Diesel life ?

[ah1988ford]

I have had my truck down for about 2yrs now and both the tanks are filled with diesel. I know diesel lasts longer than gas, but how long is the shelf life for diesel?
I am trying to bring the truck back to life, I am just wanting to know if it is okay to run 2yr old diesel through the fuel system? How do I check if alge is growing in it?

 

[OLDBULL8]

A friends Grayhound bus (8V71 diesel engine), had fuel in it for 6-7 yrs. Just started it up a couple weeks ago, ran fine. You will know if algea is present, it will plug the filter in short order, bunch of black crap. In Florida, hot and humid it's possible, but they do add stuff to keep from it down there.

 

[ah1988ford]

Thanks , I am pretty sure its fine, just wanted some verification.
This fourm is quick ! I am use to fte its pretty fas but, WOW !

 

[Devon Harley]

CHANGE THE FUEL FILTER FIRST THATS GONNA HELP IF THERE IS A PROBLEM WITH THE FUEL. THIS WILL HELP MAKE SURE IT FILTERS IT PROPERLY. AN OLD FILTER WILL BREAK DOWN OVER TIME AND GET SOFT AND WON'T FILTER THE WAY IT WAS MADE TO.

 

[Kevin 007]

Run that fuel. with the cost of fuel these days it makes not sense to do anything else with it. Even in gas small motors that I have sitting for years; I will run the fuel thats left in it, cant afford to dump it anymore.

 

[PwrSmoke]

My truck was down almost that long with two full tanks and it was fine. When I got it on the road, I topped off at half a tank for some fresh fuel in the mix but, honestly, it seemed to run normally on the old fuel. No troubles with filters and it's been over a thousand miles now.

 

[91idi]

My 86 sits a lot(way more then i want to admit) but it runs on 3-4 year old stuff

 

[Kevin 007]

I once burned 3/4 of a furnace oil tank worth of furnace oil that had been sitting for 6 years in an 83 6.2 (same DB-2 IP) and I had no issues at all.

 

[Dave Barbieri]

CHANGE THE FUEL FILTER FIRST THAT'S GONNA HELP IF THERE IS A PROBLEM WITH THE FUEL. THIS WILL HELP MAKE SURE IT FILTERS IT PROPERLY. AN OLD FILTER WILL BREAK DOWN OVER TIME AND GET SOFT AND WON'T FILTER THE WAY IT WAS MADE TO.

Absolutely! Change both filters and run what you've got. Your pump will be protected form algae, water and crap. If there's a problem, your primary filter will plug and everything stops. Considering the shelf life of OTR diesel, it's certainly worth a shot!

 

[MIDNIGHT RIDER]

People won't hesitate to pour filthy used oil full of who-knows-what from the drum behind the filling-station into their fuel-tanks; they will skim the floaties from deep-fryer grease that has been sitting outside in buckets beside the restuarant dumpster and pump it through their injector-pump.

I would not hesitate to run twenty-year-old diesel or heating oil that had been stored inside a relatively protected fuel-tank.

I would however, add a double-dose of good fuel-treatment to liven up the cetane and, as I always do anyhow, mix an ounce-per-gallon of TC-W3 two-cycle oil in it.