
It doesn't happen intentionally.
Nobody expects it, but it does happen.
And gasoline contamination dieselfuel is bad news for several reasons.
Number one, diesel components incommon rail diesel engines They rely on
things like the lubricating qualitiesof that diesel fuel, the lubricity.
(24:51):
Gasoline has virtuallyno lubricating property.
It doesn't have to have them.
And if you introduce a small amountof gasoline, that can skew the
lubricity rating of that fuel andcontribute to the kind of damage
that we had mentioned earlier.
Another thing that does it skewsthe flashpoint dramatically.
Doesn't take a whole lot of gasoline todepress the flashpoint of that diesel
(25:15):
fuel from 125 degrees, I think is typicalflashpoint for number two down to remember
gasoline has a flashpoint of minus 40, sojust think mathematically would not take
very much at all to lower that down enoughto where the engine starts performing.
Abnormally, shall we say.
(25:36):
If you submit that kind of fuel fortesting, gasoline contamination very
likely would show up in at least theflashpoint test, and the distillation
test, if not some other things.
Okay if you do happen to find thatyour diesel fuel is contaminated by
gasoline, that's a situation whereyou are going to need to replace that
(25:59):
contaminated fuel with fresh diesel fuel.
Alright let's start tobring this home here.
If there are numerous different teststhat can tell you something useful about
your fuel, How do you know which onesto choose to help solve your problem, or
help guide you towards a solution, right?
(26:19):
After all, you can test yourself into theground, as they say, and that's not really
something anybody really wants to do.
But you also don't want to missthe opportunity that you have to
have the best chance of findingthe right answer to your problem.
So for this best chance, you're going toget the best results by running what they
call an ASTM mission critical test slate.
(26:42):
Now, as we said earlier, many labswill offer groups of tests together
in a test slate, and they maycall it something similar to this.
ASTM Mission Critical is what weinternally call our recommended group.
This kind of slate, it groupstogether the most important tests
from that D 975 specification.
(27:05):
The tests that define combustioncharacteristics and the fuel tests
that document contamination levels.
That kind of test slate is probablya good one to consider first.
Now, if you're not sure if that groupof tests Offered by a particular lab.
Will tell you everything you need to know.
You can do a couple of things here.
(27:26):
You have a choice of a couple of things.
The labs themselves are always willingto advise on customer questions.
If you explain what you're looking for,explain what your problem is, what you're
hoping to accomplish, they are reallygood, labs today are really good at
directing you to the kind of testing thatyou're going to need that's actually going
(27:47):
to give you the answers that you need.
that will be useful to you, whilealso keeping you away from doing tests
that aren't going to be useful to you.
Labs do that kind of thing all the time.
Don't hesitate to ask.
For a lab consultation toexplain what you're looking for.
They are more than happyto do that for you.
You can do that.
Other thing you can do is youcan consult with an outside fuel
(28:10):
expert who can give you moredirect guidance for your situation.
Groups like that, BellPerformance does that.
You don't have to come to us,you can go to somebody else.
But whether you talk to a lab or youtalk to an outside fuel expert, there are
plenty of people who are willing to giveyou good direction and good information to
help you solve the problem that you have.
(28:31):
Your best answer's out theresomewhere, even if you need a little
help knowing where to look, right?
Okay, so to this point, we know whichtests are going to shed the most
light on whether our fuel reallyis contributing to our problem.
But we still have to ask, onceyou get those test results back,
which What do they mean, right?
The most important thing, if you run anASTM mission critical test slate, the
(28:55):
most important thing that's going toconfirm to you is if all of the tests, I
think there's probably 8 or 9 differenttests, if they all come back in spec,
then that means your fuel's normal.
Your fuel meets the minimumrequirements in all of the areas that
have been determined by the industryto have to do with supporting the
(29:17):
minimum operating functions of yourengine and your generator and not
contributing to component damage.
So if you get a passing grade onall those, That should be enough
for you to cross off the fuelas a causative factor as to, why
your system still isn't running.
That means you're going tosave thousands of dollars.
(29:38):
You're going to get saved fromspending thousands upon thousands of
dollars getting rid of and replacingfuel that actually didn't need to
be replaced in the first place.
What if one or more of the fuel resultscomes back abnormal, out of line?
Now you've acquired a veryimportant piece of information.
Depending on what those test results are,depending on how far out of line they
(30:01):
are, now you have some specific piecesof information that can help guide you
as to what specifically you need to do.
