cleaning and inspecting fuel tanks...

[jakevr]

has anyone done this? if so share your story please on the 43' its very tight and hard to even get at the tanks let alone inspection or cleaning... i dont belive there are even inspections ports and you can not hook up a normal fuel polshing system because the deck fill isnt derectly above the tank.

[jleonard]

I inspected and filtered the fuel on my 40. There is a small hatch in the salon over each tank. Directly under that were inspection covers maybe 8 inch dia.
I filtered thru those access holes. There are baffles so I couldn't see much, but what I did see looked fine. I was able to snake the suction hose with a brass coupling under that baffles and they scraped along the tank bottom...making a sharp enough metalic sound that led me to believe there was very little sludge on the bottom.
The fitting always came up clean, no yuck stuck inside, verifying my thought.

[jakevr]

Where is the most comon place for the tanks to leak? The welds or bottom where water
may sit or on the top from leaking decks rusting the tops.. I've heared all the above. I don't belive I have inspection ports on mine.

[Despacio]

I did this on my Albin 33.

One fuel tank was rusty on the top,because the deck fill leaked between the deck and fitting, allowing water to run down the outside of the fuel hose and settle on top of the tank. This is very common, we could save ourselves a lot of trouble if we wiped the moisture off the tanks once in a while.

I used a sawzall to cut into the cabinets and a piece out of the floor and that sub deck to get access to the tops of the tanks, but since it was inside of cabinetry it didn't have to be neat. Then we made new aluminum plates to screw on top of the access holes we going to make on the tops of the two tanks. I found a guy who brought down a custom made three stage fuel filtering device with a pump. He used this to flush the inside of the tank, working through the access holes he pumped in clean fuel, scrubbing with a long handled steel brush, pumping out the dirty fuel. The tanks had a couple inches of crud, when he finished they looked like new inside.

Unfortunately he found a pin hole in a weld at the bottom of one tank. We decided to cut out the tanks and make new, modular ones. I made wooden box patterns, a shop made the tanks.

I incorporated many of the things the tank cleaning guy recommended. All in all it wasn't very expensive, maybe $4,000, including the tank cleaning, cutting and removing them, and the new tanks. It was a very well spent $4,000.

[jakevr]

i wish i had the money to rip mine out and do aluminum ones. someday... hopefully before they leak

[Despacio]

My tank cleaning guy said there's two types of people who own 20+ year old fuel tanks. Those who know they have a problem, and those who aren't aware they have a problem.

[jakevr]

haha i like that!

[Kokomo]

My Starboard tank may need replacing. How did you get your old tanks out and the new ones in?

What kind of tanks did you put in?

I sure would appreciate any suggestions

Thanks

Jim
Kokomo

[jakevr]

kokomo i sent you a pm

[Despacio]

My Starboard tank may need replacing. How did you get your old tanks out and the new ones in?

What kind of tanks did you put in?

I sure would appreciate any suggestions

Thanks

Jim
Kokomo

I'd like to suggest you think about doing both fuel tanks at the same time. One's bad, the other is right behind.

I cut mine out with a sawzall. Sounds much harder than it was, but I'm glad I did it all at one time. I made wooden boxes (patterns) for the tank guy to make new tanks off of. There's another thread that had pics of the patterns. They are made modular, they go in and out in front of the engine.

I went from two 150 gallon tanks, to four, 50 gallon tanks. 300 gallons is way too much and the extra space is nice for the water heater and the engine maintenance stuff.

Had them made from aluminum. You should be able to find a shop by asking around.

It wasn't as hard or expensive as you'd think if you do the running around. All in all it's easier than having a bilge full of diesel.