Fuel Tank

[Brian]

Ok experts I need help. Had a problem with my legened 35 recently where it was losing power and would quit altogether at low rpm. Changed the fuel filters and it would run great for about 45 minutes then it would, lose power, black soot would come out of the exhaust and would try to die at low rpm. Mechanic comes out and tells me it is most lilley the injectors or injector pumps and he desides they need rebuilding. Have all that done and sea trial the boat for a couple of hours and no problem...Then I head south and 45 minutes later it does the exact same thing (700 bucks later) I lost faith with that mechanic and called my local guy to come take a look. He said he suspected bad fuel and put a temporary tank with clean fuel and sent me on my way. Ran for 8 hours without a hitch till Ipumped so old fuel into the temporary tank and it started acting up again... anyway, my guy has my tank out now for a cleaning but says that he can't get all the trash out of there and that I need a new one.Do they symptoms indicate a need for a new tank? If so, any ideas on where to get one? (He says it is about 500 dollars for a new one)Or, any ideas on a better way to clean the tank that this guy may not know about?ThanksBrianFlyBri737@aol.com

 

[Dean Strong]

Clean it yourself

I got this advice from the archives, and it worked well. I was having the same problem on my hunter 30. I cut a 4 inch inspection port in the top of the tank. Pump out all of the fuel into jerry cans or tanks. Use one of the pumps that fits on a drill...$20 at West Marine. Throw the old fuel away...diesel is cheap...but save enough off the top to get you to the gas dock. Then just clean the tank with rags. You can get a lot of the grime and remaining fuel out with absorption pads. Then just wipe it out with clean rags. I cleaned it until white rags came out white.They wanted $500 to clean my tank and filter the fuel. I did the job for about $40. No problems since! You don't need a new tank.

 

[Tom]

I had a similar problem that turned out to be air in the line from a small crack in the top threads of the pickup tube.... However.. they cleaned our tank during the search for the problem and that's when they added a fuel tank gage by drilling a 1 1/2 inch hole for the sending unit which also allowed a larger hole to get into the tank for cleaning... maybe this will work for you.

 

[Sam Lust]

SCRUB!!!

Cut a hole, stick your hand and some detergent in there with a scrub brush and scrub it out. It WILL come clean. Then put the $500.00 into finding a good mechanic or send it to me. You do not need a new tank

 

[David Priestly]

Cleaning Fuel Tank

Brian, I cleaned the fuel tank on my 33.5 a few years ago. I syphoned the contaminated fuel into plastic fuel containers. I removed the entire plastic fuel tank from the lazerette. After pressure washing, I allowed the tank to dry and then reinstalled.