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How dirty is the fuel? How dirty is the fuel?
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West and South Asia From Turkey to Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Ladakh and Bangladesh
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  #1  
Old 24 Sep 2004
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Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: MaeSot, Thailand
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How dirty is the fuel?
Hi all,
We are off to Asia in a few weeks time and I am wondering how to best filter the petrol going into the tank. We have an F650GS and Dakar. I was looking at the metal coffee filters from the cappacino machines. Would this be fine enough? What size particles are we talking about?

All the comments are appreciated!!
Many thanks

Andrew and Wendy



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  #2  
Old 24 Sep 2004
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Hi Guys,

We're in India at the moment, having travelled thru Turkey, Iran and Pakistan.

We have 2 BMW F650's, the non Fuel Injected model.

The fuel is a bit dirty and can have water in it, even when it comes from a proper gas station. (Some fuel you get is from drums on the side of the road)
We first noticed it when we filled up some spare containers, and saw all the crap floating in the bottom.

The particles are very small. They look like dust particles. I don't know how you would go about trying to filter it out... Maybe the coffee filter you suggested would do the trick.

We haven't bothered about filtering it because we can drain the carb's and empty the fuel tank's easily if necessary. Having said that, we haven't needed to do that yet (touch wood).
The fuel tap's on our bike's have filter's, and we fitted in-line filter's as well.

A friend of ours went from UK to Singapore last year on a 650 Dakar and had no problems with fuel. He didn't filter it either.

Hope this helps...

Good luck with your trip.

Trent and Jacqui
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  #3  
Old 24 Sep 2004
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Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Genova, Italy - Kabul, Afghanistan
Posts: 201
In Iran and Uzbekistan we found only petrol at 72 or 75 octans.
We used an handkerchief in the funnel as a filter and we didn't have any problem.
When we came back to Italy, I brought my bike to the BMW service for a check and the mechanic was surprised how much rubbish he found in the tank.
I have a BMW R 1100 GS with an internal filter in the tank, so I assume this filter works properly.
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  #4  
Old 28 Sep 2004
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Location: Bribie Island, Queensland, Australia
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G'day. At present in darwin ready to hand the bikes over to Perkins.
We had no real problems with the fuel in Asia last time and so expect no major headache this time. have spare fuel filters with us.
Have bought a bit of dodgy fuel in outback Queensland on our way here thought. caused the bikes to ping a bit.
Enjoy Ulmarra, we guess you will be there. Send our greetings to everyone there.
Cheryl and David
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  #5  
Old 29 Sep 2004
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Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: London UK
Posts: 39
Dear All,

Re dirty fuel.

We fitted inline filters and judging by the colour of it after India and Burma I think we saved the engines some grief.

If you do do Burma/Eastern India then its not so much a dirt problem its more an OCTANE problem. It can be as low as a shocking 60 octane!! You need to consider carrying octane booster. This comes in a small plastic bottle. The sign of really crap octane is the clearness of the fuel and the smell. (smells like alchohol) Also colour can hep - ie if its red and sold in bottle the side of the road then its likely to come from china and be about 90 octane... most bikes prefer 95. Another sign of crap octane is the engine makes a rattling sound as you accelerate. Answer here is to accellerate gently.. until you can find better fuel! Hope this helps and I hope you have as much fun as we did in India etc. Simon
www.mccs.co.uk/global

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