Because the answer's notalways going to be the same.
If your flash point's off, that'sgoing to mean something different than
if your water and sediment is off.
Again, having the test results willgive you the information you need to
(30:23):
know to be able to make that decision.
So whatever happens, doing these,this kind of field testing, you're
going to have gone from relying onguesswork as to what your solution
should be, to being able to havea much more definitive answer.
And anyone who works with systems likethe kind that we're talking about, they
(30:45):
know that there is tremendous valuein having the ability to be confident.
in that kind of information.
Okay, last thing.
Let's say your fuel testresults come back clean.
Great.
You've already run throughall the mechanical diagnostics
that we talked about earlier.
They all checked out, but yoursystem still will not run.
(31:09):
You still got that problem.
Now would be the time, if all that's true,now's the time to take what you know and
consult with a mechanical expert who cangive you guidance on what to do next.
Because everything that we talkedabout, they're all general guidelines.
They cover as much as they can about allthe different kinds of systems out there.
(31:32):
But we know that there arelots of difference, differences
in lots of different systems.
Every system is just alittle bit different.
If you haven't been able to find aproblem up to now, the best thing that
you can do is talk with somebody whois a mechanical expert, who can look
at your system, take what you alreadyknow in these important areas, and
(31:53):
say, Okay, let's try this other thing.
And you can start makingmore meaningful problems.
progress down the road for you.
The important thing, though, is that ifyou've done everything up to this point,
you will have crossed off a bunch of themost commonly cited culprits, along with
eliminating one of the most common thingsthat often gets incorrectly blamed for a
(32:15):
problem and sends users off on wild goosechases that cost them a lot of money and
don't end up well because they haven'tcorrectly identified the problem cause.
Now, you're in a much better position tobe able to fix what needs to be fixed.
If you're in the inevitable position ofdealing with a no start, no run situation,
(32:38):
you know it's pretty important to get tothe bottom of what's causing that, right?
Hopefully, by now, youhave a little clearer path.
The whole clear idea of thedirection that you need to take to
solve your problem and get thingsback where they need to be, right?
Just saying one last thing about thiswhole consulting with a mechanical
expert, if you haven't found the answer.
(32:58):
This whole thing we're talking about,dealing with fuel, dealing with generator
issues, that can be a daunting taskespecially if you're not an expert in
those areas, if you're not a fuel expert,
it can be intimidating.
This kind of consulting is somethingthat Bell Performance actually does.
If you need to reach out to us, wecertainly would welcome the chance
(33:21):
to help you solve your problem.
But, it doesn't mean you have to use us.
If you find yourself in thissituation, just reach out to somebody.
Somebody who is knowledgeable, somebodywho's an expert, somebody who you're
confident that you're, is going tohave your best interests in mind.
Reach out to somebody who can help you.
(33:42):
You are an expert in your area.
They are experts in the fueland the mechanical factors.
It is always a good idea to takeadvantage of subject matter expertise,
especially when, to be honest,you got so much at stake here.
And with that's going to do it for thisepisode of the Fuel Pulse Show Podcast.
(34:03):
If you like what you heard andyou haven't subscribed already,
then feel free to subscribe atyour podcast purveyor of choice.
It could be Google Podcasts,Amazon Podcasts, iTunes,
Stitcher, whichever ones you use.
Leave a like.
Review positive review if you can thathelps us a lot as always we typically
(34:24):
have Links to some of the things wetalked about in the show notes, so you
will find those there as well So untilnext time I am eric bjornstad Your guide
to the ever changing world of fuel andI will see you next time for the next
episode of the fuel pole show podcast
Welcome to the Fuel Pulse Show podcast.
I'm your host Eric Bjornstad.
I'm your guide to the everchanging world of fuel.
So here at the podcast, we talkabout all things related to all the
different kinds of fuel that youuse both at work in a professional
capacity and at home for personal use.
And then in addition to that, we also talkabout all the things that use that fuel.
(00:24):
Again, both at work and at home.
That means the Fuel Pulse Showpodcast is really for everybody.
What are we going to talk about today?
Last time we were together, we introduceda scenario where you at your job
might have a backup generator system,maybe an emergency generator system,
and it runs on stored diesel fueland your generator system shuts down.
(00:49):
It won't start, perhaps that's ano start situation, or it starts,
but when you try to bring it up andmaintain the load, it will shut down.
