Diesel Tank Drain???

[Don Curt]

I don't see a drain in the diesel tank on my 336. It also does not appear on the drawings. Every article I read talks about draining the tank of water sediment on a regular basis.Anyone have any suggestions? What are you doing?

 

[Paul Akers]

Fuel tanks...

...cannot have lower drains on them (by law). Generally one would have to vacuum the contents out via a top orifice. You may be interested in installing a water separator in your fuel line. Racor is one brand. This will allow water to settle into a holding container (which can be viewed and emptied) as it's drawn through the fuel line and into the engine.

 

[Alex]

Inspaction port ?

The good half of diesel and water tanks instalations ,should have atleast eassily accessed inspection ports, openings large enough to have a hand and/or some tools inserted , specificly for cleaning and draining porpuse.Sadly , not all instalations ,( mainly 'mass production ' boats' ones) follow these guide lines , probably from financial reasons..

 

[Doug]

Some ideas and experience for you

On our 33.5 we do a couple of things.First, the biggest baddest fuel filter/water separator you can install is the Racor 500 series. It has a large, clear plastic bowl at bottom allowing you to see sediment and water, you can open the drain at bottom of filter to drain water. I would highly recommend installing one. They cost about 150.00 and will take an hour or two depending on placement and adaption of fuel lines.The next step during colder months is to fill up tank completely. We only keep about 5 gallons or so during warmer months to reduce weight aft and to the starboard side (decreasing list). The reason to top her off is to decrease potential for condensation inside tank. If the temp outside and inside you tank differ, condenstation will form on area inside tank that is empty.If you do this and burn lots of fuel in warmer months, you don't need to drain. If you do need to drain, I will tell you how we have done it. You may be able to run a tube down you fill. If you can't, like us, you will need to take a filling off the top of tank and run in from there. Get a cheap (20 bucks) jabsco pump that hooks to a power drill. start suckin.Have fun.Doug

 

[Dave Jenks]

Have Fuel In Tank Filtered

We recently had a problem of water in our fuel on our H280 and had to change the elements in our Racor filter/separator quite often and had the engine quiting on us because of water getting by the Racor. We had a company, that cleans fuel tanks, come to our boat and run the fuel through filters taking water and any impurities out of the fuel. I plan to repeat this process every couple of years from now on. We have been told by these experts that the fuel tank should be topped off as much as possible to prevent condensation from forming in the tank.