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Do your own polishing !!!!!!
Do your own polishing! But recognize that the need for fuel polishing is a symptom of a tank 'gone very bad'. Polishing only restores the quality of the oil; but, not whats 'growing' on the tank walls. If you dont clean the walls, every time this 'crud' gets knocked off the tank walls you will be back to square one. The ONLY sure way to clean a tank is to remove the fuel and get in there with a long handled brush and break loose all the bacterial scum, polymerized oil and rust 'blooms'. If you dont do this first you will need to polish forever. A high pressure washer will do the same thing as scrubbing .... but what do you do with the oil contaminated wash water? After scrubbing, simply take paper towels and rags and rub the tank internals until clean, then burn the stuff. Give the old oil away, put it in your oil burner at home or sell it to the marina at a bargain rate for usage in their oil burner. Put in fresh. You can build your own polishing system made of common hardware store parts: An 'ametck-type' polypropylene filter housing configured for double open ended (DOE) filter cartridges 2.5" dia. X 10 inch long dimensions. Change the hardware store O-rings to EPDM (ethylenediaminemonomer (go to a 'gasket supply'. Get a Walbro 12v diesel transfer pump. www.belgoes.com (near Owings Mills) used to supply such pumps but apparently are out of business. Choose cheapy 'spun-bonded' polypropylene filter cartridges at ~ 15 to 20 micrometer (nominal) retention - get several as these will only have about 50 grams of 'dirt capacity'. Fill tank 1/2 full with NEW fuel, make a diptube from soft copper tube and run it TO the pump, connect the filter DOWNSTREAM of the pump and the discharge of the filter back to the tank. DO NOT put the filter on the suction side of the pump. All connections can be common hardware copper fittings. Use teflon tape to seal the joints and threads. Pump for a few hours, etc. until a sample of oil held in front of a bright light in a clear glass cup, etc. is crystal clear (no haze). Change filter cartridges when the pump flow decays. DO NOT use finer filter retention ratings than 15-20 uM as the turnover rate will be tooooo slow and will take nearly forever to clean up the oil. With sufficient tank 'turnovers' the 15-20uM filter will yield only submicronic particles left in the tank. (A 15-20µM filter has a small % retention rating at very small sizes; and, since a 15-20uM filter has 10-20 times the flow capacity of a 2uM filter, the recirculation 'turnover' will be MUCH faster and the polishing to the final quality will be much faster.) The whole 'shebang' will be less in cost than what it normally costs for a simple 'polish' by a commercial service .... and you will own it for many years. You can make this a permanent installation and polish anytime you take on NEW fuel, are in a heavy sea state that sloshes fuel, or just for periodic routine maintenance. The periodic maintenance will be the benefit .... you can put a valve/cock on the bottom of the filter bowl and use this as a water trap. Caution - do NOT connect the discharge line from the polishing system to the tank vent. If this description isnt clear, contact me @ rhmpl33@att.net and I'll send you (or anyone else) a diagram. Once you get the tank clean and the fuel polished, ONLY buy fresh fuel from a 'high-turnover' fuel source (fuel oil has a definite shelf life) and only take onboard what you acutally NEED plus some reserve for safety. .... dont fill a tank and let it sit unused for months. hope this helps.
