I ordered a diesel Purge kit from Diesel Giant {thanks!} and ran 2 cans through my '81 240D. There was no smoke from the exhaust while purging, but the return liquid to the bottle was black. Thanks to info here in the forum, I knew to undo the screw on top of the 'spin on' filter to remove.

One bit of information I found after changing the inline fuel filter, Diesel fuel is not a blackish green liquid . When I look in my tank at fill-up, that's the color it appears to be. So when I looked at my inline filter and it looked black, I thought that was just the color of the fuel. To my suprise, Diesel fuel is actually a yellowish gold liquid, looks amazingly like corn oil in color {at least that's what it looks like in the new clean inline filter that I installed}.

The combination of Diesel Purge and an oil change makes a difference in the way the car runs!

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1981 240D, Auto Trans, 160k miles -- CRASHED!

if the blackwas in form of dots it is fungi.

tom w

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

Now that you have found fungus in your fuel, it definitely would be a good idea to have replacement filters on hand. Also, if you can see black and green at the filler neck, you have a major fungus problem. Use a dose of Biobar, or some other fungicide, as soon as possible. It might be a good idea to wait on using any more purge until you have cleared this up. Recently, someone posted that a combination of Purge and fungus wreaked havoc on a fuel system.

If you have fungus this bad, don't settle for a temporary fix that will cause intense grief later on.

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Sam

84 300SD 350K+ miles ( Blue Belle )

What would be the way to fix this problem?
Would a bio-cide do the trick or would one need
to pull the tank and have it cleaned out?

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Ginny in Denver-ish
78 300SD, 265K (mine)

I would try the biocide first, on a full tank, and see what your results were. Be sure and have extra filters, especially in-line, on hand before you use it.

That may be all that you need, unless the treatment caused the filter to block so badly that you could not see through it. Then pulling and vatting the tank might be the next step along with several purges and filter changes.

Another alternative is a product called Prist. Used in aviation JP5 fuel (kerosene) and available at any commuter airport with fueling services. In fact, it used to be considered the best on the market.

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Sam

84 300SD 350K+ miles ( Blue Belle )