1977 58 Hatteras LRC fuel polishing

[Comodave]

New to the forum as far as posting anyway. We looked at a 58 LRC and I am wondering about getting the fuel polished due to the sheer volume that can be carried aboard. Am I wrong in assuming that Hatteras made provisions for fuel tank access, like opening cleaning ports? Has anyone ever done polishing on a 58 LRC? Thanks in advance.

 

[Boatsb]

Lots of options.

Bring in a service provider first to do the big cleaning. Then install a polishing system that can maintain it.

 

[Glory]

Even if there is not an existing problem, I do not think you would get much benifit;
1) The tank covers are tough to remove, it is a 30+ year old boat
2) Each tank will have baffles, preventing a complete job from being done
3) Your engines return about 40 gallons per hour, even with the 4-71s, at cruise

My boat had fuel in the aft tank for more than 12 years when I purchased the boat, I treated the fuel, used it away from tight quarters, so not to have an engine die in a fairway or some other challenging spot.

A few racor filters later. All is fine.

The 6-71s likely return more than 50 gallons per hour, with either engine you are polishing all the time. And under way in rough conditions the fuel is moving around in the tank.

The 58 LRC, a dream of mine. Good luck.

 

[Cricket]

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.

 

[JD5652]

There is fuel tank access on each tank that could be used to perform polishing through the local fuel gauge. Each tank has a gauge on top of the tank that has hatch access.

According to the DD Engine manual, the 6-71 fuel flow is 54 gal/hr at no-load and about 90 gal/hr at full load. So depending upon how you run your vessel and how long your average trip, you will turn over the fuel in most of the tanks with exception of the 1200 gal tank. And if you have a long trip or multi-day trip, you will turn over the fuel in the 1200 gal tank.

On my 58 LRC, I have the Racor twin filter manifold that can be "hot swapped" on the fly. I also have fuel filter pressure gauges so I can tell when I have a dirty filter and can change the filter before the flow is restricted to the point of shutting an engine down.

I also have a fuel manifold that allows any combination of fuel supply and return to any tank. If you wanted to install a fuel polishing system to augment the "natural" polishing of the fuel while operating, you could plumb that system into the fuel manifold.

However, I am comfortable with my setup and do not plan on installing a stand alone fuel polishing system.

 

[Comodave]

I think that the boat has been sitting for a while and only short day trips a couple times a year before that and with the volume of fuel I am concerned that the tanks could have quite a bit of crap in them. I assumed that Hatteras would have put in access ports in the tanks, but I don’t know. Thanks to all who have replied so far.

 

[rsmith]

I understand some of the better fuel polishers are agitating the fuel by putting a bubbler line in the tank. You need to make sure the polisher puts a suctioning tube all the way to the bottom of the tank. Many of these guys cheat and use the fuel pickup tube. It does not go to the bottom of the tank. They need to get every drop of water out. The algae doesn’t grow in the fuel it grows on the water fuel interface. As it dies it floats up into the fuel. After a period of time it settles to the bottom. Worst thing you can do is dump biocides into a dirty tank. It will kill the algae making things way worse. Get the tanks clean then go with a routine biocide treatment.

 

[jmooney]

Our boat sits a lot , although we do take it out for a few hours every 3 weeks or so. I have a friend who has a tank cleaning service clean the fuel about every 3-4 years. Not much in the tanks last time. We use the fuel sender opening and return through the fuel filler. He uses a wand will pressure the try to wash the fuel tank walls with pressure. Baffles make this difficult. I thought about cutting inspection ports , but without plans for the tanks which would show baffle positions , this could be a waste of time. I thought of installing a fuel polishing system, but it would need a dedicated return and intake tube at each end of the tanks on the bottom to be truly effective. The too hard light came on. I think reasonable use and changing the filters will take of most problems. If a boat is sitting for a long time , definitely use a good fuel cleaning service. The stories my fuel cleaning friend tells would fill a book. A lot of people who buy a bargain boat use nothing optimism to try to get it home.

 

[Scarlett]

I had some gunk in my fuel when I bought the boat. I decided to run 10 Micron filters to help clean it up. They left a lot of stuff in the Racor bowels that had to be removed occasionally. Now that the fuel is fairly clean and the 10 microns filters seemed to work fine, I just stayed with them. John

 

[Cricket]

Our fuel polisher set up, added pickups that go to the tank bottom and a return to all 3 tanks. The manifold allows us to move fuel around as needed.

 

[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!