Fuel Tank ?

[VCinRI]

I have owned my 27' Sailfish for 2 seasons. The previous owner told me he had not used the auxiliary fuel tank in some time and was empty and dry.

I have been avoiding using it due to a concern of potential problems offshore while converting over from the main tank.

Does anyone have any advice as to what I could do to confirm there is no sediment and the tank is working properly?

From what I can see the switch over will consist of turning the inline fuel valves to aux. position and the console switch to aux. as well. Is re priming also necessary?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
VC

 

[freddy063]

If you’re worried about the fuel being bad and stopping both motors, first take spare fuel filters, next I added inline clear filters in both lines so I can see the fuel and tell if it’s got gunk in it. (have spare of them too, and install the inline before the other filters) and put one motor on each tank, so if it bad it only effects one motor. Do you have the power primers or did you install the hand squeeze type? Oh , if there’s no air in the lines you shouldn't have to prime, the switch on the dash is only for the fuel gauges. And the vales back by the filters just switch like they are marked.

 

[Pez Vela]

Aux tank switchover

You might want to first examine your external Racor fuel filter and replace it if it is dirty. Then, you could put a couple of gallons of fuel in the auxiliary tank, disconnect its fuel line at a convenient point, and (using your primer bulb) pump some fuel into a bucket for a second examination of the Racor fuel filter, its bowl, and the fuel in the bucket. If so far so good, you might fire up your engines, but switch only one of them (you've got two, right?) over to the auxiliary tank at, or very near, your dock, just in case anything does go wrong ... go wrong ... go wrong. I would do this with some degree of confidence, but only if you have an external Racor fuel filter to catch potential contaminants. Your safety and convenience are thus protected along with your precious motors. If you want to go a step further, you could remove the engine cowling to observe the engine mounted fuel filter while you're idling at your dock. I'm sure there are other options to provide the peace of mind you're looking for.

 

[LI Grady]

I agree with the others but would add the following:

First have a mechanic pressure test the tank for leaks. If the prior owner never used the tank there is always the chance the was a reason for it other then lack of need and/or desire to carry the extra weight

If the tank tests fine then I'd fill it up about a 1/4 of the way and have the fuel polished. The fuel sloshing around inside the tank will act as a cleaner and the polishing will remove anything it picks up like sediment and gunk.

 

[eppem]

Open up the deck hatches and see what kind of access you have to the tanks. You should be able to unscrew the sender unit / gas gauge and thru that hole take a peak at the fuel..use flashlight and look at it, it should be clear. If there is gunk or water you will see if floating under the gas. Easiest and safest way to remove it (not the fasted), is to build yourself a hand pump with copper pipe, some clear tubing and a primer (hand pump)...tape the tube to the copper pipe, bend the pipe a tad to reach as far aft as you can (and of course down into the bottom of the tank) in the tank and start pumping the "bad" gas into a regular gas can.

Get a filter from west marine and filter the bad gas into another can, you can burn that gas in your truck, lawnmower, etc. Works like a charm PM if you need help.

I used this to pump "bad" gas out of a tank on our last boat when the switch was made to E10 in CT.

Now I use it on our 265 Express. We have two tanks, use the front tank all the time and fill it for the winter and use stabil. The back tank we only use for long hauls offshore, so that tank is ran as emptly as possible and then I had pump out the rest of the fuel. There is a little that will slosh around so I dump some more stabil on that just in case.

Works great, no problems.