How to clean an underfloor gas tank ??

[bowhuntrrl]

I've got a 21' Sportcraft WA Cuddy and it has an aluminum tank under the floor. Last year, I noticed a brown, jelly-like substance in the gas getting in to the fuel filter at the carb. I rebuilt the carb and installed a separator/filter in line before the fuel pump. I'd like to clean the tank before the boating season, but don't know what to do with 55-60 gallons of fuel. My thought was to get an electric fuel pump of some kind, pump it from the tank through some sort of filter arrangement, and back into the tank. I would leave it recirculating like this for maybe 8-10 hours. Any thoughts on if this will help anything, or is it an exercise in futility. Thanks for any opinions or anything someone else may have tried.<br /><br />Rich

 

[Solittle]

Re: How to clean an underfloor gas tank ??

Rich - Great way to do it. Run a fuel line from the output side of the water seperator to the fill cap. I would stop every hour or so and dump the contents of the seperator into a clear glass beaker of some type to check what the filter is doing. When relatively clear you are done.<br /><br />This should work if your fuel is not old (not sure how old is old - - ). The reason I mention this is that I bought a boat some years ago with 50-60 gal of fuel in it. I figgured that if I put 25 gal or so of fresh in it that I would be OK. Turned out that the old fuel was not old but ancient. Had to get it professionally pumped. It looked like brown orange juice and smelled awfull. No amount of filtering will help when it is to far gone.

 

[Bondo]

Re: How to clean an underfloor gas tank ??

Yep, That's how I Cured a water in the tank problem..... Just be sure to move the boat a few times to make sure the sh-t gets pumped out....<br />You know, Lift the trailer jack, then lower it... Jack up one wheel, then the other.... You'll also want to check,+ dump out the filter several times... This way, You'll Only need to ruin 1 filter, instead of Several...<br />If it were Diesel, It's called Fuel Polishing...