cleaning out old gas tank thats been sitting 5+ years?

tincanman

Petty Officer 1st Class
Joined
Apr 12, 2012
Messages
230
boat I'm picking up next week has a 37 gallon plastic belly tank. the boat has been sitting for 5+ years. I believe that the tank is empty, but I wont be sure until I pick up the boat. I have access to the back 10 inches or so, but to remove the tank,I would have to rip up a good deck. Should I be worried about it if its dry? Is ther a good way to clean a tank w/o removing it?

thanks
 

H20Rat

Vice Admiral
Joined
Mar 8, 2009
Messages
5,199
Re: cleaning out old gas tank thats been sitting 5+ years?

You should be able to get to the pickup for the tank. Pull that out and then see what kind of condition things look like. Worst case, you have gas that you have to dispose of, and then flush it with some fresh gas. (disposing of old gas is actually pretty tough to do unless you live in a rural area where nobody will notice a REALLY big campfire!)
 

Georgesalmon

Lieutenant Commander
Joined
Apr 14, 2012
Messages
1,793
Re: cleaning out old gas tank thats been sitting 5+ years?

After you do what he said. Make sure you have a good external gas filter, fuel/water seperator. There will probably be some crud in there you don't want getting into the engine gas filters.
 

jpo1953

Cadet
Joined
Mar 18, 2010
Messages
15
Re: cleaning out old gas tank thats been sitting 5+ years?

Had the same problem with my last boat. I took the fuel line off and hooked up a ball pump to get the old gas out. My lawnmower loved the stuff. Like previous post...get good filters
 
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