1977 58 Hatteras LRC fuel polishing

[racclarkson@gmail.com]

Agreeing with JM and John's points, you don't know what you don't know. The sediment bowls will tell the story right quickly. Running one filter per motor allows a change on the fly, and carrying extra filters allows multiple repeats if the fuel starts looking bad. You also have the ability to determine if poor quality fuel is isolated in a particular tank or uniform throughout. I had some scummy fuel in Aslan's forward tank, while the main tank has never given a hint of junk. As posted, the Detroits turnover so much fuel that they might as well have advertised built-in fuel polishing at no extra charge.

But then again confidence can be a fragile commodity, and polishing clean fuel never hurt anything other than the wallet.

[Glory]

Think giving advice on polishing isn't a good idea without knowing the boat history.
We bought our 50c which was docked in Ft Lauderdale in 1985, the boat had been sitting for quite sometime but we didn't know actually how long.
After closing we took it for some rides but nothing more than a few hours, and never in any rough seas.
Anyway, filled it up to bring it north, left in the early morning, changed the Racors 8 or 9 times before we gave up and headed ended into Palm Beach to regroup.
Used up almost all of our 20 filters we had with us as we knew there would be fuel issues because the boat had been sitting.
Between the fill up and the motion of the ocean the algae started releasing from the tank walls.
Brought in a polisher and they couldn't get the crap thru their filters, ended up pumping it all out.
Cut an 8 or 10 inch hole in each tank, then they used some recovered fuel to put back in to clean with and then vacuum out off the tank bottom.
Buttoned everything up, put some fuel in it and headed north, each day got longer between filter changes, think the last day we only changed them once.

I have my opinion, based on the data supplied. It can be ignored, questioned, ridiculed or tried. My goal was to help.

[Cricket]

Posted my real world experience with diesel fuel disaster as insight to what can happen and did happen to us.
Fortunately we had enough filters, knowledge and bodies on board to make the 50 miles that we did that day.
We were only getting 5-7 miles between changes doing hull speed at the most, and that was with the 12v71n engines.
Scott is spot on regarding the use of a biocide not until things have cleaned up.
After we got the boat home from the original trip we puled our new inspection plates and vacuumed the bottom of the tanks sucking out more crud.
Then we started with the biocide the rest of that summer, my memory is it took quite a few canyon trips before everything cleaned up, still clean 35 years later.

[mcdaniel]

We offer Fuel Polishing if anyone needs that service in the state of Florida. Kraken Marine Service, you can find us on Facebook!

Onboard fuel polishing systems aren't large enough to have the GPM pressures to mix the fuel well enough to stay on top of the Biofilm activities (with the exception of the one posted in this Forum, THAT ladies and Gentlemen is a thing of BEAUTY!)

We can come clean your tank and fuel in an afternoon, or morning . . depending on what time you get up!

Look us up!