Something is wrong.
It has a no run situation.
Something's not right with it.
The generator service technician looksthings over and declares a solution.
(01:10):
Your fuel is the problem.
Your fuel is bad.
Maybe it's even so bad that itwrecked some important components
of your system and those aregoing to have to be replaced.
Sounds pretty serious, doesn't it?
We floated the idea last time thatthere are things that you can do from
a diagnostic standpoint that can end upsaving you a lot of headaches by making
(01:33):
sure before you commit to spendingthousands on replacing things, making
sure that the solution isn't actuallya relatively simple mechanical fix,
like fixing a stuck check valve orreplacing the primary fuel filter.
And we said that for a business likeyours, a no start or a no run condition
(01:54):
for the generator is a pretty seriousmatter, but the answer to why it's
not happening is you just have toknow the right approach to take.
You have to know the right answersto the right question to ask, right?
And it is important to take theright approach to finding out
the true answer to your probleminstead of relying on assumptions.
That might prove to be wrong.
(02:15):
Many times could prove to be wrong.
See, most of the generator servicetechnicians, and you don't really think
about this, but this is absolutely true.
Most of the generator service technicians,they know a lot about generators.
They do not know that much about fuel.
Most of them that conclude thatthe condition, has to be due to
a fuel problem, they don't reallyknow enough to say that for sure,
(02:40):
to make that diagnosis for sure.
But they will blame the fuel anywaybecause it is the easiest thing to do.
It makes something else the culprit.
And so what we want to talk about inthis episode, this part two episode is we
want to shift our focus, having alreadygone through the mechanical things now
(03:01):
we want to shift our focus to the fuelitself, to what that technician may
have originally blamed for your problem.
Now, if you followed the steps thatwe outlined previously, you examined
some of the fuel system elementsthat are commonly overlooked when
diagnosing operational problems.
And you also addressed whethermicrobial contamination might
(03:23):
be a contributing factor.
Now, if you haven't gotten asatisfactory answer to your problem
by now, This is when you want to putthat fuel is bad diagnosis to the test.
But that doesn't meandumping the fuel quite yet.
Because we still don't know ifthat diagnosis is actually right.
And so before committing to sucha solution that's going to cost
(03:45):
us thousands of dollars, we havea little more due diligence to do.
As I said, generator servicetechnicians are not fuel experts.
So it's easy, even for professionalslike them, to misunderstand the role
that bad fuel can or cannot playin a no run, no start situation.
(04:07):
It is a real temptation to use the fuelas a fallback culprit when the technician
is unable to find the real problem.
Many cases, when they conclude thatthe foundation of the problem the cause
of the problem is that the fuel's bad.
They cannot actuallyexplain how the fuel's bad.
They cannot explain why it'ssuspected, subpar condition is
(04:30):
causing the overall problem.
They just make thisgeneral blanket diagnosis.
And that's a problem.
The question is, okay, forfuel, what kinds of problems
can out of spec fuel cause?
Okay, because if the fuel actuallydoes have a problem, there will
be things, problems, that it cancontribute to, and it's helpful to
(04:54):
know a little bit more about that.
Let's start out.
If the fuel that you have doesn't havethe proper combustion characteristics,
meaning its flashpoint could be toohigh or too low, its distillation
curve could be off significantly, notslightly, but significantly, if its
cetane rating is too low, the enginemight have trouble starting, or the
(05:18):
engine might have trouble maintainingload while it's trying to use that fuel.
If the fuel's basic viscosity hasbeen compromised for some reason,
that can have an effect on how thefuel is metered by the injectors.
All of those things do soundlike something significant.
Now, another thing that's sometimeslooked at is if the fuel's lubricity
(05:39):
rating is catastrophically low, not justmarginally, but significantly, that can
cause damage to fuel pumps and injectors.
However, the thing to keep in mind,having said that, the thing to keep
in mind is that it's pretty rarethese days to find diesel fuel that
has such a low lubricity ratingthat it causes, catastrophic damage.
(06:02):
And that's because almost alldiesel fuel available today contains
a small amount of biodiesel.
And that actually fixes any existinglubricity deficit that it had
when it came out of the refinery.
Still, lubricity rating couldmatter in this context, and
(06:23):
so that's why we measure it.
Okay, another problem.
What about, beyondCombustion characteristics.
What about contaminants?
