A Precautionary task on a Diesel Boat

[Jim@sea]

The boat I have just bought is 15 years old with an Inboard Diesel.
Presumably the first thing to do is check the contents of the Diesel Tank and I am glad I did as there was an unbelievable amount of black sediment and some water.
On this boat the diesel tank is easy to get at and having removed the fuel gauge sender unit I used my new "oil change vacuum pump" to remove 30L of diesel, the pipe "Vacuuming" up most of the sediment and water from the bottom of the tank.
With the tank empty I can still see thick black sediment, fortunately my arm is just long enough to reach the bottom with a rag and wipe it up.
The previous owner said that he used a proprietary make of Fuel Additive.
Well he did not use enough. And it will only treat the diesel it is mixed with. Its not going to dissolve sediment at the bottom of the tank which has probably been there since before these diesel additives were invented.
My next step is to replace the primary filter with one that has a Glass Sediment Bowl.
Perhaps I am a bit "Over the top" where maintenance is concerned but "Loose Sh*tz Sinks Ships"

 

[OAF]

The boat I have just bought is 15 years old with an Inboard Diesel.
Presumably the first thing to do is check the contents of the Diesel Tank and I am glad I did as there was an unbelievable amount of black sediment and some water.
On this boat the diesel tank is easy to get at and having removed the fuel gauge sender unit I used my new "oil change vacuum pump" to remove 30L of diesel, the pipe "Vacuuming" up most of the sediment and water from the bottom of the tank.
With the tank empty I can still see thick black sediment, fortunately my arm is just long enough to reach the bottom with a rag and wipe it up.
The previous owner said that he used a proprietary make of Fuel Additive.
Well he did not use enough. And it will only treat the diesel it is mixed with. Its not going to dissolve sediment at the bottom of the tank which has probably been there since before these diesel additives were invented.
My next step is to replace the primary filter with one that has a Glass Sediment Bowl.
Perhaps I am a bit "Over the top" where maintenance is concerned but "Loose Sh*tz Sinks Ships"

You can't be too careful when it comes to **** in the diesel tanks, there are some products on the market made by a company that claim to breakdown 'sludge and sediment' in diesel the company is called Exocet, we use the 'fuel store plus' avidly in our fleet of 30 boats and the fuel bug addatives in my own boat, so far so good, no issues with any of the treated tanks

I have no link with the company btw

 

[oldgit]

My boat had been ashore for most of its life and had done only around 100 hours in total when I bought it.Suspect it only ever had a single refill in its entire life.Yet enough sediment settled in the tank to completely block one primary engine filter and severely limit flow in the second,virtually nothing made it to secondary filters.
All 3 filters per engine had been replaced shortly before,but a bit of " weather" disturbed what gunge was there and it promptly found its way into filters.
Fortunately being an old boat,access was straightforward and easy,simply by lifting floor and unbolting big access plate in top,bottom of tank was revealed.
The tank was emptied and remaining goo washed out with petrol.
Fuel was allowed to settle over a few days and then returned to tank via filter.
Had attempted to previously check contents of tank with hand pump and long pipe for water and sediment,but nothing visible came out.

 

[Jim@sea]

You can't be too careful when it comes to **** in the diesel tanks, there are some products on the market made by a company that claim to breakdown 'sludge and sediment' in diesel the company is called Exocet, we use the 'fuel store plus' avidly in our fleet of 30 boats and the fuel bug additives in my own boat, so far so good, no issues with any of the treated tanks

I have no link with the company btw

Thank You. Have just bought 2 bottles of Fuel Store Plus.
The other reason I have spent £25 on an additive which gets rid of crud is that in my diesel tank there are 2 baffles which I cant clean behind and every thing appears to be coated with a microscopic particles of black soot. The point is that although I can clean the tank, the inside of the pipes, the injector pump, everything will be similarly coated. perhaps fine enough to pass through the injectors but thats how injectors get blocked.

 

[PaulGooch]

Thank You. Have just bought 2 bottles of Fuel Store Plus.
The other reason I have spent £25 on an additive which gets rid of crud is that in my diesel tank there are 2 baffles which I cant clean behind and every thing appears to be coated with a microscopic particles of black soot. The point is that although I can clean the tank, the inside of the pipes, the injector pump, everything will be similarly coated. perhaps fine enough to pass through the injectors but thats how injectors get blocked.

Jim, why not look at one of the recent fuel polishing threads ? With the access you seem to have you could hose all the crud out with the polishing pump return line, make a first class job of it.

 

[Jim@sea]

I emptied the small amount of mixed krap/diesel (35 Liters) and being able to reach inside the tank I went a step further, I polished the inside of the tank, (as far as I could reach) Certainly after changing the fuel filter and the sediment trap had the previous owner gone to sea he would have been a statistic.

 

[Racingfrank7]

Just out of interest where is the boat? Reason I ask is you say you are going to change the filter bowls for see through ones, which makes me think you have metal bowl(s) fitted ?
Is this because the boat is on inland water ways ? Reason I ask, is fitting see through bowls could make the boat fail its BSS.
If this is the case you could keep the metal bowls and just drain a bit of fuel of with the tap/screw on the bottom of the bowl regularly to keep a check.

 

[OAF]

Just out of interest where is the boat? Reason I ask is you just drain a bit of fuel of with the tap/screw on the bottom of the bowl regularly to keep a check.

I have Racor pre filters with clear bowls with drain taps, every time before I go out I drain off a small amount of fuel in to a clear plastic container to check for clarity of the fuel, there was always a small amount of sediment, but I have noticed it less so since using more addatives.

 

[oldgit]

Bit curious about this.The contamination is in the the tank somewhere,wether in big lumps or weeny particals broken down by a fuel conditioning additive.
Sooner or later all of it is going to find its way into the filters, the elements will finally become clogged by big lumps or small bits eventually anyway,bring fuel flow to a halt.
What is the point of breaking up the muck into smaller pieces,it you break it up small enuff surely its going to get to the expensive bits and cause damage ?

 

[Jim@sea]

Just out of interest where is the boat? Reason I ask is you say you are going to change the filter bowls for see through ones, which makes me think you have metal bowl(s) fitted ?
Is this because the boat is on inland water ways ? Reason I ask, is fitting see through bowls could make the boat fail its BSS.
If this is the case you could keep the metal bowls and just drain a bit of fuel of with the tap/screw on the bottom of the bowl regularly to keep a check.

The boat is going on a Marina on the Welsh Coast. The reason I have fitted a glass bowl filter is that is the first place I would look if my engine misfires/hesitates/stops. The Irish Sea is no place for lack of information, where if your engine stops you look at a metal bowl wondering whats in it. and a glass bowl tells you immediatly if you have fuel, especially when changing filters and bleeding.

 

[Assassin]

Often you can't beat a good degreaser such as Jizer, chuck a quantity into the tank and slosh it around with a good mop or small sweeping brush to fully coat the tank and break up the bottom debris and leave for a couple of days. Fill with water when its broken it down and use a small or borehole sludge pump (hire one) to pump it out, this will remove it.