Re: [Cal_Boats] Fuel Tank Cleaning (Helen)

To add inspection ports it is obviously easiest to do when the tank is empty and out of the boat depending on what size of a port you want. Location would be best in the middle provided you can access it while the tank is in the boat unless you plan on pulling the tank every time you have a fuel issue. Have not heard of a WVO project. What is it? Paul In a message dated 9/23/2010 12:21:06 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, he… [at] sbcglobal.net writes: Paul, can you retrofit cleanout/inspection ports at this point of emptying the tank and if so is it best to put it in the middle? (diesel tank?) Have you come across many WVO projects in the east coast? Helen From: "pw… [at] aol.com" <pw… [at] aol.com> To: Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com Sent: Wed, September 22, 2010 6:40:46 PM Subject: Re: [Cal_Boats] Fuel Tank Cleaning (Don / all) Don - I am the commercial operator on this list _www.docksidemobilemarineservice.com_ (http://www.docksidemobilemarineservice.com/) and if you want to do it yourself I won't be able to send my son to college :-( So I suggest you sail down thru the Panama Canal and up the East Coast to the Chesapeake and let me take care of it for you. Shouldn't take more than a couple days right? I mean it is a Cal . . .;-) Seriously, you can do it yourself but w/o putting a number to all the stuff you'd need I can't say whether you'd be saving any money or not. I charge $75 an hour and most jobs run about 4 hours but have gone as long as 6. My machine runs at 25gpm with a 1" hose that I neck down to 5/8" so that I can get the pick up and return tube in a sending unit hole. This also increases the velocity which is necessary to stir up all the crap on the bottom which, if you've never had your tank cleaned, can be like the bottom of the oil pan on your car when you have an oil leak and the oil gets hardened with all the crap from the road. On my site I have photos of crap I've pulled out and what it looks like as well as my set up. There is also a page on ethanol and the what you can expect to deal with if you have an older boat. My machine does not use paper filters but instead uses centrifugal force and coalescence to remove 99.9% of all water and solids down to 10 microns. I cleaned a Hans Christian 43 one time and I ran my machine for about 15 min to see what I was getting and the fuel was so black that when I held it up to the sun in a clear glass measuring cup I could not see the sun thru it. I called him and said he'd be better off to get rid of it and let me wipe out the tank since he had a nice 6" inspection port so that's what we did. So what I'd do if I had to do it myself, and this is diesel only, is I would run my tank down until it was about 1/4 full or less then add whatever varnish loosening additive you want and put the whole bottle in. I'd let that sit for a week or so. Then I'd get a piece of PEX tubing long enough to reach all corners of my tank from the sending unit hole. PEX is like PVC but resistant to fuel. If you have baffles there are usually triangular shaped passages at the bottom corners of the tank where with some luck you can get the tube thru. What I do is use this tube to direct air from my air compressor to the bottom of the tank to loosen and suspend all the crap that is sticking to the bottom. As soon as you are thru blowing air into the tank, pump all that crap out and don't worry about a filter as you are going to dispose of it. Then I would add another 1/4 tank of fuel and repeat the process only this time w/o the additive and when you pump it out, pump it thru a filter and a water separator in case there was water in a low area that you couldn't reach when the fuel was pumped out. It should be useable and you can also tell how good of a job you did by the condition of the filter. I'd pump it all out and all back in again thru the filter. After that I'd fill the tank, add the correct amount of fuel additive and circulate the fuel in and out thru the filter for as long as you want. To get rid of the fuel, contact a shop that works on fuel tanks, a diesel mechanic, a company that cleans household oil tanks or that delivers heating oil to houses or sometimes the city dump will sometimes take it as well. Hope that helps. My first boat, an '85 CS 30 was delivered to me from CT to the Delaware Bay and its tank had never been cleaned. The crew left in 35kt winds (a whole other story) and it only got worse. At sometime in the night they had an accidental gybe that took the traveler car right off the end of the track and this was high end Harken hardware. Well, they couldn't run the engine due to a clogged filter and had to jury rig the boom and traveler and sail into the Coast Guard dock in Lewes, De. Bottom line is that your filter never clogs at the dock or on a nice calm day, it is generally at the worst possible time in bad weather when you really need the iron genny. Let me know