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fuel tank access ports

Navman

Member III
Hello all,
I have a 1986 E-38. The boat sat for a year and a half with a half full tank prior to our purchasing her. During the delivery home of some 450+ miles I had to do two filter changes. This was after I filled up the tank. I am currently trying to run the tank down to 10-15 gallons so I can pump it out. My initial though was to build a DIY portable fuel polisher and circulate/ spray the tank clean. However with the baffles I do not believe the cleaning would be very thorough. In an effort to see exactly what was going on in my tank, I opened up the cover on top of the tank for the fuel gauge, I looked inside the tank and saw lots of junk on the bottom of the tank. This would explain my frequent need for filter changes. The walls areas which I could see appeared to be clean. I would like to cut and install access ports for the baffled portions of the tank. My biggest question is How do I determine where the baffles are located? I want to position the access ports so they are in the middle of the compartments. I wish to be able to simply drain down the fuel and hand clean the interior of the tank and its baffle areas. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Navman

SV Optimist II
 

Glyn Judson

Moderator
Moderator
We were baffled too.

Dear friend, Our tank also has two baffles and I had the same thought when we hired a fellow to polish the fuel. First of all he drained what little was left in the tank and poured in a gallon or more of lacquer thinner. He swished that around as best as he could in the one accessible tank area and then cleverly used a compressed air line with a soft copper tubing line attached at the end. He was able to shape the tubing every which way ignored to get past the baffles and stir up the crud with compressed air. He sucked all the slurry out and replaced it with five gallons of diesel fuel that he used to move the crud out and into three gigantic clear plastic filters on the dock. The first filter got al the big stuff and the fuel progressed to the final one, getting cleaner at each stage. You might want to try a variation of his method. Glyn Judson, E31 hull #55, Marina del Rey CA
 

markvone

Sustaining Member
I just added 4 access ports to my tank. My tank is a 1990 replacement in 18ga stainless by Vic Berry Sheet Metal of Costa Mesa, CA who made the original factory tanks. It is easy to see the line of spot welds for each baffle. I don't know if the factory aluminum tanks had the baffle welds visible through the thicker aluminum. Here is a link to a post here where "MarkA" added access plates to his aluminum tank. You could contact him direct or he may chime in with info. I can't see the spot welds or obvious seam in his tank pictures (post #37, 44, 50) in the link below but he didn't mention having difficulty figuring it out.

http://www.ericsonyachts.org/infoexchange/showthread.php?10330-Fuel-Polishing-ASAP/page3

Another option is to contact Vic Berry and see if they have the dimensions from their drawings for the original factory tank. The baffles should be pretty evenly spaced inside the tank.
 

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TakeFive

Member II
I bought a boat that was on the hard for several years and PO did not add any biocide to tank. Not a pretty sight.
I decided to polish it. I bought a used Holley red electric fuel pump on ebay, added a second racor 500 fuel filter, and let it run for a few hours.
It was an improvement, but bottom of tank was still full of sludge. I then used the Holley alone as a tank cleaner by using one hose as a spray wand.
Hose was small enough in diameter to get through the baffle openings. Tank is now sludge free so I consider the job a success and I now have the ability to empty the tank or polish the fuel if ever needed again. The 20 gal of contaminated fuel went to the toxic waste drop off facility.

Adding access ports seemed like a major job and I already have a long list so that idea didn't last long.
 
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