Filter to Remove Sugar from Hydrocarbon Fuel. 3

Double posting is frowned upon here. I suggest you find the the post you want to stick and remove the other.

We will not reply to your personal address.

What do you hope to solve? Sugar doesn't dissolve in gas, so your regular fuel filter should be all that's necessary...

Dan - Owner

1. I did not notice that there is a fuel forum before I posted in the General Mechanical forum.

2. MacGyvers2000: During World War 2 male pilots sabotaged airplanes that were flown by female pilots by putting sugar in the fuel tank. I suggest that you check your data. Putting sugar into fuel tanks is a common method of sabotaging internal combustion engines.

#2: No, it's not.

Sugar can only clog filters. If it gets in to the engine it's combustible so it's not harmful there, either. What is the octane of sugar?

Modern fuel fillers are designed to prevent debris going down the tube, hence the need to use a small emergency funnel. If you're concerned about it, replacing with a modern filler may be a good option.

TugboatEng: According to the Popular Mechanics website, sugar will not dissolve in gasoline but will clog up the fuel filter. I am looking for something that will do a better job of trapping sugar other than letting it clog a fuel filter or putting in a bigger fuel filter and stocking LOTS of spare filters. Fuel filters are very hard to replace in some cars. I retrofitted a Chevrolet Celebrity with a fuel filter in the engine compartment instead of the one in the left rear wheel well. I have had an Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme that had a fuel filter that was absurdly small for that big of an engine. Actually, that fuel filter was appropriate for a riding lawnmower.

I am also looking for a way to get sugar out of a fuel tank other than to keep changing fuel filters.

Also, modern gasoline has small amounts of ethanol in it which solublizes water to prevent fuel line freeze up. Some gasolines have more ethanol in it than that which is really kind of a moot point given that it takes almost as much energy to make ethanol than what you get back. SUGAR DISSOLVES IN ETHANOL. Back before Sohio was bought by British Petroleum their TV advertisements bragged about how resistant their gasoline was to fuel line freeze up. Also, when Dad was living in the Pittsburgh, PA area he had to put a gasoline drying agent in the fuel tank every Fall otherwise the fuel line would freeze.

Article on solubility of sugar in ethanol:
. .

A water + ethanol theoretically will dissolve sugar better.

When sugar + ethanol burns in a piston engine it incompletely burns to produce a form of caramel that glues the pistons to the cylinders.

Try this: 9 things that you must not put into gasoline.

There are some neighborhoods where people will vandalize your car. When my sister was working as a nurse in the Pittsburgh, PA area she ended up having to park on a public street when working 3rd shift. Even though this area was metered during the daytime and the neighbors could not park there for a sustained period during the the daytime they nevertheless unscrewed ALL of her lug nuts. When she left work she ended up driving out of all 4 of her tires!! There are people out there who are that malicious.

When I was staying at Friends of the Homeless in the Fall of 2015 one of the neighbors sabotaged my tires when I parked too close to his house on a PUBLIC street. I was recovering from a broken left heel bone that I sustained because the bunk beds in another shelter are just as dangerous as a ladder with 2 adjacent rungs missing. The first time he slashed 2 tires. The second time he both slightly unscrewed the air valve and drove in a small nail. I had my tire shop fix it but they did not catch the nail. A few miles away I was changing the tire. Turns out he placed the nail such that the tire could not be patched. Ended up buying 3 new tires on a very small Socialist Insecurity monthly check.

I forgot to mention that there is NO data available ( at least not through Google ) on whether sugar is soluble in fuel stabilizers. So, I suggest that you test solubility of sugar in fuel stabilizers. I do not have the money or the facilities to run these experiments.

In some applications such as emergency and standby generators the shelf life of diesel fuel needs to be extended to say 3 years. Otherwise, diesel fuel can turn into something that isn't.

I was reading on a fuel oil burner dealer's website that there are 3 reasons for needing fuel stabilizer:

1. Water. In an outdoor or an interior fuel tank with an outdoor filler small amounts of water will get in plus ait going into a tank when fuel is drawn also has moisture.

2. Moisture begets bacterial growth. Gasoline, kerosene, and diesel fuel have some amount of biocides in it but it is only intended to get lawnmowers through the winter. The reason why crude oil has not built up in the environment is because bacteria figured out millions of years ago how to biodegrade petroleum. E.g. in places such as Oil Creek, Pennsylvania oil seeps out of the ground and into surface waters.

