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Posted by Bob Jeanne's husband's method is a good one, but that doesn't mean you have gotten all the water and sludge out, just that which makes it to the pipe feeding the fuel filter when the boat is (probably) sitting upright and not moving at anchor or tied to a dock. Would this work?; could you remove the hose or pipe to the fitting at the top of the tank and fit a smaller diameter flexible plastic hose down the inside of the fuel feed tube/pipe? If so, when it's pushed to the bottom of the tank and could go no further, it should be at the very bottom of the lowest point in the tank, where the water/sludge lives, and just below the lowest end of the feed tube. If that could be sucked out with someting like a hand operated bilge pump (might have to notch the end of the flexible tubing to that the fluid keeps flowing) until you get nothing but good looking (clean) fuel you should be able to get virtually all the water/sludge that lives there. A pain in the butt to do all this, but without an inspection port, how else can you get at that stuff?? --Previous Message--
on February 19, 2003, 4:59 pm
One option would be to cut out a section of the top of the fiberglass tank and create an inspection port.
: Peter uses the hand pump you use for changing
: your engine oil. He pumps out the fuel
: into containers, lets the dirty fuel sit
: for a day or so, then pumps out the
: relatively clean fuel that sits on top of
: the water and sludge. He then filters
: that back into the fuel tank. He first
: cleans out the fuel tank by attaching a
: few rags to a stick and wiping out the
: fuel tank through the inspection port.
: Filtering fuel before it goes into your tank
: (using the "Baja filter"), and
: adding an algaecide to the fuel is a
: worthwhile precaution in the tropics,
: particularly where the poorer island fuel
: suppliers neither treat their diesel nor
: filter the diesel at the pump.
: --Previous Message--
: I have seen references of a home-built gizmo
: to
: pump out fluids from the bottom of the
: tanks, run them through a primary filter
: and back into the tanks. Seems like a
: good idea. Anybody got details?
: --Previous Message--
: Recently bought a sailboat with black sludge
: in
: one of its 20 gallon diesel tanks .... not
: a lot, but enough to shut down the Perkins
: after 8.4 minutes each time.
: Tanks are built in fiberglass and no
: inspection and/or access ports.
: I don't mind the clean-out chore, but, if
: there is some magic "juice" out
: there I would surely like to hear about
: it.
: : :
:
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THIS BOARD IS VERY GRACIOUSLY MODERATED BY JEANNE POCKEL WHO HAS BEEN CRUISING FOR 15 YEARS WITH HER HUSBAND PETER ON THEIR YACHT "WATERMELON". THANK YOU JEANNE.