Outrageous Fuel Tank Idea

[Chief Engineer]

There is an odd glow in his eyes.

Maybe he is going to turn into a Super-Hero...

(Although he already is in my eyes)

[hummingway]

Originally Posted by Chief Engineer

There is an odd glow in his eyes.

Maybe he is going to turn into a Super-Hero...

(Although he already is in my eyes)

[osirissail]

Originally Posted by Anzo

. . . I added (glassed in) a separate copper tube into the top of the tank which extends all the way to the bottom, end of tube angled to about 30 degrees. It has a screw top fitting. If I want to drain sediment or just the entire tank, I can attach a garden hose fitting and use a little fuel transfer pump or whatever to drain.

Now that is an idea I like - - with a FRG integral tank the aft end is usually the lowest. With baffles through the tank is is virtually impossible to get to the forward part of the tank to clean it. So having a dedicated pipe in the lowest portion would be great to efficiently suck out the debris and water, etc.
- - I have the Racor 500's with turbine separation and about every 6 months there is an accumulation of water and black goop in the bowl that has to be drained and then cleaned from the filter assembly.

[ggray]

Originally Posted by witzgall

Both our westerly and Wauquiez have their fuel pickups at the bottom of one of the sides - perhaps a cm or two from the bottom.

Chris

That sounds like how the diesel tank on our Voyage cat was plumbed--right off the side near the bottom.
That also is one thing that I had changed when I pulled the tank a few years ago. I had all openings other than thru the top blanked off. Fuel feed, drain bung, and sight tube. Thought these were frowned upon anyway, but I did it just for my piece of mind.

[David M]

Originally Posted by perchance

What do you think? The web site is a little thin on facts and figures and long on scientific gobbledygook. Could be nothing more than snake oil but if true could have some merit.

Misapplied physics terms combined with percentages out to the second decimal place is not a good sign for it being a legitimate product.

http://www.combustivecontrolsystems.us/

[Wand]

Originally Posted by rebel heart

Run the fuel low, open up the inspection ports, stick your arm in, wipe with paper towels. Takes half a day. It's simple, you know the tank is clean, and even if you have a polishing system or whatever you still need to clean your tanks. And if your tanks are clean, you don't need to polish the fuel. My Racors are sitting there looking beautiful with nothing in the bowls and we were on a beat through some steep swells for several hours.

I like the KISS approach and this is a good example of it. Wondering though Rebel whether you've figured how often this needs to be done. That is, how often do you inspect the tank and how long have you found you get between cleans?

[David M]

It's not so much where the outlet tube is placed but how industrial grade of a filtration system that you have that matters. The more crud and water it can handle and the more often you change your filters, the less of a chance for problems.

[Wand]

Originally Posted by delmarrey

You may be right! I've spent a few hours in research and here is a load of documents that are related to diesel fuel and/or tanks. There's a huge amount on gasoline but that's another subject.
Diesel tanks seem to have a lot of exemptions to gasoline tanks. So enjoy the read and be sure to discriminate between gas and diesel in the lines. some of it is mixed. This is all I could find related to diesel! opcornThat's it!

Delmarrey, your rich talents as a research assistant are wasted on this site - and on the likes of me. So many many thanks but... wondering, could you drop all that down to a three sentence precis for me?

[capngeo]

Laugh if you will, but when my built-in aluminum diesel tank went to tank heaven, I installed an outboard type fitting to the hose and just use the typical 6 gallon poly tanks in the lazz. There is enough room for 4 tanks in there and many more can be deck loaded. I just swap them out as I empty them AND can buy landside offroad fuel at $0.50 less than at the marina!

[delmarrey]

Originally Posted by At sea

Delmarrey, your rich talents as a research assistant are wasted on this site - and on the likes of me. So many many thanks but... wondering, could you drop all that down to a three sentence precis for me?

Here, this is about as simple as it gets. This is for gasoline but it's applicable to diesel as well. This makes 3 sentences.