What about if there's excessparticulate that's in that fuel?
So much excess particulate thatit leads to filter compromise.
In that kind of situation, you couldtheoretically have fuel that contains
(06:45):
so much particulate So much sedimentthat the fuel filters get plugged in
their effort to, keep contaminantsfrom reaching critical engine parts.
In that kind of situation,the filter wasn't damaged,
wasn't eaten up, so to speak.
It simply reached its load bearingcapacity and it needs to be changed.
And until it is changed, therewould be a possibility that excess
(07:09):
particulate might get past it andreach places that it's not supposed to.
And we all know That's not a good thing.
Those are some of the basic fuelcharacteristics that, if they're off
by enough, they could, in theory,contribute to a problem in your system.
But, when a generator technician, who,keep in mind, is not a fuel expert,
(07:31):
when a generator technician blamesthe fuel, they are very likely not
thinking about those specific things.
What are they thinking about?
We would ask, what are the kindsof things that the fuel might
falsely be accused of causing?
For one, let's talk about filter damage.
There's a real world situation thatI came across, where there was a
(07:56):
municipality in the area here in Florida.
And they had multiple generators.
Let's say they had 20 or more.
They got a bunch of generators.
And out of that pool of 20 plusgenerators, they have four of them.
That are all the same type ofgenerator, same manufacturer,
but different from the rest.
In other words, they don't have 20generators made by the same people.
(08:18):
They have 16 that are made by onemanufacturer, and then they have
these 4 that are made by another one.
These 4 is where theywere having problems.
What they were seeing was that theykept having injector pumps going bad.
in all four of those.
And because of the age of thosegenerators, this was a warranty situation.
(08:41):
So the generator service companysends a technician out to
them, looks over the situation.
What do you think theservice technician concluded?
They concluded that the fuel was bad.
The fuel was to blame for their problem.
And furthermore, they doubleddown in odd specifics in this.
(09:01):
They claimed that what washappening with the fuel was that
the fuel was eating up the filters.
That's exact words fromthe technician's diagnosis.
The fuel was that was supplying thesegenerators was eating up the filters,
which then was leading to continual damageto the fuel injection pump, leading to
(09:21):
them having to be replaced at the cost ofthousands of dollars, of course, because
they're not going to honor the warrantybecause it's not their fault, right?
It's the fuel.
So that's the situation.
That was the situation.
It's probably not that atypicalfrom situations that other
people have had as well.
The more you know about the fuel, themore you know about fuel in general,
(09:44):
the easier it is to see that this kindof claim by the technician in this
particular matter just is not supportableby the facts found in the real world.
Now here's several reasonswhy we can say that.
One, fuel filters tend to useCellulose paper filter mediums.
(10:04):
For a couple of reasons.
First of all, becausethey work pretty well.
So they're good enough to do the job well.
But also, second, because cellulosepaper isn't something that's really
susceptible to damage from chemicals.
It's a pretty inert material.
It's pretty impervious to damagefrom chemicals in the fuel.
Unatatized fuel simply does not containanything in that would be expected to
(10:32):
eat up paper filter medium in the waythat this technician was describing.
Okay, so you present that real worldfact situation, and the tech counters.
He says You don't haveun anodized diesel fuel.
You put stuff into that fuel.
You treat with biocide, andyou treat with stabilizer.
It's the biocide and the stabilizer that'sdamaging and eating up these filters.
(10:56):
That's what did it, okay?
Except, that explanation doesn'tcorrespond with reality either.
See, all fuel treatments, whether they'rebiocides, whether they are Injector
detergents or detergent packages Fuelstabilizers like oxidation retardants,
cetane improvers, other things, all fueltreatments that are going into on road
(11:21):
fuel have to be registered with the EPA.
Now, Realize that generator fuelisn't on road fuel, but there are many
times there's crossovers with that.
They'll use the same type.
And many times the types of fueltreatments that are used in on road fuel
are also used in off road fuel becausethere's no reason for them not to.
(11:42):
We can basically say, all types offuel treatments that are going into
the fuel that's likely going to bein your generator system or in their
generator system in this situation.
They have to be registered withthe EPA and they have to have
their formulation disclosed.
And the EPA can tell from the formulaswhether those treatments contain anything
(12:04):
that might cause damage to not just theengine components but things associated
with the engines like those filters.
That means As long as you're usinga properly registered fuel additive,
not something that somebody cooked upin their garage, but something that
is legally registered with the EPA.
