On Thu, 13 Nov 2008 09:02:01 -0500, "Roger Long"
wrote:

My boat was laid up for six years near Detroit by the former owner with a
partially filled fuel tank and I had to deal with it after I bought it. The
fuel turned to partly to jelly that wouldn't go through the filters and
there was a mega clean up but there was no water in the bottom of the tank.
There was no real alge growth either. The fuel just evaporated off ligher
elements, oxidized, and aged.

Algae is a green plant, does photosynthesis and all that, and cannot
survive without light. Fungus can grow in fuel tanks, the stuff feeds
on the fuel, but it has to have water. They have antifungus, anti
water additives for jet fuel. The first Learjets lacked fuel heaters,
and you added Prist, from an pressurized can, through a hose clipped
to the fuel nozzle. That way it mixed.

If you evaporate all the light fractions, could this decrease the
solubility of the wax? Maybe wax had something to do with the jelly.
Cold fuel waxes out, and it plugs filters. [One solution is to mix
50/50 with #1 fuel. At least one station in Des Moines sells the
blend, during the Winter.]

Casady