Fuel Polishing

[James Grant]

Morning All:

Problem - Racor filter packed up on every venture out.

Had the fuel polished yesterday out of both tanks - they came and cut access to the tops of the tanks - opened two 3 " holes into the steel tanks both sides and proceeded to shock with a conditioner and flush the tanks.
Both tanks ~ 150-160 gallons on board

Port side was not too bad, one coarse filter and one 5 micron finishing filter - about 1 1/2 hrs flushing time

Starboard side - complete mess - totally black at first - plugged a coarse filter under 30 seconds - proceeded to go through 8 filters in total 6 coarse and 2 of the 5 micron finishing filters ~ 3.5 hrs

Now the question arises - why the disparity between tanks - they both level when filled

Any ideas?

thanks

[jleonard]

Was it algea? Any water? Assuming it was:
One side gets more sun and maybe faster cooling causing condensation allowing algea to grow in the water (this happened to me one winter in my Mainship)? Or a leak past the threads in the fuel cap allowing water to get in, etc.?

Assuming it was asphaltine that precipitated out (I think that's what happens):
Maybe the starboard pickup tube is not working and all the fuel is being drawn from the port side. Tanks appear even because of the equalizing tube.

Or....perhaps one time when you took on fuel the port tank got good fuel then the diesel pump's filter broke while filling the starboard tank and you got garbage (a broken filter happened to me one time in my Mainship).

There are a few theories to chew on. I'm sure others will have some ideas.

[psneeld]

two tanks on different sides of the oat will have different amounts of goo in them due to temp differences.

I cut out my tanks..before...never the slightest problem with fuel and filters in over 3000 miles- 4-500 hundred hours of cruising after I bought the boat...

When I cut the tanks out..each one had several gallons of black goo in the bottom of the tanks...unless a cleaner gets inside of a tank and can get past the baffels..they are just BSing you with their work.