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Cleaning Fuel Tank |
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75 Tique 
Grand Poobah 
Joined: August-12-2004 Location: Seven Lakes, NC Status: Offline Points: 6130 |
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 Topic: Cleaning Fuel TankPosted: November-17-2015 at 11:58am |
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As a rule my boat runs like a scalded cat, but every now and then, it has a runs like crap day. I've traced it to failing dist. cap or carb needs cleaning and its a quick easy fix. But this last time, after several runs it started running like crap. My brother noted we were very low on fuel. Another guy in the boat recalled last time it ran like crap, we were very low on fuel. So, I am thinking I have crud in the bottom of my fuel tank and when I run it low, I suck some of the crud up. Just this last time, I refilled the tank, and it still ran like crap for a few minutes then the next morning it was fine.
So my question is, how do I clean out the fuel tank. With winter coming up, I am willing to take on the slightly involved project of pulling it out, but then what? |
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“So, how was your weekend?” “Well, let me see…sun burn, stiff neck, screwed up back, assorted aches and pains….yup, my weekend was great, thanks for asking.” |
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backfoot100
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Joined: January-03-2007 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 1897 |
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Posted: November-17-2015 at 12:33pm |
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Hey Larry I did this when I rebuilt my motor. It had three years of old fuel in the bottom inch of the tank that was a nasty, smelly, almost gel consistency. I pulled it and poured a couple gallons of mineral spirits in with a couple handfuls of nuts and bolts (per the recommendation of several speed shops).
I lifted one end of the tank and let the hardware roll to one end and then set that down and lifted the other end so everything rolled to the other end. Repeated several times and let it sit level so the mineral spirits covered the bottom of the tank. I repeated that same procedure a couple times a day for a week. Drain and remove nuts/bolts (a magnet helps here what you can't get to fall out when you drain it). I stuffed a couple shop rags in the fill, vent and sender holes and let it sit upside down for a couple more weeks to make sure anything left would get soaked up by the rags. The inside of the tank was sparkling clean and still remains so today. Hope this helps. |
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When people run down to the lake to see what's making that noise, you've succeeded.
Eddie |
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quinner
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Joined: October-12-2005 Location: Unknown Status: Offline Points: 5828 |
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Posted: November-17-2015 at 1:16pm |
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Greg recently posted about this, putting fuel/mineral spirits in tank with marbles, kept tank in bed of his truck for a while, same results as Eddie
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Hollywood
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Joined: February-04-2004 Location: Twin Lakes, WI Status: Offline Points: 13514 |
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Posted: November-17-2015 at 1:21pm |
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Use regular steel hardware. Stainless is minimally magnetic, if at all.
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TRBenj
Grand Poobah
Joined: June-29-2005 Location: NWCT Status: Offline Points: 21184 |
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Posted: November-17-2015 at 1:25pm |
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Good recommendations above. Just wanted to point out that it's definitely necessary to pull the old fuel out of the tank, but it's not required to pull the tank out of the boat. That's a bit more painful. I'd opt to suck it out with a mityvac or similar, then proceed with the steps outlined above. At a minimum, drain, rinse, drain again... That's the process I've used successfully on new-to-me boats that have sat for a while.
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Morfoot
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Joined: February-06-2004 Location: South Lanier Status: Offline Points: 5320 |
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Posted: November-17-2015 at 1:44pm |
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Good info guys....I pulled the Mustang tank as I have fuel sender issues. Cleaned up the float, etc and checked it with the Ohm meter. Was reading 30 Ohms to 130 (180???) so I'm chalking the bad readings to a bad gnd or something.. New 'Old Stock' guage..... Anyway, I sloshed about a gallon of gas around in the tank to still up the sediment and stood it up on end and siphoned out the gas and sediment as best I could. Pretty clean for the most part but some rust at the internal corners. Leave it be or do the above???
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"Morfoot; He can ski. He can wakeboard.He can cook chicken.He can create his own self-named beverage, & can also apparently fly. A man of many talents."72 Mustang "Kermit",88 SN Miss Scarlett, 99 SN "Sherman"
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backfoot100
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Joined: January-03-2007 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 1897 |
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Posted: November-17-2015 at 1:44pm |
True dat...... I also had a couple shops tell me to use BB's. Like the old Daisy BB Gun type. A couple boxes of those supposedly works good too. Now after the fact, I gotta believe that would work just as well as nuts/bolts. Probably even better if you had some tight corners that needed cleaning. |
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When people run down to the lake to see what's making that noise, you've succeeded.
Eddie |
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shierh
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Joined: April-29-2015 Location: Florida Status: Offline Points: 605 |
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Posted: November-17-2015 at 5:13pm |
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diesel fuel is cheaper and will clean it out.
I cleaned my with water, dawn dish liquid, very heavy. let is sit a couple days and rinsed it out . dried with compressed air. |
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75 Tique
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Joined: August-12-2004 Location: Seven Lakes, NC Status: Offline Points: 6130 |
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Posted: November-17-2015 at 5:24pm |
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Thanks for all the tips. Winter project. But I got to thinking. If the pickup is on the bottom of the tank, does it matter if the tank is full or near empty? Doesn't seem it would matter.
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_____________
“So, how was your weekend?” “Well, let me see…sun burn, stiff neck, screwed up back, assorted aches and pains….yup, my weekend was great, thanks for asking.” |
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8122pbrainard
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Joined: September-14-2006 Location: Three Lakes Wi. Status: Offline Points: 41045 |
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Posted: November-17-2015 at 5:30pm |
Larry, My only thought to your question is that as the tank nears empty, there's more sloshing around with the gas especially at the bottom that could stir up more debris. |
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Hollywood wrote: