36 fuel tank replacement

[brookesmith]

Liquid Therapy is a 1979 36' with original tanks. Yesterday when I took on fuel to the top of the sight gauge. I found fuel had leaked somewhere near the top of the starboard tank. I could see drips on the vent hose. I have taken pictures as this is a very difficult area to investigate due to the A/C Compressor being in the way. I see no evidence of the lower part of the tank leaking. And wherever it was dripping seems to have occurred only during fueling. The main fill hose looks cracked on the outside from the only side I can see. The hose clamp looks ok. I'm really suspecting the hose. But the camera shows the top of the tank has all kinds of flaking. I don't see evidence of leaking there. So, I'm still thinking it's the hose from the fill on deck to the top of the tank. But if the worse fears are found that I need a new tank. UH, I could use lots of advise on what to do...
Thanks

Brooke Smith
Liquid Therapy
On the way back to the Chesapeake. Currently Brunswick, GA

[psneeld]

I cut my tanks out and put in 2 -58 gallon Moeller poly tanks.

I still have 300 nm range so that's good enough, especially because I can draw down to near nothing as they remain spotless and I can see the liquid level exactly.

That said, my tanks on the outside were pockmarked with rust, but when I cut them up they were still solid as a rock....just had a good amount of gunk at the bottoms and covered with asphaltines.

I am still happy as I doubled my storage space in the engine room and got everything away from the engine and genset and up on platforms out of the way.

[brookesmith]

Thanks so much for your answer. WHAT MADE YOU CHANGE YOUR TANKS? I've pretty much determined I have a bad fill hose on the Starboard tank. I'm not going to change the fuel hose until we get back to our home marina. I ran yesterday with the tanks practically full and nothing sloshed out. Also the return fuel for the engine dumps back into the starboard tank. So, if I only add fuel to the port tank, the starboard tank will get filled. The bottom cross over line was leaking a few years ago and I just cut the valves off. I also found out that the cross over line is not ABYC compliant. So, that was another reason not to fix it. But the fuel always self leveled with the cross over. And now I have to cut the port tank on and off to manage the draw down.