After 20 years of ownership I saw my first evidence of algae in my fuel yesterday. While doing routine maintenance I changed my fuel filters and saw evidence of something in the sediment bowl in my Racor filter, and after removing the filter element saw it had pieces of algae trapped in it.

I removed and cleaned the sediment bowl and replaced both filters. Since I had no issues with the engine prior to the filter change I suspect I will not have any now. But I am sugesting to everyone that the conditions which led up to finding algae might parallel others.

I changed my oil and fuel filters just prior to a trip to FL in late Feb or early Mar. The bus sat from that trip until our use of it in late June for a trip to NY, a return, and then the trip to ME and back. I had just over 5000 miles on the fuel filters. Since I inspect my fuel filters the previous ones showed no evidence of foreign matter in them. The ones just removed after a little more than 5000 miles of driving had significant amounts of algae. The algae likely formed while the bus was sitting for 3 1/2 months in high temps and higher humidity.

The combination of environmental conditions and the long time between uses was all it took to contaminate the fuel.

Those of you who have driven little, or who have not changed fuel filters regularly should at the very least pull or check your primary filters. A plugged filter will either shut you down or greatly limit the engine's performance. Starving a diesel engine of fuel can make it very difficult to reprime the engine.