The inside of a fuel tank

[FlyingCloud1937]

Ok Nick,

I read your blog, and it's fair to say that you are calling your system a fuel polishing system not a tank polishing system. My mistake...

I think you have built a good axillary filter system(fuel polishing system), and it's seems to meet your needs. There are somethings I might have done different, but somethings I like as well.

But at your rates the system to be effective in my mind needs to run tens of hours, monthly. Especially when you take on new fuel.

I'm not big on using 1/4 inch fittings, but I like the way you used the Monel wire. It doesn't make for taking things apart very easy. I choose to use swivel fittings, with hydraulic crimps. At the rate and pressures that my systems work, it could quickly empty the tanks into the bilges.

My system is a fuel tank polishing system, in that I choose to clean the tank as I clean the fuel. I don't want a bunch of stuff in the bottom of the tank.

My system has independent piping for the polishing system, I use 1 inch fittings, and a much more robust pump. In this picture you see the 2 autonomous piping systems, the 1" is the polish, and the 3/8 is is the machinery.


In this pic you can see the Baldwin/Dalh Filters better, they are the M-300




Link to Baldwin/Dahl here. They are hands down the best water seps on the market, and Baldwin is the best filtration company bar none.

When I set up a tank polishing system. First I draw fuel from the bottom of the tank from a perforated pipe that leads to the top of the tank. Then I return from a perforated pipe(or pipes that lay on the bottom of the tank) the perfs... shoot the return fuel across the whole bottom of the tank.

This agitates the water and sediments into suspension, and the suction side which is also a perf.. pipe running the length of the tank picks up this material, on the way through the 2 Dahl Water Sep/ Filters. All tank penetrations are from the top, with pipes leading to the bottom. If I design the tanks then they will also have a sump with a water drain off.

My pumps are rate at 13 gal's per minute, but with head and suction we general see about 5-7 gal per minute, or 300/340 gal's per hour. The Dahl filters are rated at a 300-600 per hour. I perfer to use AC pumps, but do use DC pumps when called for.

If new tanks then I filter to 10 micron, and depending on the existing tanks I might start at 30, then work to 20, and finally to 10 micron.

I can also port to a used lube oil tank, using a separate filter and blend used lube oil into the the polished fuel. Depending on the engine it might be somewhere between 20-1 and 30-1.

Lloyd

[minaret]

Nice system Lloyd!