Best way to clear debris in fuel tank?

[MarkJ]

Originally Posted by Jcolman

How did you get the old gasket out? Inspection port?

The old gasket was INSIDE the pickup tube! I used a cable tie to ream it out.

It couldn't get around that 90degree bend in the pickup or it would have been in the fuel line... Or the racor.

Lol


Mark

[DumnMad]

Originally Posted by Jcolman

Thanks Chuck. According to the guy who's going to clean my tank, my problem could also be a dirty filter. He said that sometimes a filter will allow enough fuel to run at low rpms, but stall out at higher rpms because the motor cannot get enough fuel. .

[Nicholson58]

I once had an outboard that ran slow and would die after a bit of high rpm. Turns out the fuel line inner liner (rubber) delaminated and would cave in and block the fuel flow. Very hard to figure out.

[Cheechako]

Check the engine fuel filter , if it's not clogged than you either have the pickup tube blocked by a foreign object as shoen above or an engine problem. No point in cleaning your fuel if that filter is not clgged up.

[Nicholson58]

I tend to agree on the filter. If it used to run & doesn't now I'd replace the filter. Your guy is going to change it anyway so you might as well do it yourself. The slow down & fail at higher fuel demand sounds exactly like a partly blocked filter.

[Jcolman]

UPDATE:

I just got a call from the guy who cleaned out my tank. His comment was "I'm surprised that your motor ran at all...you had a ton of crap, including some big chunks of something in the tank!"

He went on to tell me that he went thru 12 filters cleaning my fuel. The tank and motor was new in 06'. The motor only has 75 hrs on it so that tells me that the motor was hardly used in the past 8 years and obviously the tank was never cleaned out.

I'm also replacing both fuel filters too. Hopefully my engine stalling woes are over.

[Nicholson58]

I never took photos of our tanks with the tops off. The main tank had a layer of black goop about like rotting garden slugs. It was about 4 inches deep and sloshing about the bottom of the fuel pick-up.

[Irish rambler]

Before you start to clean out your fuel tank check where the tank access is, usually through a pick up port.
Make sure the boat is securely moored, get some empty drums and fill with water, place them on the deck so that the boat is tilted (careened) and the diesel tank access port is at the lowest point, leave for 2/3 hours to allow water/sediment to settle to the lowest part of the tank, then pump out the dirty fuel. Rinse/wash the interior of the tank with paraffin (I use a garden spray) until clean. Remove water drums from the deck to level the boat again and refill with fresh clean diesel. Change the fuel filters and the fine gauze filter in the lift pump, bleed the engine and fire up. Clean the fuel tank/engine area and put some citron scented washing up liquid in the bilge to remove smell and emulsify any oily deposits. If any spots of oil get spilt in the water alongside immediately give it a squirt of washing up liquid to prevent contamination.
A wee tip, before filling with diesel, wet the deck before removing the the filler cap, if you spill any diesel it will sit on top of the water and not stain your deck, close the filler & give it a squirt of washing up liquid and rinse off for a clean deck with no diesel smell.
Now congratulate yourself with a nice cold one.

[Aloha_float]

Vinegar and water will also help remove smell from any spilled diesel

[Jcolman]

Thanks for all the tips guys. I had my mechanic change out the racor and in-line filters the other day and, according to him, he was surprised that the motor ran at all. He said the filter was pure nasty. It appears that the PO never changed any of the filters since he purchased it in 2006.

The good news is that now with my clean tank and clean filters, the motor runs flawlessly. I motored the boat 20 miles yesterday to a new yard to have the mast pulled. It was blowing 20-25 knots, raining and cold as hell. Luckily the wind was behind me but I was rocking and rolling the whole way, surfing up to 6.5 knots on the waves! Good times.

[Cheechako]

Dont forget to check that engine mounted filter too at some point... often they are neglected more than the racors!