cleaning the inside of a fuel tank

[AIDY]

has anyone got any tips on cleaning the inside of a deisel fuel tank.

It's another one of the winter jobs. I have about 15 litres of fuel in the tank at the moment, and thought I'd take the opportunity to clean 10 years of rubbish out.

Oh it's a stainless tank with a small inspection hatch. roughly 1.5 m x 0.5m x 0.5m but hull shapped on one side at the bottom.

 

[saltwater_gypsy]

Have you checked if there is a fuel scrubbing service in your area? This is the painless way to do it.

 

[JohnTH]

It is an easy task to make your own fuel scrubber. You need a decent suction pump and a filter / water separator plus some pipe.

The process is to suck the fuel from the tank and then squirt it back in, filtered, to churn up and muck and debris which is sucked up etc. The process just keeps going until the fuel runs clear. Easy !

The same rig many other uses too. Ever put petrol in your diesel car ? Disconnect the fuel line and start sucking !

73s de
Johnth

 

[seasolutions]

The one time I've seen this required, the professional hired for the job insisted the only way to do a long term job is to drain the tank and get in there with rag and detergent. we had to cut additional access hatches in the tanks in question to achieve this. but at least you can be 100% confident once it's done.

 

[Chris_Robb]

has anyone got any tips on cleaning the inside of a deisel fuel tank.

It's another one of the winter jobs. I have about 15 litres of fuel in the tank at the moment, and thought I'd take the opportunity to clean 10 years of rubbish out.

Oh it's a stainless tank with a small inspection hatch. roughly 1.5 m x 0.5m x 0.5m but hull shapped on one side at the bottom.

Aidy, I am just making up a rig to do this using this pump driven by a drill

http://www.toolspot.co.uk/product/heavy-duty-water-pump-for-drill
Its OK for deisel.

The sucking end is a plastic pipe held stiff with a bamboo. Decant into a large clear container. using the pump to effectively vacuum up the base of the tank. Then get a Racal diesel filter funnel - which separates water out, and feed it back into the tank. - perhaps treat with Grotmar.

Probably a two handed job, get someone to hold the pump and drill while you do the vacuuming. Your lucky to have a hatch, I have to do mine through the filler cap!

I do this every year, and its almost spotless now - but it has become an annual job. Another advantage if you have a mild steel tank, is that any water sitting in the bottom will cause your tank to rust through from the inside prematurely.

 

[Caer Urfa]

Hi Aidy
I had diesel fuel problems last year and was given all sorts of advice, the best and most popular was do it once and do it right and get the tanks out and clean them completly.

To empty the tanks I used my good old 'Pela oil extracter pump' diesel comes out no problem with less mess.

Then once you have the tank out Best option if possible is to take them to a 'hot' car wash and use the 'hot' jet washer!

I took mine home and put some washing up liquid in and stuck the end of the jet wash through the inspection hatch and swivelled it around until everything was out.
Repeat until all traces of soapy water is out and dry clean out with clean rags and leave to dry.
Pic's are of my tanks after only 4 years but suspect some of it got in due to a bad fuel supply.
No problems since!

PS. If you do them yourself at home 'DO NOT' do them on the house lawn, I did and spent the next three months in hell from her indoors after totally destroying the once imacculate lawn , 'it will grow back said I', no chance, three months later we had to dig the lawn out to a depth of 2' and relay it!!
Regards
Mike

 

[Bobobolinsky]

Toilet rolls make excellent diesel filters. Won't work with little drill pump though. When drained they can be burnt

 

[charles_reed]

has anyone got any tips on cleaning the inside of a deisel fuel tank.

It's another one of the winter jobs. I have about 15 litres of fuel in the tank at the moment, and thought I'd take the opportunity to clean 10 years of rubbish out.

Oh it's a stainless tank with a small inspection hatch. roughly 1.5 m x 0.5m x 0.5m but hull shapped on one side at the bottom.

From bitter experience, the only really successful way is to have the tank out and steam-cleaned.

I finally bit the bullet and did that, and took the added precaution of putting an additional filter in the fuel line - now have a settling bowl, coarse Racal filter and the original fine filter on the engine.

 

[AIDY]

Thanks all... so good advise. I'm hoping to take the tank out.... but i think it's going to be too large to get out of the aft cabin so i think a vaccume and a mop round through the inspection hatch is the next best thing. will report back.

 

[JohnTH]

Well AIDY, taking the tank out will be an up hill struggle for you. You will have a perfectly clean tank though when you are finished and the mess in your aft cabin is cleaned up. Oh, and not to mention the smell of the diesel has gone.

Why not give the fuel scrub a try first. It works, honest. In fact if you are in my part of the world you can use my rig ! !

73s de
Johnth

 

[Bejasus]

I have a fuel polishing system on the boat, which consists of a centrifuge, magnetic(no-one knows if it really works) thingy, small electric pump & timer and a toilet roll filter. It draws from both tanks and returns to one. Timer runs for 45 mins. Not sure how effective the whole thing really is, but I know that my twin Racors going to the engine still pick up a lot of ****. However, I suspect a lot of **** was in the tanks in the first place.
I am currently replacing all the fuel pipework on the boat(no more rubber hose & hose clamps for me) and am thinking that I may empty the tanks, flush them out somehow(no access apart from the sender holes), and then filter the fuel back onboard again, before I run it all through the new pipework and filtration system. At least then I will have some idea that everything is pretty well clean.

 

[JohnTH]

The magnetic thing is working if there is a brownish gunge in the filter bowl round the magnet.

From your description of your fuel system, it sounds bomb proof. I just have the water separator and filter.

Like it !

73s de
Johnth

 

[Bejasus]

the magnetic thingy is actually an Algae-X fuel conditioner which is actually plumbed directy to the outlet of the centrifuge.
http://www.diesel-fuels.com/algae-x/magnetic-fuel-conditioning.html

 

[JohnTH]

That magnet thing looks interesting although the idea I got was it was close by the filter to collect rust particles from the tank. Oh well, wrong again.

73s de
Johnth

 

[wotayottie]

Used much the same approach as Caer Urfa above, except that I used Gunk not washing up liquid. Then the pressure washer, then drying it out using the hot air gun (steel tank).

The diesel originally pumped out goes to make fire lighters for the woodburner - sawdust soaked in this dirty diesel, couple of desert spoonfuls in a newspaper twist. Jobs a good un but dont use on the barbie.

 

[tabernacleman]

Caustic soda and the dangers of sucking!!

cleaned my tank to perfection with caustic soda (stainless)but probably best if the tank is out, WARNING I read somewhere last year of a fatality when a bloke was syphoning diesel using the usual plastic tube in mouth job - something to do with the fumes / bloodstream so these days I use one of those gismose available at chandlers for about 8 quid or the pound shop, you guessed it, for a pound, which has a bulb and two tubes, work a treat to create a syphon.