Winterizing: Fuel in tank options?

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tank1949

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Apr 4, 2013
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Winterizing my boat. It has a built in 25 gallon poly fuel tank. There is about 20 gallons of e10 in the tank, and it's been in there for a couple of months now. (straight fuel, no fuel/oil premix.)

It appears that the consensus around here is to fill the tank to the top, apply a good dose of fuel stabilizer to it, and hope for the best. That's not worked too well for me in the past, and more than once, come spring, I've wound up with a tank full of stale/smelly fuel that the outboard barfed on.

I can't get a siphon tube down the filler neck to siphon the fuel out, so I've had to remove the fuel level sending unit to get a siphon tube into the tank. That usually ruins the gasket, and I'm afraid doing this too much will wear out the threads on the retaining screw holes. (Poly tank)

What would be the downside to installing some sort of quick disconnect to the fuel line, so I can just disconnect it and connect a small electric fuel pump to pull the fuel out through the tank's downtube.

Anybody else done anything like this?
Pump into your car.
 

Lou C

Supreme Mariner
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Nov 10, 2002
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11,842
I think people are worrying about this issue way too much. Just use a good stabilizer & make sure that your gas cap gasket is good & you don’t have water pooling on top of the sending unit. I have a 34 year old tank run on E10 for 15+ years, the first start of the season the old 4.3 cranks till the carb bowl is full & fires off. The only trouble I had was during the transition period after that really nothing.
I’ve posted several times what comes out of my fuel filter and it is so clean I just dump it back in the gas can for the lawn mower
 
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BettyMo

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Jun 27, 2023
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I have in the past used the fuel line leading to the engine as a means to pump out the fuel in the tank. Perhaps you can rig something up with a double-ended barb fitting and some clamp that give you a margin of safety than a quick-disconnect. FWIW - I usually empty the tank at the end of the season and use it for the vehicles. It is always a treat not having to buy gasoline for a few weeks.
We have a 1995 Volvo Penta Inboard and can't figure out how to drain the fuel tank. Any Tips? Thanks in advance

MOD EDIT: You have posted to an old thread. Please review the rules regarding posting to old threads.
 
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