Paper towelling in fuel tank!

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Martin1976

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Has anyone ever come across paper towel in their fuel tank (which subsequently clogged the fuel uplift pipe) ?

Engine conked out leaving Poole harbour Saturday having arrived from Cowes the previous day where I had brimmed the tanks.
Seastart dragged back to Salterns where my engineer kindly came out on Sunday (with the wife no less having cancelled their
own day out on their boat) to take a look and to his surprise said..."I've found paper in your fuel tank, any idea how it might have
got there?".....Answer...."Absolutely NONE!".....

Boat lives in the dry stack in Hamble (the bottom rung).....so I can only think of fuel theft (where they've cleaned up and pushed
the towel down the filler pipe) or being first to the fuel jetty where paper towel has been left somewhere in the refuelling rig which
would be extra-ordinary. No work has been done to the fuel tank so no reason paper should be in there (and believe the problem
would have manifested itself before if that had been the case!)


Safe to say, I've been left very confused.....
 
Martin1976 said:
Has anyone ever come across paper towel in their fuel tank (which subsequently clogged the fuel uplift pipe) ?

Engine conked out leaving Poole harbour Saturday having arrived from Cowes the previous day where I had brimmed the tanks.
Seastart dragged back to Salterns where my engineer kindly came out on Sunday (with the wife no less having cancelled their
own day out on their boat) to take a look and to his surprise said..."I've found paper in your fuel tank, any idea how it might have
got there?".....Answer...."Absolutely NONE!".....

Boat lives in the dry stack in Hamble (the bottom rung).....so I can only think of fuel theft (where they've cleaned up and pushed
the towel down the filler pipe) or being first to the fuel jetty where paper towel has been left somewhere in the refuelling rig which
would be extra-ordinary. No work has been done to the fuel tank so no reason paper should be in there (and believe the problem
would have manifested itself before if that had been the case!)


Safe to say, I've been left very confused.....
Click to expand...

I like your theory that someone has stuffed some paper towels up the nozzle, perhaps as an (unfunny) practical joke?
 
petem said:
I like your theory that someone has stuffed some paper towels up the nozzle, perhaps as an (unfunny) practical joke?
Click to expand...

Far more likely somebody with twin fuel tanks didnt want fuel spilt on his teak decking when traversing between tanks and the attendant did not remove it
 
petem said:
I like your theory that someone has stuffed some paper towels up the nozzle, perhaps as an (unfunny) practical joke?
Click to expand...

Sometimes if the filler is on the sea ward side folks stuff paper up the nozzle as they man handle the pistol back across the boat to the land .So,s not to spill any , drop any fuel on upholstery etc .
Usually the attendant once handed the pistol , sorts it out .... puts it back removes any tissue etc , gets the price off the screen and so on .
If so perhaps a piece of wet paper broken off a bit deeper inside ( depending on how far it’s was stuffed ? ) .
So even if an experienced attendant took what he/ she thought was all the paper out they inadvertently hung it up with a piece in ready to go into the next customer.
 
Difficult to estimate exactly how much but quite a few sheets.....parts had broken up but some were still pretty intact as the fuel and tank were cleaned and I watch it pass through the see-through lines.....clumps in various different parts of the tank. Only time the tanks have been opened were a year or so ago when i had diesel bug (and that is what I assumed had returned at first!). It isn't a big tank either at 250lts.....
 
A serious question; have you fallen out with anyone who might have access to your boat?
 
Much as the last person I offered...and then lent my hose to put it back on my boat having broken it.....much as the odd person nearby can't be bothered to go and ask the marina to open up a cabinet to plug in their shore power in winter and finds it easier to take someone elses.......not really, it isn't in my nature to fall out with people!!
 
Only work on the tank was diesel bug last year where the tank was completely cleaned (and fuel polished) and boat has had a few hours put on since. Fuel itself was as clean as a whistle with no evidence of diesel bug so can't believe that paper was in there then and given the time, the individual sheets were still relatively intact.
 
what a nightmare. I know a bloke who had all sorts of problems with an engine cutting out and invested a lot of time and money into getting it sorted and it turned out that he had his tanks 'professionally' cleaned after having the bug and they had left a mop head in there.
As everything sloshed around, the mop head would get sucked to the pickup, engine would stop, mop head would drop off and engine could restart and the cycle continued
 
The most important and most problematic find in a fuel tank I found when looking for a fuel starvation problem was a metre length piece of sikkaflex, this was partially sucked up the stack tube .

This was on a sealine Sc 29, this happened again on 2 different boats .
 
Not boat related, but a long time ago my wife had a problem with her MGB (I said it was long time ago!) which kept stopping and then restarting a few minutes later, went to the local garage a couple of times and they were baffled so decided to remove the fuel tank, she rang them up and they said we've found the problem but you have to see for yourself - they had found a golf ball in the tank which had unravelled itself - the strings of rubber kept going up the pipe and blocking it. No idea how the ball got there.
 
I had endless blockages on one tank. constant source of fibrous crud in the filter. Eventually I emptied the tank and cut an inspection hatch in the top. I found the remains of a wooden handle wire brush disintegrating.

I reckon it had been there since Fairey built the boat in 1969.
 
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