Diesel Tank Cleaning
Posted: Thu Aug 20, 2015 3:36 pm
Has anyone gained access to their tank to give it a good scrub? I'm contemplating doing mine...
During #1085's reincarnation, after the boat had sat for 7 years, I pulled the tank out and took it to a radiator repair shop where they boiled it out for several days in a hot tank full of lovely chemicals. Even then there were still black globs of goo stuck to the bottom that only came loose with persuasion from a pressure washer. It's squeaky clean now, and I've lowered the fuel intake pipe almost to the very bottom to keep it that way.
I followed the suggestion from a forum post that in part says:
Because of it's shape the Ballad tank has a built-in low spot at the inboard forward corner, right below the fuel pick-up tube.I have read that the fuel micro-organisms need water in order to live. If this is true, then if you keep water out of your fuel tanks, you will not have a micro-organism problem. The key to keeping water out of your fuel tanks is to draw the fuel from the very bottom of the tank. I have wells about the size of a cup in the bottom of my tanks and my suction pipes go the bottom of the wells. By doing this I automatically remove any and all water every time I withdraw fuel from the tank.
Putting the ends of the suction tubes an inch or two above the bottom is a technique left over from the days of professional engineers and day tanks on yachts where the engineer would drain the day tank from a valve on its very bottom to be sure there was no water in it every time he filled it up. Unless you have such a drain valve on your fuel tank, or use the well or similar technique as I do, you *will* accumulate water and associated micro-organism glop in your tanks.
A fuel preservative would be a good idea for fuel stored for months at a time, but that is only to protect already clean fuel. You really must keep the water from accumulating in the bottom of your tank.
As a side note, I eliminated a very persistent fuel pump problem on the Yanmar by removing the mechanical lift pump completely and installing a Facet 40288 between the tank and the engine mounted filter ... it's now running like a charm
I bought 2 pumps to have one as a spare.
