There has been some discussion about common rail pumps and how much heat they put into the return fuel. Sometimes we get called on to hook something to a large and remote fuel tank. It is usually more convenient to use a single fuel pipe for that purpose. In the old days of A pumps and PFR pumps, some of those could be arranged to return no fuel at all to the tank, or were arranged that way from the factory. Either no return or return back to transfer pump inlet. I guess their normal operation did not heat the fuel all that much that remained in the pump. With common rail stuff, there has even been discussion that running too small of a fuel tank, fuel tank too empty, or too hot of a climate will cause fuel overheating. Some talk of fuel coolers. Is there industry guidance on this? (TPG, looking at you) And also how do Stanadyne pumps and equivalent rotary pumps perform with fuel heating of this nature?
I don't know about industry guidance, but these two in the forums below gives a pretty good explanation as to why cool the fuel. See post #7 https://www.dieselplace.com/threads/why-cool-your-fuel.345670/ And here https://forums.tdiclub.com/index.php?threads/importance-of-diesel-fuel-cooling.20401/
Look up NFPA 110, for emergency and standby power. It recommends a maximum fuel temperature of 150F to maintain viscosity. NFPA30 has some good info, too. Chevron also has recommendations to address the blackened filter media issue caused by asphaltines.
It seems that in equipment fuel tanks these days it's not a good idea to run them below the 25% where in days gone by they could be run down to 10%-ish with no major issues. To see blackened media in fuel filters is much more common than it was. Also it is not uncommon to find fuel-cooled ECMs on electronic engines. @Birken Vogt - what is the major driver in not installing a fuel return line.?
Sometimes it is distance back to the tank adding complication, or it can also be the desire not to filter the entire contents of a fuel delivery from a large tank within the first few hours via the machine's filter. When fuel flow is only what needed, crud stays in the tank. Also, filter waxing due to cold is minimized not filtering way more fuel than necessary.
On all Stanadyne pumps old and new have temperature compensators in the inlet ..
How hot can they run before it becomes any kind of problem? And how much heat do they generate in normal operation?