Did it in 2000 to our center 85 gallon
aluminum water tank - has worked for 13 years and many hundreds of gallons of
diesel
We did have a 6"
inspection plate in the top - if you don't have at least that big an opening - you will need it!
- remove
inspection plate
- drilled and installed vent fitting into tank top
- drilled and installed vent outlet on side
hull in appropriate location
- ran vent line from tank to
hull and connected both ends (this was difficult and time consuming)
- tested vent connection with compressed air
- adapt existing fill neck in tank to fuel line and connect fill hose/line
- drilled fill hole in
deck and installed fitting
- ran fill line to appropriate deck space and connected (difficult and time consuming)
- drill and install return port into new tank
- block return port at tank
- tested fill line by running water into tank
- installed inspection plate
- used fill line to overfill with water
- verified vent worked and tank did not leak at return port, vent outlet, fill neck
-
pump all water out
- using towels / rags / sponges - sop up all the water (we could not reach the edges of our tank but it did have a nice sump)
- used a small
electric 1500 watt
heater to blow warm dry air into tank for 24 hours
- poured a quart of alcohol in and sloshed it around
- mopped up all the alcohol
- CAREFULLY inspect tank, by eye and by touch, for metal shavings from drilling
- let air dry for a day
- used 1500 watt
heater to air dry for another day
- using appropriate adapter - connect old water pickup line to fuel line
- installed 2nd set of valves in fuel manifold so that intake and return can come from/go to either tank and either
fuel filter
- run fuel line from fuel pickup at tank to
diesel filter manifold at appropriate valve
- run return line from manifold to new tank
- connect to return tap on tank
- remove inspection plate
- put a gallon of fuel in tank and tested using
lift pump and lined up fuel manifold to return fuel to new tank and then to old tank
- put in another gallon of fuel and tested with diesel running