Quote:
Originally Posted by er9
is it possible to drill a small hole into an aluminum fuel tank with fuel still in it? im pretty sure they sell non sparking drill bits but not sure of the wisdom of doing this. i have the exact same problem but tank is not in the keel and hour meter is not working.
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Actually, drilling into an MT tank with an explosive mixture of vapors is what will kill you.
So, if the fuel is
Diesel Oil, you have a few of options:
1) Drill into a completely full tank. Keep diapers and a fire extinguisher handy. Turn OFF the
bilge pump.
2) Cover the
diesel in a partially full tank with CO2 from a fire extinguisher and then seal the vent line, (in the old days, on ships, I’ve heard they did this with a loaf of bread
) Then drill. Of course we used an explosemeter to make sure. But if you really can purge the gaseous volume above the fuel of O2, you can do hot-work.
3) The proper way, of course, would be to MT and gas-free the tank.
If the fuel is gasoline, #3 is the only way to go.
I’m not suggesting any of these, (except #3), because if one does not know what he is doing there may not be a happy ending. These are just things that I might consider for myself.
Liquid diesel at room temperature is hard to light. But volatile vapors from additives or ?? Would still worry me. Gasoline will blow up if you look at it wrong.