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

"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 @

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.

"burn 10 or 20 gallons" ..... whats the price of fuel where youre
located???????


First draw off some fuel into a clean glass container. Hold the
glass/fuel between you and strong white light. If there is a distinct
haze (or worse) then the fuel is particulating (agglomeration/growth)
of bio-particles/slimes of cellular debris plus some oil decomposition.

If so, open the tank inspection port and look for the deposiition of
fouling on the tank walls. Just use your finger , go down through the
oil as far as you can go and feel for heavy 'slime' on the walls.
(Others have posted use of manual dip tube to test/remove the free
water - good idea.)

If the walls are found to be heavily laden with 'goo', consider to
drain ALL the oil and take it home to burn in your oil heater; then
clean the tank walls by mechanical scrubbing, etc. until all the 'goo'
is removed. Simply scrub all the goo to the bottom and then sop-up
with paper towels, etc. then burn. Once bacteria and fungi begin to
grow you have to clean the tank. DO NOT add biocide at this time as
this will simply release the cellular debris from the tank walls;
biocides are for prevention of growth. If you add biocide to a fouled
tank you will create a monster that is very difficult to clean up and
will make the cleaning much harder.

Once the the tank internals are relatively clean and most of the 'goo'
is removed; THEN, consider to 'recirculate' or 'polish' the oiil
through filters. Recirculation filtration WILL NOT remove the debris
from the tank walls if it has formed; and, will rapidly consume a lot
of expensive filters ... and will not clean the tank --- a simple
Racor filter only holds about 25-30 grams of debris. You will need to
scrub (or steam clean) the tank walls to get all the 'goo' loose if you
have developed a large accumulation. Diesel fuel tanks in boats should
be cleaned every few years anyway to prevent the release of the biofilm
and particle agglomeration from the tank walls. If you do have such
contamination and dont physically remove (scrub) the particle
deposition from the walls .... a heavy sea state WILL do it for you.
;-)

Best storage means is to - totally REMOVE the oil when the boat is not
being used for long term, especially in warm weather. If the tank is
relativelly clean and the tank is PRESSURE/VACUUM rated (rarely are)
is to put a valve on the vent line and simply CLOSE it when the boat is
not in use. Third choice is to apply a large desiccant packed
'chamber' to the vent line to remove the moisture when the tank is
'breathing' due to thermal differences of the oil and the ambient
atmosphere. The last choice is to fill the tank completely ..... but
moisture will continue to 'drive' into the oil due to chemical/physical
'equilibrium' until the oil is 'saturated' with water vapor which
eventually becomes 'free' water'.

To keep the tank clean for the longest possible interval ... only fill
the tank with the amount of oil you NEED plus a bit of 'reserve' for
emergencies. Buy your fuel from a high turn-over source such as a
depot that caters to 'watermen' ... or a truck stop; fuel from marinas
that dont 'turn over' their oil often is probably already saturated
with water.

:-)


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??

On Mon, 12 Feb 2007 14:37:58 GMT, Rich Hampel
wrote:

Diesel fuel tanks in boats should
be cleaned every few years anyway to prevent the release of the biofilm
and particle agglomeration from the tank walls. If you do have such
contamination and dont physically remove (scrub) the particle
deposition from the walls .... a heavy sea state WILL do it for you.
;-)

Good advice for sure Rich, and I know you have professional experience
in this area. You fail to mention however what us poor guys with no
physical access to the tanks are supposed to do.

Wayne B

(still relying on Biobor, heavy sea states, a full case of *large*,
fresh Racors, vacuum guages, parallel filter valves, due diligence,
etc)

Wayne.B wrote:
On Mon, 12 Feb 2007 14:37:58 GMT, Rich Hampel
wrote:

Diesel fuel tanks in boats should
be cleaned every few years anyway to prevent the release of the biofilm
and particle agglomeration from the tank walls. If you do have such
contamination and dont physically remove (scrub) the particle
deposition from the walls .... a heavy sea state WILL do it for you.
;-)

Good advice for sure Rich, and I know you have professional experience
in this area. You fail to mention however what us poor guys with no
physical access to the tanks are supposed to do.

(still relying on Biobor, heavy sea states, a full case of *large*,
fresh Racors, vacuum guages, parallel filter valves, due diligence,
etc)

I'm looking at another GB down on LI next week.

This one is supposed to be a sportfisher. Did GB
make a sportfisher?

On Feb 12, 8:47?am, Short Wave Sportfishing
wrote:


This one is supposed to be a sportfisher. Did GB
make a sportfisher?- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Not that would ever meet the standard definition.

Between 1989-1991 GB built a 42 "Sports Cruiser".

It was essentially the 42 Classic and 42 Motoryacht hull, with an
abbreviated flybridge sedan super structure and a large(r) cockpit.
Factory photos from the era show a couple of outriggers mounted just
aft of the windows of the superstructrue. Cruising speeds were 8 to 16
knots depending on the power selected. (It took a pair of 375-HP Cats
to see 16 knots).

There's an obvious reason that after all of the effort and expense to
develop and market a new model it is available for no more than two
years..............
something to consider when making an offer (the seller is probably not
being overwhelmed by market response) and a factor to include when
looking far enough ahead to consider your own eventual resale of the
boat.

Definitely not GB's brightest idea. You not only have to build a good
boat, you have to build the *right* boat.

A few years later, the same basic superstructure seemed to reappear as
the 42 Europa- which of course would be out of the question for
serious anglers after anything larger than a random bottom fish or
two. The 42 Europa is a very popular boat, and rightly so.