Fuel Polishing Help...

[skinners1]

A little background:

1985 61' MY w/ 12v71s

Purchased vessel in 2022. Have dual 1000 racors on each engine.

According to PO he never utilized the forward fuel tank, always ran on aft tank. He owned the boat for 6 yrs. Don't know why he didn't alternate.

Fuel gauge shows full in forward tank. IF there is fuel in there it is at least 7 years old. No gauge at helm, only in floor, Impossible to remove gauge and stick it as PO also covered hatch access when replacing floor other than a small hole to visually see gauge.

I am exploring as to a solution that would allow me to utilize the tank, or simply just continue using aft tank.

Option 1 - Run the fuel thru the existing racors and clean as often as necessary to polish the fuel myself (seems risky?)

Option 2 - Locate a reputable company to polish the fuel while the boat is still at the dock. (I am at the end of a T and a very long way from gate access) Haven't located a service in my area (N Myrtle Beach, SC) yet that has water access. (seems expensive$$?)

Need advice from the "Brain Trust" Thanks

 

[jim rosenthal]

Any way to get a sample of what's in the tank in question? Like through the fill pipe, maybe?

 

[SeaEric]

AFAIK Diesel doesn't really "go bad" per se. It's a matter of what is in the tank besides fuel. If the access to the mechanical gauge is large enough to get a big socket on it you should be able to remove it. That would allow you to stick the tank and would also be the access point to polish it.

 

[Captain Ralph]

Heck, let one of the engines draw on it for a few minutes at idle.
You can watch your Racor bowels.
If anything bad comes in the bowel, you turn the engine off and drain that for your sample.

If it seems good, start using it for one of your engines. Anything comes up during operation, you can switch that engine back to your regular tank, flip the Racors and keep going.

Old / clean fuel may loose it's centain quality (like old gas may loose some octane). For high performance running, send that fuel sample to a lab and checked. A centain additive may be helpful getting that value back up.

 

[firbanks]

Previous owner carpeted over all but 2 or 3 of the DOZEN+ hatches on my lower level (67CMY). We've remedied that with Amtico but the hatches covering the tops of fwd and aft keel tanks were definitely covered. I don't regret ripping the carpet up to get to hatches for tank access and future fuel line access...peace of mind!

After pulling carpet we polished the fuel through a buddy's old pair of rebuilt Racor 1000s (Sailorman in Ft Laud has oldies) mounted to plywood on the dock. Used a ~4' PVC pipe on the end of a hose to suck from the bottom of the tank (through the hole for the level gauge) through a DC diesel fuel transfer pump through the racors. Nosing around with the PVC pipe I found a "sump" about the size of ~1-2 measuring cups in the bottom (by feel of course) that was extra gnarly.

The first ~5-10 gallons sucked from the very bottom of each tank went into an opaque drum without going into racor first as it was a mixture of water and muck. We then pumped into the racors and back into the tank fill line. Some might argue I didn't agitate the tank enough but we adjusted the elevation of the suction and did it for a couple days, gradually reducing the filter size from 30 to 10 then down to 2 Micron. Did 500 gallons total for fwd/aft keel tanks then filtered the bottom muck from both tanks between two drums (overnight settling / stratification helped) via 2 micron filters and ended up with about 4-5 gallons of nasty stuff that went to the municipal hazmat disposal and the remainder was perfectly clean and went into the tank.

Not hard, just did it for a while so it was time consuming. It dramatically improved my confidence levels in the fuel quality at the start of my ownership as one of my racors was showing a small amount of water and a bunch of muck and grime. I'll dig up a pic.

 

[firbanks]

To your actual question: Option 2. Protect your engine and injectors but be ready to rip up some flooring to do it.

 

[skinners1]

To your actual question: Option 2. Protect your engine and injectors but be ready to rip up some flooring to do it.

Thank you... Have pretty much determined that the floor in the companionway will be "modified" with better access to tank gauge areas.

Does anyone by chance have dimensions on what was original on these older Hatteras vessels for that? I will most likely put square/rectangular openings here. For the life of me I can't figure why anyone thought this was a good idea...

 

[skinners1]

Heck, let one of the engines draw on it for a few minutes at idle.
You can watch your Racor bowels.
If anything bad comes in the bowel, you turn the engine off and drain that for your sample.

If it seems good, start using it for one of your engines. Anything comes up during operation, you can switch that engine back to your regular tank, flip the Racors and keep going.

Old / clean fuel may loose it's centain quality (like old gas may loose some octane). For high performance running, send that fuel sample to a lab and checked. A centain additive may be helpful getting that value back up.

Captain Ralph, do you by chance know if the Generators, (2) are typically plumbed directly from the forward or aft tanks? If the front, i know my fuel is at least ok to run as both gens purr with no issues... I guess i need to get out my "Hatteras Bible" as I call it and start following the fuel system diagram...

 

[Sadey]

We have the 60’ version and our fuel tank access is the same except they used fuel fill fittings. The PO covered the square access hatches with ugly snap together tiles. We are replacing the floors with Lonseal and ensuring that every hatch is accessible, not just a 2” hole. Your welcome who ever buys her in the future.

 

[Sadey]

According to Hatteras big genny of the aft tank little genny off the forward. At least for our model.

 

[firbanks]

Same with mine. One genset off each tank - forward and aft keel thanks. Our factory original hatches were there under the carpet but just screwed in so they didn’t move under foot under the carpet. Hopefully you are as lucky.

 

[skinners1]

As a follow up:

Removed carpet and BOOM, hatches were in place and intact...

Polished both tanks with system I made based off of a unit another user made (pic attached) sorry I can't remember who it was...

Replaced carpet with LVT and installed Johnny Corners hardware (pic attached)

All good now...

 

[jmooney]

I have the same boat , square hatches are under the carpet . Fine a fuel polishing company, they will do it fairly quickly. If they are nice , they will charge you for their time. If not , you will be charged by the gallon. I wonder why only the aft tank was used ? I would suspect a bad leak in a fuel line or pickup tube, which will suck a lot of air into the fuel . If you have a polishing company come , be sure to clean both tanks. I am amazed what people will cover over in boats . I have seen stabilizer units completely covered over and inaccessible.

 

[skinners1]

I have the same boat , square hatches are under the carpet . Fine a fuel polishing company, they will do it fairly quickly. If they are nice , they will charge you for their time. If not , you will be charged by the gallon. I wonder why only the aft tank was used ? I would suspect a bad leak in a fuel line or pickup tube, which will suck a lot of air into the fuel . If you have a polishing company come , be sure to clean both tanks. I am amazed what people will cover over in boats . I have seen stabilizer units completely covered over and inaccessible.

PO just never utilized other than the genny that is hard plumbed (never had issues). I used the polishing system I made (copper pipe into tank for pickup to ensure I reached as much area as possible) and cleaned both tanks, total of about 5 hrs of run on each tank. Surprisingly only changed filters between each tank and also surprisingly they weren’t as bad as I anticipated