I have not been out for about 4 months, I left my tanks half full
(mistake) and I've had problems with my diesel in the past.
My plan was to treat the current fuel with enzymes, burn 10 or 20
gallons, then fill the tanks and change filters.
Thoughts out there??

map wrote:
I have not been out for about 4 months, I left my tanks half full
(mistake) and I've had problems with my diesel in the past.
My plan was to treat the current fuel with enzymes, burn 10 or 20
gallons, then fill the tanks and change filters.
Thoughts out there??

Take a sample first so you know what you are dealing with? Its worth
trying to get any water out of the bottom ot the tank anyway.

--
Ian Malcolm. London, ENGLAND. (NEWSGROUP REPLY PREFERRED)
ianm[at]the[dash]malcolms[dot]freeserve[dot]co[dot]uk
[at]=@, [dash]=- & [dot]=. *Warning* HTML & 32K emails -- NUL:
'Stingo' Albacore #1554 - 15' Early 60's, Uffa Fox designed,
All varnished hot moulded wooden racing dinghy.

"map" wrote in message

My plan was to treat the current fuel with enzymes, burn 10 or 20
gallons, then fill the tanks and change filters.

Pump out from the very bottom of the tank beofre doing anything else. First,
you'll need some access to the inside of the tank. Even a dipstick hole
could be enough, or remove a pipe outlet.

Oncce you start pumping you'll soon know what's hiding down there. I use a
longish bit of copper tube attached to the pump with an angled cut at the
bottom, and pump into a transparent plastic bottle (big one). The angled cut
allows the pipe to rest on the bottom of the tank without blocking - this
system gets much deeper than the fuel take-off. Most likely you'll find some
water, and at the interface with the diesel, black slimy bits. If you're
lucky, it's water only.

Empty all the water and as much diesel and slime as you can. Then rustle
around the bottom of the tank with any sort of brush you can get in to stir
gunge off the tank bottom. Pump again. Keep repeating til the diesel runs
clean.

In extreme cases, when there's really too much gunge scraping off the
bottom, you may have to consider steam cleaning. At that stage you need good
access to the interior of the tank. With luck, you won't have to go that
far.

Only then consider the enzyme/antibiotic/any other treatment.

If you have any doubts about how well you've done the cleaning job, either
fit a parallel fuel filter so you can quickly change when one blocks off, or
have a pressure drop warning across your filter to tell you when to change .
.. .

Best of luck. Keep us posted!

JimB
http://www.jimbaerselman.f2s.com/
Compares the cruising areas of Europe, with detail on Greece and N Spain

Have a pro polish your fuel.
Gordon

"map" wrote in news:1171090124.250613.201850
@l53g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

I have not been out for about 4 months, I left my tanks half full
(mistake) and I've had problems with my diesel in the past.
My plan was to treat the current fuel with enzymes, burn 10 or 20
gallons, then fill the tanks and change filters.
Thoughts out there??



Big mistake everyone else on the dock makes over and over and never seem
to learn to FILL THE TANKS BEFORE PUTTING THE TOYS AWAY! Flogging at the
mast at high noon....grrr...

The beatings aside, it's probably fine. SECURELY Tywrap a clean white
rag to the end of a rod and poke it down to the bottom of the tank,
slowly, a few times, moving it around, slowly rotating it to collect what
you can. Pull it slowly out and look at it. See any black gook on it?
The black gook is the algae growing in the thin layer between the water
in the bottom of the tank and the the fuel above it. If there's no water
in the tank for it to grow on, it never forms in pure fuel. The tank
needs "polishing". Ask your diesel shop to borrow their fuel polisher
for a day. Make sure it sucks dead off the bottom of the tank so it will
suck up the water. Run the intake hose around inside the tank as much as
possible while it's running to pick up all you can. Just hooking it to
the outlet of the tank won't reach all the crap in there. You may have
to change the polisher's filters a few times before you get it all. The
shop left the old filters in it so make SURE you put NEW filters in it
before you start at all. Put new filters in it when you're done to say
thanks to the shop for letting you borrow it. Filters are much cheaper
than injection service...

Get some water detector paste to check for water by putting it on the end
of the rod and tapping the rod on the bottom of the tankage every so
often. Then FILL THE TANKS BEFORE STORAGE FROM NOW ON...OR ELSE! The
flogging at the mast usually breaks them of this nasty, lazy habit.


Larry
--
VIRUS ALERT! VISTA has been released!
NOONE will be spared!

In article .com,
"map" wrote:

I have not been out for about 4 months, I left my tanks half full
(mistake) and I've had problems with my diesel in the past.
My plan was to treat the current fuel with enzymes, burn 10 or 20
gallons, then fill the tanks and change filters.
Thoughts out there??