As long as you're doing that, theidea that fuel additive is causing
(12:28):
the fuel to eat up the filters, ordamage the filters in the way that
this technician claims, that simplydoes not correspond to reality.
And it's very likely, That thetechnician in saying what he's saying
doesn't actually know any of this.
So before you commit to dumpingthousands of dollars worth of stored
(12:49):
fuel over a technician's hunch likethis, you need to take some diagnostic
steps to confirm whether the fuelactually is bad and is causing the
problems that they think it is.
What does this mean?
This means fuel testing, which mightseem like overkill, but it's definitely
not in this kind of situation.
(13:10):
Because remember, this is a situationwhere you're facing thousands of
dollars being at stake at a minimum.
It could be multiple tens of thousandsof dollars being at stake, depending
on how long the problem might go on ifyou pick the wrong solution to chase.
Like it or not, you're going to needto do some fuel testing if you haven't
(13:32):
found the solution up to this point.
Now, most of this fuel testingthat we're talking about is done
at a third party laboratory.
Now.
You stop there, that starts to scaresome people, and it starts to scare
some people because, not becausethey're opposed to that kind of
thing in principle, but because theydon't really know how to get it done.
(13:52):
We're going to tellyou how to get it done.
From a best practice standpoint, whenwe say fuel testing in this context,
we're talking about, Taking a fuel sampleout of the tank in question and then
sending it off to a lab to be tested,where the results will be accurate.
able to tell us something meaningfulabout the fuel's condition with respect
(14:15):
to whether it is actually likelycontributing to this problem or not.
Now there are hundreds, literallyhundreds of kinds of fuel tests that
can be run in a lab, but many of themwon't actually tell you what you need
to know in this specific situation.
We're going to tell you the ones that dotell you something that you need to know.
If the question at hand is whether thefuel's condition is preventing that
(14:40):
generator from starting or preventingit from maintaining load, that's
going to be confirmed by documentingeither its combustion properties or
whether it has any contaminants in it.
Combustion properties, teststhat shed light on those are
the ones like flashpoint.
distillation value, cetane rating,those ones that we mentioned earlier.
(15:03):
Now, if the question or the accusation,if you want to put it that way, is
whether the fuel or something in thefuel is damaging filters, such that
system components normally protectedby those filters are being compromised,
like What was the accusation inthis particular example we gave?
Then the tests that you're goingto want are going to be the tests
(15:26):
that measure contamination or levelsof contamination in that fuel.
Some of those are Water by Carl Fisher,the Water and Sediment Content Test.
There's also one called anISO Particulate Count Test.
That can be useful for documenting thespecific particulate content, which
(15:46):
means how much of Particular sizeof particles that are in the fuel.
For example, in the situation we describedearlier, where excess particulate
matter from the fuel was thought tohave compromised the fuel filter,
you could run an ISO test alongside,let's say, a water and sediment test,
and those two results together wouldtell you Probably everything you need
(16:09):
to know about whether the problemwas being caused by the fuel or not.
Those are some of the teststhat you'd want to have run.
Many labs will offer test slates,groups of tests, that have all
the important ones together at a,essentially at a discounted price, right?
Because it's more cost effective for themto do a bunch of tests together as opposed
(16:31):
to charging out each one individually.
Now, one thing to remember though,a big truth that one should always
take into account when you're doingany kind of fuel testing is only
as good as the sample being tested.
You want to make sure that yourtest has what they call the
highest diagnostic value possible.
(16:52):
That means that you're going to needto keep a couple things in mind while
you're getting the fuel sample thatyou're going to be running that test on.
Thing number one first.
The issue of where or how deep in thetank you should pull your sample from.
That's important, andwe're going to explain why.
Most generator fuel supply tanks,they have the fuel pickup lines
(17:16):
are positioned about 3 to 4inches off the bottom of the tank.
In most cases If that tank haswater in it, many of them do, it
has water, it has sediment that hasdeveloped over time, it has emulsified
fuel which can develop over time.
(17:37):
In most cases, all of that's goingto be located below the pickup line.
Because if you think about it, ifyou've got more than 3 or 4 inches
of that kind of stuff at the bottom,you've got a lot and you probably
need to do something about it.
So in most cases, all that waterin particular contaminant stuff is
already located below the pickup line.
(17:57):
And that means it's not goingto be drawn into the engine
system by that pickup line.
