200+ Litres of fuel in bilge

Lochlomond

Lochlomond

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Dumbarton
www.campbellsairconditioning.co.uk
Nightmare this morning, call from marina to tell me bilge pump dumping derv, on dry land at present.

From pics clear bilge pump chucked it and bilge filled with approx. 250litres of the red stuff, been pumped out and bilge cleaned but no signs of where its comming from or how it filled the bilge??

Tanks were full with 600 lites, gauge now at 1/4 so has it levlled out? Anyone experianced this or any ideas?

Intend to top tanks with 50 litres then open fuel cocks to see if leak can be found as suspicion with fuel still in tank and no obvious sign how this happened thinking tank has leveled off.

IMG_6193.jpgIMG_6192.jpg
 
Are both showing low if so are they piped together and if one has a leak 5litres will show a leak don't waste fuel
 
What is the angle as she sits on the chocks? could that have affected the drain off. Or worse could the lift have punctured the tanks. Boats tend to bend when out of the water.
 
Read somewhere that water over a long period of time along with the acid component of sludge ( bug residue etc ) dissolves cum accelerates some sort of corrosion in aluminium .
You have not said what material the tank is ( only one will have perforated )
Also when the Al is formed ,curved etc ,thin spots can inadvertently and undetected to formed .
Assume it's from a tank as you infer the cocks are closed .

What boat and how old please ?

Have you ever ,or indeed have were with all to drain the bottom of the tank(s) ?
 
Assuming you placed some sort of heater in the E/R in Scotland on the hard !
Cos if the bottom water layer of an undrained tank ,with 600L of diesel gets below a few degree freezing.
Hmm ,Hmm !
 
If the tanks had split a the base due to frost/ice surely they would have become empty.
If you can do so i suggest checking each tank to see it has fuel still inside . The fuel gauges might not give a true reading and the tanks might be empty.

If the tanks have developed leaks at the base due to corrosion it seems unlikely that both would corrode through at the same time, but not impossible.

What about the fuel filters - has water in the filters frozen and split the filters ? Has that then siphoned the fuel out ?
 
Aluminum tank, 1 tank, 2 engine fuel cocks/sets of hoses and 1 Small shut off for the heater.
1997 Targa 37, only had boat 1 season so not drained tanks.

Been sitting on hard since mid Oct, oil heater in engine bay.

Portofino said:
Read somewhere that water over a long period of time along with the acid component of sludge ( bug residue etc ) dissolves cum accelerates some sort of corrosion in aluminium .
You have not said what material the tank is ( only one will have perforated )
Also when the Al is formed ,curved etc ,thin spots can inadvertently and undetected to formed .
Assume it's from a tank as you infer the cocks are closed .

What boat and how old please ?

Have you ever ,or indeed have were with all to drain the bottom of the tank(s) ?
Click to expand...
 
Only 1 fuel tank, I'll try and check to see if fuel present, tank was topped, bug treated and been fine for the last few months.
Filters are fine, no actual signs of where fuel came from, no tell tale clues, dribbles etc

MartynG said:
If the tanks had split a the base due to frost/ice surely they would have become empty.
If you can do so i suggest checking each tank to see it has fuel still inside . The fuel gauges might not give a true reading and the tanks might be empty.

If the tanks have developed leaks at the base due to corrosion it seems unlikely that both would corrode through at the same time, but not impossible.

What about the fuel filters - has water in the filters frozen and split the filters ? Has that then siphoned the fuel out ?
Click to expand...
 
Lochlomond said:
Only 1 fuel tank, I'll try and check to see if fuel present, tank was topped, bug treated and been fine for the last few months.
Filters are fine, no actual signs of where fuel came from, no tell tale clues, dribbles etc
Click to expand...

Targa 37 was built with single tank and twin fuel feeds and returns. The tank sits in a (Originally)watertight compartment.
I believe that you have lost the fuel via syphoning in the engine bay probably a primary filter tap has been kicked to on
Take the lid off fuel compartment to check if dry very unlikely to be a porous tank.
Known it to happen before!
 
But where would the syphon "outlet" be in that scenario?
Unless a fuel filter was removed, or a hose disconnected...
 
stelican said:
Targa 37 was built with single tank and twin fuel feeds and returns. The tank sits in a (Originally)watertight compartment.
I believe that you have lost the fuel via syphoning in the engine bay probably a primary filter tap has been kicked to on
Take the lid off fuel compartment to check if dry very unlikely to be a porous tank.
Known it to happen before!
Click to expand...

Adding to Flowerpowers dought --- how would "syphoning " @ the filter end as you infer work with closed fuel cocks on the tank .
 
I've removed a fuel tank from a Targa 37 of about that age before. The tank is fitted in a sort of watertight compartment (watertight at the bottom only).
Water can get into this space from above and the tank is then always sat in water. Not a great design.
When the aluminium eventually corrodes through then the fuel leaks out of the tank and fils up the space around the tank until it finds some where to leak into the next compartment. That's why some fuel stays in the tank.
The one that I did leaked most of the fuel into the forward bilges.
 
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