Port fuel tank cleaning

[brico]

I have posted earlier about seeing my Port Racor fuel filter showing murky / strawberry color and pressure gauge showing issues by going into "yellow" range but have never experienced any engine issues or stalling/stopping even when the boat was rolling and rocking heavily. Even the previous owner seem to have posted about this issue many years ago but I seem to have ignored it up until now.

I have 8.5" ( roughly 66 gallons) of fuel left in the tank and with use of the Kolor Kut paste it was showing 1" water. When I opened one of the flanges (the smaller one 5"x5") and reached down to the bottom I could feel the soft settled pudding like matter and managed to see it in my palm as I raised my hand. So I have about 8 gallons of shit and 58 gallons of contaminated fuel. I am OK with getting rid of the fuel. Not a big deal. Are the "Tank cleaning and fuel polishing" companies capable of getting rid of the settled stuff on the bottom of the tank considering all the baffle plates. There is no, or very little dirt stuck on the sides. The 'pudding like stuff easily lifts off the bottom and for a while floats in the fuel, before sitting back on the bottom.

It would be ideal to get the stuff pumped out on a very bumpy ride, but not a reality....

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

[jrmccoy]

A couple of years back I had a fuel cooling tube breech internally and it resulted in the engine pumping about 10 gallons of raw seawater into the fuel tank. It was a nasty mix, but the fuel polishing guys cleaned it. We had several hundred gallons in this tank so it took a while. I’m pretty sure they can use that Venturi tube they put in your tank to agitate and get the bottom muck. When they polish the fuel they are grabbing it from the bottom of the tank, so the muck should go first.