if anyone has any questions. Paul West Adventure Kwest '80 Cal 39 Dockside Mobile Marine Service Salisbury, MD 443-614-4070 In a message dated 9/22/2010 5:59:20 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, dn… [at] sbcglobal.net writes: I need to do the same on my Cal 33-2. I am especially interested in how to dispose of the old diesel (San Francisco Bay area), and how to clean the inside of the tank! I know we have a commercial operator on this list, but with two daughters in college I want to do it myself. Unless, of course, it actually costs me more to do it on my own. Good subject! Don Dutton, 1986 Cal 33-2, "Quantum Evolution" PS My tank has never been cleaned in the 24 years we have owned her! "Twenty Years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the things you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover." ........Mark Twain From: John <st… [at] embarqmail.com> To: Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com Sent: Wed, September 22, 2010 12:15:06 PM Subject: [Cal_Boats] Fuel Tank Cleaning Any body have tips and tricks on cleaning the fuel tank on my Cal 31? John Stacklyn Cal 31 #33 "Sol Survivor" Shell Point, FL

there are people using filtered waste vegetable oil in all kinds of diesels here in Ca. I think it requires preheating and correct shutting down procedure to work correctly...it gets splashed with diesel. we inadvertently started collecting the clean soy-only stuff from a friend's restaurant and filtering it for a few other friends vehicles, mostly older Mercedes. one guy drives all over the place with it. but I would bet that it could be used incorrectly and make a real mess out of the fuel system. just wondered if you had come across any to repair as a result. One person here thought he could use it to fuel a ferry-type vessel and it would have a french fry smell instead of diesel. Hasn't happened yet. As for the inspection port, we are putting new tanks in one of our boats and we will make them shorter in height so they can be inspected, just wondered best location, for 75 gallon long side tanks, and if baffles go all the way to the top.Helen From: "pw… [at] aol.com" <pw… [at] aol.com> To: Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com Sent: Thu, September 23, 2010 3:07:47 AM Subject: Re: [Cal_Boats] Fuel Tank Cleaning (Helen) To add inspection ports it is obviously easiest to do when the tank is empty and out of the boat depending on what size of a port you want. Location would be best in the middle provided you can access it while the tank is in the boat unless you plan on pulling the tank every time you have a fuel issue. Have not heard of a WVO project. What is it? Paul In a message dated 9/23/2010 12:21:06 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, he… [at] sbcglobal.net writes: >Paul, can you retrofit cleanout/inspection ports at this point of emptying >the tank and if so is it best to put it in the middle? (diesel tank?) Have >you come across many WVO projects in the east coast? Helen > > > > > > From: "pw… [at] aol.com" <pw… [at] aol.com> >To: Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com >Sent: Wed, September 22, 2010 6:40:46 PM >Subject: Re: [Cal_Boats] Fuel Tank Cleaning (Don / all) > > >Don - > >I am the commercial operator on this list >www.docksidemobilemarineservice.com and if you want to do it yourself I >won't be able to send my son to college :-( So I suggest you sail down thru >the Panama Canal and up the East Coast to the Chesapeake and let me take care >of it for you. Shouldn't take more than a couple days right? I mean it is a >Cal . . .;-) > > > >Seriously, you can do it yourself but w/o putting a number to all the stuff >you'd need I can't say whether you'd be saving any money or not. I charge >$75 an hour and most jobs run about 4 hours but have gone as long as 6. My >machine runs at 25gpm with a 1" hose that I neck down to 5/8" so that I can >get the pick up and return tube in a sending unit hole. This also increases >the velocity which is necessary to stir up all the crap on the bottom which, >if you've never had your tank cleaned, can be like the bottom of the oil pan >on your car when you have an oil leak and the oil gets hardened with all the >crap from the road. On my site I have photos of crap I've pulled out and >what it looks like as well as my set up. There is also a page on ethanol and >the what you can expect to deal with if you have an older boat. > >My machine does not use paper filters but instead uses centrifugal force and >coalescence to remove 99.9% of all water and solids down to 10 microns. I >cleaned a Hans Christian 43 one time and I ran my machine for about 15 min to >see what I was getting and the fuel was so black that when I held it up to >the sun in a clear glass measuring cup I could not see the sun thru it. I >called him and said he'd be better off to get rid of it and let me wipe out >the tank since he had a nice 6" inspection port so that's what we did. > >So