Why is it that Marine Fuel Tanks, never have a Water Trap Drain, in
them like ALL Stationary Fuel Tanks do????? It would be so easy to
deal with this type of stuff if they did. Just open the valve and
slowly pump out the bottom 5% of the tank, thru a 10 Micron RaCor
and be done with it for the season. Not Rocket Science, just smart
Engineering. Simple, easy to do, and effective. You don't really even
have to have a valve on the Trap Line if you use it as a
"SightGlass/Vent" and have it plumbed up a couple of feet above the Tank
Top.

Bruce in alaska one who wonders about such stuff......
--
add a 2 before @

IMHO, waste of your money.

Drain out any water from the bottom if you can, put some Biobor in it, fill it and run it on some nice rough days to get it stired up real well and change filters as needed.

Bruce in Alaska wrote:
In article .com,
"map" wrote:

I have not been out for about 4 months, I left my tanks half full
(mistake) and I've had problems with my diesel in the past.
My plan was to treat the current fuel with enzymes, burn 10 or 20
gallons, then fill the tanks and change filters.
Thoughts out there??


Why is it that Marine Fuel Tanks, never have a Water Trap Drain, in
them like ALL Stationary Fuel Tanks do????? It would be so easy to
deal with this type of stuff if they did. Just open the valve and
slowly pump out the bottom 5% of the tank, thru a 10 Micron RaCor
and be done with it for the season. Not Rocket Science, just smart
Engineering. Simple, easy to do, and effective. You don't really even
have to have a valve on the Trap Line if you use it as a
"SightGlass/Vent" and have it plumbed up a couple of feet above the Tank
Top.

Bruce in alaska one who wonders about such stuff......

Good point.

Tom in Connecticut One who wonders about a lot of stuff.

Bruce in Alaska wrote:
Why is it that Marine Fuel Tanks, never have a Water Trap Drain, in
them like ALL Stationary Fuel Tanks do????? It would be so easy to
deal with this type of stuff if they did. Just open the valve and
slowly pump out the bottom 5% of the tank, thru a 10 Micron RaCor
and be done with it for the season. Not Rocket Science, just smart
Engineering. Simple, easy to do, and effective. You don't really even
have to have a valve on the Trap Line if you use it as a
"SightGlass/Vent" and have it plumbed up a couple of feet above the Tank
Top.


Because the USCG in all it's wisdom says that you can't have a valve
on the bottom of the tank and all tanks should be suction from the
top. Lots of other jurisdictions are o.k. with the concept of a sump
on the bottom of the tank for just this purpose

FEDERAL LAW

183.518 - Fuel tank openings

Each opening into the fuel tank must be at or above the topmost
surface of the tank.

http://www.uscgboating.org/safety/bo...el/183-518.htm

Evan Gatehouse

In article ,
Evan Gatehouse2 wrote:

Bruce in Alaska wrote:
Why is it that Marine Fuel Tanks, never have a Water Trap Drain, in
them like ALL Stationary Fuel Tanks do????? It would be so easy to
deal with this type of stuff if they did. Just open the valve and
slowly pump out the bottom 5% of the tank, thru a 10 Micron RaCor
and be done with it for the season. Not Rocket Science, just smart
Engineering. Simple, easy to do, and effective. You don't really even
have to have a valve on the Trap Line if you use it as a
"SightGlass/Vent" and have it plumbed up a couple of feet above the Tank
Top.


Because the USCG in all it's wisdom says that you can't have a valve
on the bottom of the tank and all tanks should be suction from the
top. Lots of other jurisdictions are o.k. with the concept of a sump
on the bottom of the tank for just this purpose

FEDERAL LAW

183.518 - Fuel tank openings

Each opening into the fuel tank must be at or above the topmost
surface of the tank.

http://www.uscgboating.org/safety/bo...el/183-518.htm

Evan Gatehouse

Ok, if they are that "****y about it" why doesn't the Tank Builder,
design the tank with a Water Trap along the lowest place in the tank,
and then build a 1/2" pipe that goes out the top of the tank, who's
bottom end, is 1/8" above the bottom of the Water Trap. Then all one
would have to do is use a Postive Displacment Pump in that line and
suck the lower 5% of the fuel out, thru the "Polishing" System, and
back into the tank. Again, this isn't Rocket Science, and even an
USCG Ensign, fresh out of the Acadamy, could see that qualifies, under
the cited Reg........ Sure beats "Screwing" around with Commercial
Tank Cleaners, ect, and wouldn't cost "diddley" when the tank was being
built......

Bruce in alaska What USCG Genious thought that one up......
--
add a 2 before @