Cleaning my diesel tank

[jonnyhull]

I've just drained my diesel tank prior to putting my boat in the water for the first time. Some rather nasty fuel in there for at least 2 years and a lot of sediment/sludge at the bottom. Decided to remove the tank and currently have it sitting here at home debating whether it is ok to clean it out with petrol - the thinking is that petrol is more of a solvent and is likely to clean out more of the sludge - can anyone think of any reason why I shouldn't be doing this or suggest a better way???

 

[Freebee]

if you have the tank out and you can get at the inside why not use a pressure washer and a bit of soap. you can spin the tank and get most of the water out followed by a good swill with parrafin or diesel.

Rinsing with petrol may do the job but will leave you with a tank full of petrol fumes and be rather dangerous.

 

[jimboaw]

It baffles me why boaty folks seem to be obsessed with the idea that their fuel tanks are full of gunge. Do the owners of 20 yr. old diesel cars flush the tank? No. Unless you have reason to suspect that you have taken on "contaminated" fuel, mess less. Check and change your filters on a regular basis and chill.

 

[Fuel_Doctor]

You're over the hard part - getting the tank out. Cleaning it properly is the easy bit. Please don't use petrol (we may not hear from you again) petrol vapours are very dangerous and residal petrol will affect the combustive qualities of diesel when you refill the tank. The best thing to do is use chemicals that are designed to do the particular job - safetly or use plenty of elbow grease and flush the tank with diesel fuel. If you use water and don't completely dry the tank out you will have fuel bug infestations to deal with later. Go to www.fueldoctors.com.au for a bit of an overview of the issues to do with fuel tank cleaning.

Good wishes.

 

[Guest]

a) Not necessary to use petrol ... anyway the vapour left in the tank is explosive.
b) A good pressure wash and swill round is fine.
c) Best to finish the job is a steam cleaner - i) it cleans out last vestiges, ii) it kills any micro' in there that may be lurking, iii) it heats the tank up sufficient that it will dry out prior to refit.

So once done - thats the tank for anothr 20 yrs !!

 

[Toutvabien]

I took my last tank to the Jet Wash at the petrol station and gave it a couple of quids worth of high pressure water and foam. Came up spotlessly clean!!

 

[cliff]

Now that you have the tank out consider having a sump fitted with a stopcock or ball valve - make draining so much easier and removal of gunge is easyily done. Open the valve once a month and drain out all the crap before it builds up - you should never have to remove the tank again.
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“Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity”
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[dickh]

Have you never had the dreaded 'bug'? Diesel cars are different to boats in their use; they are regularly filled, often on a weekly basis, from filling stations that are regularly filled with fresh diesel. On modern diesel cars the tanks are usually made of plastic which don't encourage condensation. The filters on diesel cars still have a water drain though......
Boats are different - the tanks are usually filled only a few times a year, from a marina tank that again may only have been filled a couple of times that year - if you are lucky. Add to this is the fact that boats operate in a damp salty atmosphere, often with stainless steel fuel tanks, thereby encouraging condensation in the tank. And may not be serviced as frequently as cars. When you get a tank that has been standing half full for a long time you get condensation - and therefore 'bugs' in the interface between fuel and water. It is of course recommended that tanks are filled for the winter layup period.
In my previous boat, I religiously changed both filters in the autumn, and filled the tank before the winter layup. Even so, I got the dreaded 'bug' after 5 years and had to chenge filters mid season. Since then I used Soltron and had no further problems. I would have preferred to remove tha tank and have it steam cleaned but as I would have had to remove the engine to be able to remove the tank that was no no. My new boat(to me) had a leaking steel tank so my first job was to remove it and replace it with a modern plastic tank. I should not suffer from condensation but I will still fill the tank in the autumn and change the filter regularly. Hopefully I will not get any problems.

 

[jonnyhull]

Many thanks for all your suggestions - spent the best part of a morning on this tiny island trying to locate someone who could steam clean - no result other than a suggestion I try Trinidad. So simply rinsed the tank out with fresh diesel (many times) and have changed filters. Will try to locate some chemicals to kill off any bugs left and inspect the filters regularly. They're all easy to get at and the tank can be removed in 5 mins so steam cleaning at a later date! Once again many thanks.

 

[Guest]

To kill bugs ....

If you just want to kill 'em ..... any acid solution such as Vinegar, or Bleach based solutions ......

In fact even strong solution of Baby sterilisation fluid ...

You only need a sterilising or bleaching agent ..... that will do it. Rinse out and dry...... in fact a rinse with diesel will do it after bleaching / sterilising ....

There is no rocket science to this despite all the hype you hear from some .....


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