3. Catalytic cracking a brute force cracking create from No. 3 fuel oil through lighter molecules that have approximately 1 hydrogen missing from each molecule. These tend to repolymerize back to the heavier oils if fuel is stored for long periods of time. Fuel stabilizers inhibit repolymerization.

a simple mesh of stainless steel in the filler tube should solve the problem... my $0.02.

mc5w said:

According to the Popular Mechanics website, sugar will not dissolve in gasoline but will clog up the fuel filter.

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And so will a large handful of sand. But you seem to be locked into sugar for some reason, which is a red herring. The point everyone here is trying to make... filtering your supply is your only hope. If someone puts enough crap (of any kind) in the line, it doesn't matter how big your filter is, it's going to clog.

Sugar killing engines is (essentially) a wive's tale... but feel free to believe whatever you wish.

Dan - Owner

Just buy a locking fuel filler cap?


Politicians like to panic, they need activity. It is their substitute for achievement.

I am worried about sand which is really easy to filter.

HEY PUD: A locking fuel cap for a fixed fuel tank can be defeated with a PIPE WRENCH.

MacGyvers2000: I cannot find data on the solubility of sugar in gasohol. I suggest that you run the experiment. Sugar is soluble in ethanol and there are a number of states such as Iowa where gasoline is customarily or required by state law to have say 10% ethanol.

Since sugar is soluble in ethanol I am pretty sure that gasoline and diesel fuel can be sabotaged by dissolving sugar in ethanol and then pouring it in. Run the experiment on a gasoline or diesel engine you can afford to kill.

I'd use a molecular sugar filter. Just kidding - no such thing exists. Hire a security guard to keep people from putting sugar in the tank, slicing the tires, removing the lug nuts, putting nails in the sidewall, damaging the valve cores, puncturing the oil pan and letting the oil out, stealing the catalytic convertor, breaking all the windows, putting a pipe bomb under the car, or setting the car on fire. If you need more it will cost more - keeping people from using sound-suppressed rifles from shooting from nearby rooftops is expensive. One can repurpose the foil from old Jiff-Pop stove top popcorn makers into a suitable hat to help.

When sugar + ethanol burns in a piston engine it incompletely burns to produce a form of caramel that glues the pistons to the cylinders.

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I'd pay a $1 to see that. Synthetic motor oil will stop the caramelization from sticking the piston to the cylinder. Maybe get someone with a small engine repair channel to try it.

I like the 9-things web page. They didn't try any of them. Just speculated as to what might happen. Funny stuff.

What Kind Of Liquid Will Ruin A Car Engine: Ethanol Gasoline

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Buy a Tesla.

mcw5 said:

MacGyvers2000: I cannot find data on the solubility of sugar in gasohol. I suggest that you run the experiment. Sugar is soluble in ethanol and there are a number of states such as Iowa where gasoline is customarily or required by state law to have say 10% ethanol.

Since sugar is soluble in ethanol I am pretty sure that gasoline and diesel fuel can be sabotaged by dissolving sugar in ethanol and then pouring it in. Run the experiment on a gasoline or diesel engine you can afford to kill.

Click to expand...

So out of everyone in this thread, you are the only one who believes sugar kills engines (it doesn't)... but you want someone ELSE to waste time on a pointless exercise? Pfft, yeah, that's going to happen...

Dan - Owner

There is a woman over at Quora.com who says that she sustained $2,400 in engine damage after someone put sugar in her fuel tank. The sugar somehow got past the fuel filter and the fuel injectors. Since her car warranty did NOT cover vandalism she had to pay the bill. That is proof that sugar dissolves in gasohol.

Hery 3DDave: Stop calling me a tinfoil hat wearing person. That is unprofessional. Run the experiment to see if sugar dissolves in gasohol and fuel drying agents.

I was referring to the idea that the only vulnerability is sugar and a non-existent filter would solve the problem. Dissolved, sugar is a hydrocarbon, much like gasoline. Undissolved it's a blockage material, much like dirt.

You have a far larger problem than engineering can solve. I do not know who to recommend to help you.

mc5w said:

There is a woman over at Quora.com who says that she sustained $2,400 in engine damage after someone put sugar in her fuel tank. That is proof that sugar dissolves in gasohol.

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You clearly don't understand what "proof" actually means. A story on Quora from a random person hardly meets the burden of proof.

So again, we go back to "If you want to prove something, you do the experiment." We already know the results and will not be wasting our own precious time.

Dan - Owner