what I'd do if I had to do it myself, and this is diesel only, is I would >run my tank down until it was about 1/4 full or less then add whatever >varnish loosening additive you want and put the whole bottle in. I'd let that >sit for a week or so. Then I'd get a piece of PEX tubing long enough to >reach all corners of my tank from the sending unit hole. PEX is like PVC but >resistant to fuel. If you have baffles there are usually triangular shaped >passages at the bottom corners of the tank where with some luck you can get >the tube thru. What I do is use this tube to direct air from my air >compressor to the bottom of the tank to loosen and suspend all the crap that >is sticking to the bottom. As soon as you are thru blowing air into the >tank, pump all that crap out and don't worry about a filter as you are going >to dispose of it. > > >Then I would add another 1/4 tank of fuel and repeat the process only this >time w/o the additive and when you pump it out, pump it thru a filter and a >water separator in case there was water in a low area that you couldn't reach >when the fuel was pumped out. It should be useable and you can also tell how >good of a job you did by the condition of the filter. I'd pump it all out >and all back in again thru the filter. After that I'd fill the tank, add the >correct amount of fuel additive and circulate the fuel in and out thru the >filter for as long as you want. > >To get rid of the fuel, contact a shop that works on fuel tanks, a diesel >mechanic, a company that cleans household oil tanks or that delivers heating >oil to houses or sometimes the city dump will sometimes take it as well. Hope >that helps. > >My first boat, an '85 CS 30 was delivered to me from CT to the Delaware Bay >and its tank had never been cleaned. The crew left in 35kt winds (a whole >other story) and it only got worse. At sometime in the night they had an >accidental gybe that took the traveler car right off the end of the track and >this was high end Harken hardware. Well, they couldn't run the engine due to >a clogged filter and had to jury rig the boom and traveler and sail into the >Coast Guard dock in Lewes, De. Bottom line is that your filter never clogs >at the dock or on a nice calm day, it is generally at the worst possible time >in bad weather when you really need the iron genny. > > >Let me know if anyone has any questions. > >Paul West >Adventure Kwest >'80 Cal 39 > >Dockside Mobile Marine Service >Salisbury, MD >443-614-4070 > > > > > > > > >In a message dated 9/22/2010 5:59:20 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, >dn… [at] sbcglobal.net writes: > >> >>I need to do the same on my Cal 33-2. I am especially interested in how to >>dispose of the old diesel (San Francisco Bay area), and how to clean the >>inside of the tank! I know we have a commercial operator on this list, but >>with two daughters in college I want to do it myself. Unless, of course, >>it actually costs me more to do it on my own. Good subject! >> >> Don Dutton, 1986 Cal 33-2, "Quantum Evolution" >> >>PS My tank has never been cleaned in the 24 years we have owned her! >> >> >>"Twenty Years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you >>didn't do than by the things you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail >>away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. >>Dream. Discover." ........Mark Twain >> >> >> >> >> >> From: John <st… [at] embarqmail.com> >>To: Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com >>Sent: Wed, September 22, 2010 12:15:06 PM >>Subject: [Cal_Boats] Fuel Tank Cleaning >> >> >> >>Any body have tips and tricks on cleaning the fuel tank on my Cal 31? >> >>John Stacklyn >>Cal 31 #33 "Sol Survivor" >>Shell Point, FL >> >>

To be able to clean the tanks via an inspection port using my machine I only need 5" between the top of the tank and the deck or whatever is above it. However to visually inspect and clean by hand you'd need to be able to fit your upper torso in that space. Using mirrors you could visually inspect in less area but again, to clean it w/o a machine you'd need room to physically get in there. I'd assume baffles go all the way to the top but may have holes or gaps to allow air movement. The one tank that I've cleaned where I was able to see the top of the tank the baffles did go all the way to the top. These tanks were on a trawler and he had inspection ports cut into the side of his tanks for every section of the tank so he had 3 ports on each tank or 6 potential areas for leaks. Running on vege oil has not taken hold around here. We have enough issues with ethanol. Paul In a message dated 9/23/2010 12:39:42 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, he… [at] sbcglobal.net writes: As for the inspection port, we are putting new tanks in one of our boats and we will make them shorter in height so they can be inspected, just wondered best location, for 75 gallon long side tanks, and if baffles go all the way to the top.Helen