Another Fuel Tank Question - A25

[stxray]

I didn't want to hijack JT's fuel tank thread so, I thought I'd post my question here.

I've removed my fuel tank and had it professionally cleaned. Turned out to be a good news/bad news saga. Good News: Since the tank has one baffle they were able to do a good cleaning on the side with the opening for the sender. Bad news: not so good a job on the other side of the baffle where all I have are a couple of 3/8" holes. I can get an access hole created and then welded closed for another $175 which I'd like to avoid. So, I'm looking to see if a solvent soak (gasoline, acetone, TSP, Dawn, whatever) will remove the sludge at the bottom of the tank while I have it out of the boat.

As part of this endeavor, I removed the fuel pickup tube and found that the bottom of the tube is eaten away (I'm assuming from corrosion). The bottom 1/2" looks as if a mouse has been gnawing at it. Ok, so it looks like a replacement pickup tube is in order but, what to use? The fitting at the top of the tube is bronze. The tube itself looks like brass or bronze but I think it's steel (it's magnetic). And the tank is stainless.

So, do I need a stainless steel pickup tube fitting? Can I use an aluminum fitting with a plastic tube? Also, the current tube looks to be about 8 1/2" long but can't be sure as I don't know how much of the tube has corroded away. The height of the tank where the tube is installed is 10". That would place the tube an 1 1/2" off the bottom. Does that seem right?

Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[kerrye]

Some monel is magnetic. Perhaps it is monel. 1 1/2" off the bottom seems reasonable to me.

[Beta Don]

If the tank is 10 inches deep, a pick-up 1 1/2 inches from the bottom reduces the available fuel quantity by 15 % - That doesn't seem right to me

I bought an older tank for use with my generator and it had this same issue - The bottom inch or two was rotted away - Looked exactly as you describe it . . . . mice nibbling on it Likely dissimilar metals corrosion I would guess. I slid a piece of copper tubing over the pick-up tube and used epoxy to hold it on at the correct depth. Using anything but the same material as the tank is made of will cause it to corrode again, but it took 35 or 40 years for your tube to rot away - Likely you won't still own the boat when it happens again

If you can't get it cleaned any other way, you might consider using a 4" hole saw in the top of the tank to open up the compartment you can't reach. Then use a round 6" stainless patch with a gasket and 8 or 10 screws to cover the hole. Harder to do in a stainless tank than an aluminum one, so that would pretty much be my last resort

Don

[stxray]

... it took 35 or 40 years for your tube to rot away - Likely you won't still own the boat when it happens again
Don

I like the way you think

There's a part of me that wants to restore this boat to it's original glory. However, given my age and the average life expectancy for a white male, I have to keep reminding myself I only need to get 8-10 years out of her. Given the time available, do I want to spend it making her a fantastic boat for the next owner or, do I want to spend it on the water? I'm choosing the later. Someday, maybe 10 years from now if I'm lucky, I'll be that PO someone will be grumbling about

So, here's what I did...

First, I poured about a gallon of gasoline into the tank. Set it on an angle so that most of the gas was in the section on the other side of the baffle. I let it soak that way overnight. Occasionally I sloshed the gas around. The next morning I pumped out the gas using my manual oil pump container.

Second, I poured about 1/2 gal. of Simply Green into the tank and sloshed that around.

Third, I used my pressure washer to rinse out the Simply Green. I was able to get good access through the sender opening and shot as much as I could through the 3/8" holes on the other side. A lot of black came out with the Simply Green. Both sides are looking pretty good.

Next move, off to Home Depot. Found a 2' piece of copper tubing that fit over the pickup tube for less than 3 bucks. I thoroughly cleaned the tube, cut of the damaged end, and epoxied a short piece of the copper tubing over the steel pickup tube. Guess I won't know how well I did until next season but, I'm satisfied.

Thanks for the advice. You guys saved me money, time, & effort once again.