Greenish Black Diesel Fuel in bottom of Racor

[steve1366]

My diesel fuel went bad on my 1984 Hunter 31 I bought last December. I know I have to get the old fuel out of the tank, change filters and add conditioners. Do I need to go the route of pulling the tank and having it steamed out? If I do not pull the tank, how do I get the grunge out of the bottom? I would appreciate any feedback from anyone who has had this problem.Thanks

 

[Mark M Smith]

Here is how i did it

on the very same boat.I bought one of those 12volt oil pumps and climbed down in to the tank area, removed the fuel fill hose stuck in the suction end of the pump and emptied the tank into 2 6 gallon fuel tanks.Had to keep emptying the fuel tanks but it wasn't too bad at all.Once all of my bad fuel was removed I added a little fresh fuel and emptied that just to be sure.Changed all filters cranked it right up still runs great.Link Below for the 12volt pump (I used)

 

[Bill O'Donovan]

Whoa...

Greenish blackish sounds about right for fuel in the filter. It seems to be doing its job. Are you sure fuel is bad? How could that happen?

 

[Steve Dion]

Smart Solution.

Mark:That seems like the smartest solution that I have heard about cleaning the fuel tank. Some of the sailors want to go to the expense of polishing the fuel ($200-300). I personally do not think that it is work the effort. It would be different if you had a 100 gal tank, but for 20-25 gals, why bother.You could probably build one of these units and leave it hooked up permanently if someone really wanted to do it. They could then just let the thing run for a few hours every month to clean the fuel while they are at the dock.Pumping it out and disposing of the fuel sounds like the easiest and cheapest solution to the problem. Then it is just a matter of keeping it from happening again.