It's not going to becausing a direct problem.
It's just sitting there.
Most fuel storage tanks have at leastsome amount of this, if you don't disturb
that, then in most cases it's not goingto create any filter plugging issues.
Or, a better way to put it, ifyou don't disturb that It's not
(18:22):
going to be something that's goingto be causing a problem for you.
The reason why we bring thisup relates to that question of
where, how deep to sample from.
Because if you take a sample from thevery bottom of the tank, what they
call the dead bottom of the tank, whatare you likely to get in that sample?
(18:44):
You're likely to get a sample that'sgoing to pull in a whole bunch of
that water and that particulate.
And that lab does not distinguishbetween what they see in that sample.
If they see are given a sample thatis 50 percent water, they're not
going to kick this back and say,Hey, this is 50 percent water.
(19:04):
You sure you want to do this?
No.
Their job is to run whatevertest you contract with them on
the sample that you give them.
The problem is that if you givethem a sample that's full of this,
Contamination, you're going to getresults that don't actually reflect
the true condition of your tank.
(19:25):
You're going to get results thatfail in the contaminant department.
And that's a problem because inreality, your fuel does not have
that much contaminant in it.
It just happened, you just happenedto have pulled a sample that, as they
say, was not diagnostically useful.
How to get around this problem?
Most fuel testing labs, they know thatthis is true, and they recommend then
(19:49):
that fuel samples be taken not fromdead bottom, but between three to six
inches off the bottom of the tank.
And that's generally a good practice,and so that is going to be the first
thing you're going to want to keep inmind when you're pulling a fuel sample.
Now, Second question that comesis, how do you pull fuel samples?
How do you retrieve samples like this?
(20:12):
Okay, so to avoid disturbing theparticulate and contaminating
your sample, you need to havethe proper sampling equipment.
The best practice thing that is usedwithin the petroleum industry for sampling
like this is what's called a fuel sampler.
It's also known in the industrycolloquially as a bacon bomb.
It's a long cylindrical tube usuallymade of non sparking material and you
(20:38):
lower it down by a line to whateverdepth you want, whether it is three
inches from the bottom, six inches,maybe you want to do one up top.
You can control how deepyou take your sample.
It's going to pull a sample into itselfand You bring it back up, you put it
into, you decant your sample into asample container, and there you go.
(20:59):
If you manage stored fuel, you definitelyneed to have a bacon bomb fuel sampler
available to you because you'regoing to need to do fuel sampling.
So you need a bacon bomb.
You can get them from different companies.
Bell Performance has one that is comeswith extensions that actually enable
you to control the depth that youtake your sample in off the bottom.
(21:23):
So that's, relatively convenient to use.
And if you're unfamiliar with how touse a bacon mom we can actually give
you some guidance on how to do thatbecause it is important to know how to
take good fuel samples if you're goingto get a good answer to this question.
Once you retrieve your fuel samples.
Before you send them off to the labs, isthere anything useful that you can tell
(21:48):
about them simply by looking at them?
That's an interesting question.
A good rule of thumb to follow isthat when you're decanting samples,
put them in a clear glass jar.
Now, the reason we want to do that isbecause you can immediately look at them
and you can tell what they look like.
And what you're looking for is youwant to see if those samples are
(22:08):
what they call clear and bright.
You've seen clear and bright fuel.
You can see through it.
Doesn't look like there's any cloudiness,no haze, nothing that's not supposed
to be in there floating around.
It looks like clear, clean, bright fuel.
If your fuel sample is clear and bright,you can see through it, then the fuel most
(22:32):
likely does not contain a whole bunch ofexcess particulate that's going to cause
a problem on the contamination side.
Now, that doesn't mean that itscombustion properties might not be off.
You cannot tell from looking if a dieselfuel sample has a flashpoint that's off.
You can't tell by looking ifit's cetane rating is too low.
(22:53):
So you're still going to need totest, but you can get a good general
idea of whether on the contaminantside, that fuel sample is going to be
problematic simply by looking at it.
Now, too many times someone will pull afuel sample, looks visually clear, And
then someone else will look at it and saywe still need to polish that fuel anyway.
(23:18):
Fuel polishing, as you mayrecall, means fuel filtration.
Typically, if a fuel sample looks clearand bright like that, You don't need to do
fuel polishing because if there's nothingin the fuel as far as contaminant that
can be filtered out, then fuel filtrationand fuel polishing isn't likely going
(23:39):
to have that much benefit for that fuel.