Do your own polishing! But recognize that the need for fuel polishing is a symptom of a tank 'gone very bad'. Polishing only restores the quality of the oil; but, not whats 'growing' on the tank walls. If you dont clean the walls, every time this 'crud' gets knocked off the tank walls you will be back to square one. The ONLY sure way to clean a tank is to remove the fuel and get in there with a long handled brush and break loose all the bacterial scum, polymerized oil and rust 'blooms'. If you dont do this first you will need to polish forever. A high pressure washer will do the same thing as scrubbing .... but what do you do with the oil contaminated wash water? After scrubbing, simply take paper towels and rags and rub the tank internals until clean, then burn the stuff. Give the old oil away, put it in your oil burner at home or sell it to the marina at a bargain rate for usage in their oil burner. Put in fresh. You can build your own polishing system made of common hardware store parts: An 'ametck-type' polypropylene filter housing configured for double open ended (DOE) filter cartridges 2.5" dia. X 10 inch long dimensions. Change the hardware store O-rings to EPDM (ethylenediaminemonomer (go to a 'gasket supply'. Get a Walbro 12v diesel transfer pump. www.belgoes.com (near Owings Mills) used to supply such pumps but apparently are out of business. Choose cheapy 'spun-bonded' polypropylene filter cartridges at ~ 15 to 20 micrometer (nominal) retention - get several as these will only have about 50 grams of 'dirt capacity'. Fill tank 1/2 full with NEW fuel, make a diptube from soft copper tube and run it TO the pump, connect the filter DOWNSTREAM of the pump and the discharge of the filter back to the tank. DO NOT put the filter on the suction side of the pump. All connections can be common hardware copper fittings. Use teflon tape to seal the joints and threads. Pump for a few hours, etc. until a sample of oil held in front of a bright light in a clear glass cup, etc. is crystal clear (no haze). Change filter cartridges when the pump flow decays. DO NOT use finer filter retention ratings than 15-20 uM as the turnover rate will be tooooo slow and will take nearly forever to clean up the oil. With sufficient tank 'turnovers' the 15-20uM filter will yield only submicronic particles left in the tank. (A 15-20µM filter has a small % retention rating at very small sizes; and, since a 15-20uM filter has 10-20 times the flow capacity of a 2uM filter, the recirculation 'turnover' will be MUCH faster and the polishing to the final quality will be much faster.) The whole 'shebang' will be less in cost than what it normally costs for a simple 'polish' by a commercial service .... and you will own it for many years. You can make this a permanent installation and polish anytime you take on NEW fuel, are in a heavy sea state that sloshes fuel, or just for periodic routine maintenance. The periodic maintenance will be the benefit .... you can put a valve/cock on the bottom of the filter bowl and use this as a water trap. Caution - do NOT connect the discharge line from the polishing system to the tank vent. If this description isnt clear, contact me @ rhmpl33@att.net and I'll send you (or anyone else) a diagram. Once you get the tank clean and the fuel polished, ONLY buy fresh fuel from a 'high-turnover' fuel source (fuel oil has a definite shelf life) and only take onboard what you acutally NEED plus some reserve for safety. .... dont fill a tank and let it sit unused for months. hope this helps.
'Clean Fuels'
There's a company in Annapolis called 'Clean Fuels' that was recommended to me buy a marine engine surveyor.
There's a company in Annapolis called 'Clean Fuels' that was recommended to me buy a marine engine surveyor.
Yank the tank
Most sail boats use only 10 gallons or less of fuel a year. Why have a 30 gallon or larger tank??? Yank the tank and put in two new tanks. #1 tank is about 5-10 gallons and is your primary tank. Tank #2 is larger and usually sits clean and dry. Fill it up only for the big cruise to the islands. Never have old fuel that needs to be polished. If the oldtank is full of crap it is probably corroded also and will need to be replaced in the near future anyway. Buy a west marine fuel filter. It will filter out free water and crud before it gets into your tank. It's just stupid to have a large tank full of old fuel. No matter how much polishing you do to the old stuff it will never be equal to fresh fuel. Plan to never let fuel sit in your tank more than a couple of months. Tom
Most sail boats use only 10 gallons or less of fuel a year. Why have a 30 gallon or larger tank??? Yank the tank and put in two new tanks. #1 tank is about 5-10 gallons and is your primary tank. Tank #2 is larger and usually sits clean and dry. Fill it up only for the big cruise to the islands. Never have old fuel that needs to be polished. If the oldtank is full of crap it is probably corroded also and will need to be replaced in the near future anyway. Buy a west marine fuel filter. It will filter out free water and crud before it gets into your tank. It's just stupid to have a large tank full of old fuel. No matter how much polishing you do to the old stuff it will never be equal to fresh fuel. Plan to never let fuel sit in your tank more than a couple of months. Tom
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