Diesel Fuel/Water Separators, Anyone?

I'm curious about how many diesel owners here have installed, or have considered installed fuel/water separators on their cars?

Or, do any of you use a diesel fuel water dispersant additive in your fuel tank on a regular basis instead?

Water in diesel fuel can quite deadly to these motors...

--Duncan

[Ted2222]

Duncan,
Like you, I was concerned about the effects of water being pumped into my car along with the diesel fuel. Back in late '70's and early '80's, at least in my area, it was considerable. A friend of mine had some very expensive repairs because of water in his fuel. I installed a water separator on my car soon after I bought it.

It is still on the car, but I now buy my fuel at a station with a high fuel turnover and find very little water accumulating in the separator.

If you can be selective about where you buy your fuel, apparently there are fewer problems with water now than there used to be. Still, it doesn't hurt to have one on the car, just in case you get a bad batch of fuel, but you need to watch it and drain off any water that accumulates to prevent algae from forming in it.



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Ted
1979 240D

Where did you get it, how much does it cost, where does it tie into on the fuel system?

[Ted2222]

It was purchased at a local truck service center. It has a replaceable element, which I have replaced twice. The original cost was, I think, (remember this was over 20 years ago) about $20, or maybe a little less.

It was placed between the fuel tank and the prefilter in the engine compartment. All it took was a little extra fuel hose to go from the metal fuel line coming from the tank to the separator and then from the separator to the prefilter. The biggest problem was finding a suitable place to mount it. I finally attached it to the frame.

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Ted
1979 240D