marine fuel tank cleaning?? (1 Viewer)

[krushing]

I have a 190 gallon fuel tank in my 24 foot Boston Whaler Outrage. It is "gummed up" from ethonal. Anyone have any experience cleaning a fuel tank in a boat through a 1.5 inch hole? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[BHM]

Google search suggests either 1 gal of acetone or muriatic acid along with a hand full of clean rocks. Swish it around for a few minutes then wash out with soapy water then rinse several times. Let it dry in the sun. A few sites mentioned bringing it to a radiator shop for a cleaning.

 

[krushing]

Thanks for the advice. I read the same things to, but i think they are referring to smaller tanks. I dont think I could ever get the rocks back out of mine. I orderd 5 gallons of a product i read about called "marine clean". It says to mix it with hot water. i'm going to drain my hottub into my fuel tank, add the marine clean and let it sit for a week. i sure dont want to have to cut the tank out. its foamed in!! Moral of this story is to use 100% real gas in boats, and dont let your boats sit up. Run them!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[BHM]

So this is not a tank that you and a friend could stir around and empty! So yeah, rocks might be hard to get out!

I would be afraid to leave water sitting that long as it might cause rust. Cleaning the tank should not be that hard. Disposing of all the liquids will. In the future, add some Sta-bil to your tank.

http://www.goldeagle.com/brands/stabil/default.aspx

 

[dtc]

If you can't get it out, I don't know how to clean it, but if you can and its a stainless or aluminum tank, then hang it from something and fill it with 2 or 3# of copper BBs and shake it. Add clean gasoline and shake and drain until the gas comes out clean then shop vac out all the bbs and reinstall.

 

[krushing]

I decided I'd update this, incase anyone else runs into this situation.
I heated my hot tub as hot as I could get it. Put the marine clean In my fuel tank and put about 40 gallons of hot water. Sloshed the mix around for a couple hours by raising and lowering the front end of the boat with my front end loader. Then I topped it off with hot water and let it set two days.
I sucked the water out with a shop vac. The tank came out spotless. It broke up all the ethanol scum and gunk. It was quite a job but much better then cutting out my fuel tank. Marine clean and hot water got it done.

 

[BHM]

You are just getting this done now or are you just updating us now? Seems like a nice boat to have sitting around.

Have you started the engine lately because if the tank was gummed up, the carburetors probably are as well.



Don't forget the Sta-bil gas conditioner.

 

[krushing]

You are just getting this done now or are you just updating us now? Seems like a nice boat to have sitting around.

Have you started the engine lately because if the tank was gummed up, the carburetors probably are as well.



Don't forget the Sta-bil gas conditioner.

No, I did it right after i started the thread. I was sitting around playing with tapatalk the other night and looked at the couple of threads I had started and decided I needed to update, especially with the ethanol percentage possibly going to 15 percent. A lot of folks will have gummed up fuel cells at 15% ethonol. Figured I'd share my solution. Boat has performed great since I cleaned the tank. You are right about letting it set up, but after Katrina, and then the oil spill...we had little choice.

 

[BHM]

No, I did it right after i started the thread. I was sitting around playing with tapatalk the other night and looked at the couple of threads I had started and decided I needed to update, especially with the ethanol percentage possibly going to 15 percent. A lot of folks will have gummed up fuel cells at 15% ethonol. Figured I'd share my solution. Boat has performed great since I cleaned the tank. You are right about letting it set up, but after Katrina, and then the oil spill...we had little choice.

You should sell it to me... at a great price... so you don't have to mess with it any more. I would be doing you a big favor.

 

[BIG E]

I hope you changed your hoses to the ethanol resistant ones. That crap is horrible. It will gum up hoses and because ethanol and water actually mix, it will allow water to get pass your water separator.