Circling back to what I said a momentago, if you have a sample that looks
visually clear I did say, remember,That doesn't mean that combustion
properties are what they should be.
Combustion properties are somethingthat you cannot get a sense of
just by looking at the fuel.
And the reason I bring that up isbecause there is something very common,
(24:02):
or I should say, surprisingly common,that happens, that happens in diesel
fuel tanks, and that is if diesel fuelhas been contaminated by gasoline.
This happens much moreoften than you would think.
You've got fuel suppliersthat are switch loading.
They're using the same trucksto haul different kinds of fuel.
(24:25):
It happens.
Gasoline gets into the diesel fuel.
It doesn't happen intentionally.
Nobody expects it, but it does happen.
And gasoline contamination dieselfuel is bad news for several reasons.
Number one, diesel components incommon rail diesel engines They rely on
things like the lubricating qualitiesof that diesel fuel, the lubricity.
(24:51):
Gasoline has virtuallyno lubricating property.
It doesn't have to have them.
And if you introduce a small amountof gasoline, that can skew the
lubricity rating of that fuel andcontribute to the kind of damage
that we had mentioned earlier.
Another thing that does it skewsthe flashpoint dramatically.
Doesn't take a whole lot of gasoline todepress the flashpoint of that diesel
(25:15):
fuel from 125 degrees, I think is typicalflashpoint for number two down to remember
gasoline has a flashpoint of minus 40, sojust think mathematically would not take
very much at all to lower that down enoughto where the engine starts performing.
Abnormally, shall we say.
(25:36):
If you submit that kind of fuel fortesting, gasoline contamination very
likely would show up in at least theflashpoint test, and the distillation
test, if not some other things.
Okay if you do happen to find thatyour diesel fuel is contaminated by
gasoline, that's a situation whereyou are going to need to replace that
(25:59):
contaminated fuel with fresh diesel fuel.
Alright let's start tobring this home here.
If there are numerous different teststhat can tell you something useful about
your fuel, How do you know which onesto choose to help solve your problem, or
help guide you towards a solution, right?
(26:19):
After all, you can test yourself into theground, as they say, and that's not really
something anybody really wants to do.
But you also don't want to missthe opportunity that you have to
have the best chance of findingthe right answer to your problem.
So for this best chance, you're going toget the best results by running what they
call an ASTM mission critical test slate.
(26:42):
Now, as we said earlier, many labswill offer groups of tests together
in a test slate, and they maycall it something similar to this.
ASTM Mission Critical is what weinternally call our recommended group.
This kind of slate, it groupstogether the most important tests
from that D 975 specification.
(27:05):
The tests that define combustioncharacteristics and the fuel tests
that document contamination levels.
That kind of test slate is probablya good one to consider first.
Now, if you're not sure if that groupof tests Offered by a particular lab.
Will tell you everything you need to know.
You can do a couple of things here.
(27:26):
You have a choice of a couple of things.
The labs themselves are always willingto advise on customer questions.
If you explain what you're looking for,explain what your problem is, what you're
hoping to accomplish, they are reallygood, labs today are really good at
directing you to the kind of testing thatyou're going to need that's actually going
(27:47):
to give you the answers that you need.
that will be useful to you, whilealso keeping you away from doing tests
that aren't going to be useful to you.
Labs do that kind of thing all the time.
Don't hesitate to ask.
For a lab consultation toexplain what you're looking for.
They are more than happyto do that for you.
You can do that.
Other thing you can do is youcan consult with an outside fuel
(28:10):
expert who can give you moredirect guidance for your situation.
Groups like that, BellPerformance does that.
You don't have to come to us,you can go to somebody else.
But whether you talk to a lab or youtalk to an outside fuel expert, there are
plenty of people who are willing to giveyou good direction and good information to
help you solve the problem that you have.
(28:31):
Your best answer's out theresomewhere, even if you need a little
help knowing where to look, right?
Okay, so to this point, we know whichtests are going to shed the most
light on whether our fuel reallyis contributing to our problem.
But we still have to ask, onceyou get those test results back,
which What do they mean, right?
The most important thing, if you run anASTM mission critical test slate, the
(28:55):
most important thing that's going toconfirm to you is if all of the tests, I
think there's probably 8 or 9 differenttests, if they all come back in spec,
then that means your fuel's normal.
