Diesel tank cleaning

[misterjenkins]

Was wondering whether any of you could recommend someone around Portsmouth for cleaning the sediment out of our diesel tanks. We haven't had any problems yet, and are treating everything with biocide, but it's been there since we got the boat and it'd be good to get it out.

We don't have any inspection hatches, just the standard deck fittings for filling, with a 6" straight run to the actual tank, so would need to use those for access.
We're also on a swing mooring, so we may need to go to them? How does it usually work?

 

[[70521]]

You could empty and remove the tank, then steam clean it. Not sure I would pay anybody to do this quite simple job.

How do you know you have sediment?

 

[misterjenkins]

Would that it were so simple

Unfortunately given the location of the tanks, I'd probably have to cut them out and replace them, whilst finding a way of storing and filtering all the fuel, whilst on a swing mooring.

There are companies that specialise in tank and fuel cleaning, with mobile kit to do the whole lot. My hope is to find someone who can do this whilst we're on a temporary berth somewhere

I know there's sediment there, as I've drawn samples from the bottom of each tank and filtered them. It wasn't a pretty sight.

 

[simonfraser]

if its such a pia to remove, have you considered a polishing kit ?
leave that running when you are aboard and you'll soon have all the cr@p out.

 

[Deleted member 36384]

Sorry, I cant help with your local area, I am Scotland based. I used a local car dealership that offers a fuel draining service for cars/vans that have contaminated diesel tanks. The service includes filtering if required as well, I recommend that you try local garage services before using any dedicated/specialist marine service. In my case the garage identified an additional market in marine work as the operator was very familiar with boats and their foibles. I have asked for the fuel to be removed and disposed of but they could have filtered it and returned it to the tanks after cleaning tank.

I would recommend your course of action if your tanks are old and, or have low rate of fuel turnover. In my case I started to pick up high differential pressure on the fuel filters even though I had changed them at the start of the season, there was no real trace of crap in the filters, or significant slime, or even cloudy diesel in the glass water traps. However, I have two 60 gallon tanks and on a sailing yacht that is only used for coastal sailing I was not using any significant amounts of fuel, so turnover was low. The boat is just being put back in commission after 2 years ashore. I am decommissioning one fuel tank, hence the reason for the disposal of the fuel. The operator said that he sucked out a lot of sludge. This is before the tanks were cleaned, I'll post some pictures once the cleaning is finished.

It would be a very easy job to do as I have access hatches (2 per tank) but to be frank, I don't want to do it, so I am happy to pay for the service. At least I now know the tanks are clean and can manage the fuel better with a smaller capacity.

 

[misterjenkins]

simonfraser - Yes, that was my thought exactly, I've rigged up a simple polisher, but it doesn't seem to do much for the heavy sediment

 

[pvb]

I've rigged up a simple polisher, but it doesn't seem to do much for the heavy sediment

It's difficult to get the sediment when there's limited access. When I had bug problems in the keel tank on my last boat, I used a semi-rigid plastic tube, moving it around to try to suck stuff directly off the bottom. Another thing I did was to put the extracted fuel into plastic jerrycans, then pour it rapidly back in to the tank, to try to agitate the muck on the bottom.

 

[lw395]

It's difficult to get the sediment when there's limited access. When I had bug problems in the keel tank on my last boat, I used a semi-rigid plastic tube, moving it around to try to suck stuff directly off the bottom. Another thing I did was to put the extracted fuel into plastic jerrycans, then pour it rapidly back in to the tank, to try to agitate the muck on the bottom.

We made a sort of flail, a length of old rope on the end of a flexible plastic rod.
Spun it with a cordless drill, it seemed fairly good at getting the crud moving.

 

[robbieg]

You may find this thread of interest-it explains how I cleaned my tanks with difficult access.

http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthrea...in-your-keel&p=3839620&highlight=#post3839620

 

[Heckler]

Was wondering whether any of you could recommend someone around Portsmouth for cleaning the sediment out of our diesel tanks. We haven't had any problems yet, and are treating everything with biocide, but it's been there since we got the boat and it'd be good to get it out.

We don't have any inspection hatches, just the standard deck fittings for filling, with a 6" straight run to the actual tank, so would need to use those for access.
We're also on a swing mooring, so we may need to go to them? How does it usually work?

I remove the tank fuel level sender, six screws, leaves a 2-3" hole, big enough to get a flashlight and my Pela oil extractor tube in to suck up crud.
Stu