Your fuel meets the minimumrequirements in all of the areas that
have been determined by the industryto have to do with supporting the
(29:17):
minimum operating functions of yourengine and your generator and not
contributing to component damage.
So if you get a passing grade onall those, That should be enough
for you to cross off the fuelas a causative factor as to, why
your system still isn't running.
That means you're going tosave thousands of dollars.
(29:38):
You're going to get saved fromspending thousands upon thousands of
dollars getting rid of and replacingfuel that actually didn't need to
be replaced in the first place.
What if one or more of the fuel resultscomes back abnormal, out of line?
Now you've acquired a veryimportant piece of information.
Depending on what those test results are,depending on how far out of line they
(30:01):
are, now you have some specific piecesof information that can help guide you
as to what specifically you need to do.
Because the answer's notalways going to be the same.
If your flash point's off, that'sgoing to mean something different than
if your water and sediment is off.
Again, having the test results willgive you the information you need to
(30:23):
know to be able to make that decision.
So whatever happens, doing these,this kind of field testing, you're
going to have gone from relying onguesswork as to what your solution
should be, to being able to havea much more definitive answer.
And anyone who works with systems likethe kind that we're talking about, they
(30:45):
know that there is tremendous valuein having the ability to be confident.
in that kind of information.
Okay, last thing.
Let's say your fuel testresults come back clean.
Great.
You've already run throughall the mechanical diagnostics
that we talked about earlier.
They all checked out, but yoursystem still will not run.
(31:09):
You still got that problem.
Now would be the time, if all that's true,now's the time to take what you know and
consult with a mechanical expert who cangive you guidance on what to do next.
Because everything that we talkedabout, they're all general guidelines.
They cover as much as they can about allthe different kinds of systems out there.
(31:32):
But we know that there arelots of difference, differences
in lots of different systems.
Every system is just alittle bit different.
If you haven't been able to find aproblem up to now, the best thing that
you can do is talk with somebody whois a mechanical expert, who can look
at your system, take what you alreadyknow in these important areas, and
(31:53):
say, Okay, let's try this other thing.
And you can start makingmore meaningful problems.
progress down the road for you.
The important thing, though, is that ifyou've done everything up to this point,
you will have crossed off a bunch of themost commonly cited culprits, along with
eliminating one of the most common thingsthat often gets incorrectly blamed for a
(32:15):
problem and sends users off on wild goosechases that cost them a lot of money and
don't end up well because they haven'tcorrectly identified the problem cause.
Now, you're in a much better position tobe able to fix what needs to be fixed.
If you're in the inevitable position ofdealing with a no start, no run situation,
(32:38):
you know it's pretty important to get tothe bottom of what's causing that, right?
Hopefully, by now, youhave a little clearer path.
The whole clear idea of thedirection that you need to take to
solve your problem and get thingsback where they need to be, right?
Just saying one last thing about thiswhole consulting with a mechanical
expert, if you haven't found the answer.
(32:58):
This whole thing we're talking about,dealing with fuel, dealing with generator
issues, that can be a daunting taskespecially if you're not an expert in
those areas, if you're not a fuel expert,
it can be intimidating.
This kind of consulting is somethingthat Bell Performance actually does.
If you need to reach out to us, wecertainly would welcome the chance
(33:21):
to help you solve your problem.
But, it doesn't mean you have to use us.
If you find yourself in thissituation, just reach out to somebody.
Somebody who is knowledgeable, somebodywho's an expert, somebody who you're
confident that you're, is going tohave your best interests in mind.
Reach out to somebody who can help you.
(33:42):
You are an expert in your area.
They are experts in the fueland the mechanical factors.
It is always a good idea to takeadvantage of subject matter expertise,
especially when, to be honest,you got so much at stake here.
And with that's going to do it for thisepisode of the Fuel Pulse Show Podcast.
(34:03):
If you like what you heard andyou haven't subscribed already,
then feel free to subscribe atyour podcast purveyor of choice.
It could be Google Podcasts,Amazon Podcasts, iTunes,
Stitcher, whichever ones you use.
Leave a like.
Review positive review if you can thathelps us a lot as always we typically
(34:24):
have Links to some of the things wetalked about in the show notes, so you
will find those there as well So untilnext time I am eric bjornstad Your guide
to the ever changing world of fuel andI will see you next time for the next
episode of the fuel pole show podcast
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