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Old 08-29-2010, 10:28 AM   #21
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First Cruise

John,Let me address two issues in your post.
1st: The aux tank was polished prior to survey but was not done correctly. The equipment failed during the polishing and was never corrected. I prefer to polish the fuel myself because I will know what it's condition will be. I plan on using a DC pump to suck fuel through both my racors set up in parallel starting with 30 micron and finishing with 5 micron. This may take 12 hours per tank, but so be it. I will also inject a small amount of air from a compressor next to the fuel pickup to stir up the sediment and hopefully get everything. I don't think the pro polishers will go to that extent or spend that amount of time.
You're probably right about the liability and renting a unit. I'm going to call around Monday to see, but have somewhat resigned myself into building a polisher myself using my existing racors and a fuel pump.
The mechanic working on the boat prior to purchase started the port engine for some testing and when he saw a slight amount of unburned diesel coming out the raw water exhaust I thought he was going to have a heart attack. He kept looking around to see if anybody noticed. This country has it's priorities so screwed up. We won't spend the money to hire enough well drilling inspectors to ensure drilling is safe, but we will intimidate a*recreational*boat owner if he drops a single drop of oil in a lake or ocean.


Issue #2: Valvtect.
I started a thread about valvtect on the sea ray forum see*http://clubsearay.com/forum/showthread.php?t=33798
I'll let you draw your own conclusions about valvtect after reading this. The owner of valvtect chimed in along with some other very knowledgeable people. I'll warn you it's a bit lengthy, but very informative.
I contacted Power Service a company that makes diesel fuel additives. They gave me a recommend procedure and product to use for my situation and mentioned that their product can be added in the recommend doses even if valvtect is in the tank.


Tim


-- Edited by timjet on Sunday 29th of August 2010 11:31:02 AM
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Old 08-30-2010, 03:19 AM   #22
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First Cruise

I'm trying to find a place that will rent me a fuel polisher. Any ideas??


Not very likely as the filters in the fuel polisher are very expensive.

The best of the lot are aircraft fuel pumps with 240V motors that not only suck the fuel thru a huge filter bank ,( 3 about 2 ft tall) they return the fuel under high pressure , in the prayer that simple velocity and volume will break loose 1/2 of crud.

It does clean the loose fuel grunge , but its doubtfull it would do much in a large tank with baffles.

Unfortunatly the only cure is scraping.

I did talk to a fellow on the mud run that bought an old TT and claimed a chemical sucess.

He emptied the tank and poured 5 gal of ZEP industrial cleaner in, let it sit and added water to raise the level a bit.Then pumped it all out , and rinsed with diesel.

IT is NASTY STUFF , read the label, but he claimed a cure.

The mud rub "loop" is only some canals with a bit of lake crossing , so I dont know if he cleaned the tank walls, as there is little rough stuff.

But he was a happy camper with no further fuel problems .



-- Edited by FF on Monday 30th of August 2010 05:13:17 AM
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Old 08-30-2010, 10:03 AM   #23
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RE: First Cruise

Quote:
timjet wrote:

The mechanic working on the boat prior to purchase started the port engine for some testing and when he saw a slight amount of unburned diesel coming out the raw water exhaust I thought he was going to have a heart attack.

*
Unburned fuel coming out the exhaust at startup with a cold engine is pretty common on older-generation diesels.* Because the combustion chamber temperatures are not up to normal combusion is incomplete and the fuel that doesn't burn goes out the exhaust and down the pipe with the cooling water.* It's normal for boats with Lehman (and other) engines to put a pretty decent sheen of unburned fuel around the back of the boat when started cold, particularly if the day itself is cold.* This goes away as the engine warms up.

A friend in the marine diesel manufacturing industry told me that this trait was one of the hardest things to "design out" of a diesel.* He didn't elaborate but I assume that it's done today with the electronic fuel monitoring and whatnot that's on more modern engines.

*
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Old 08-30-2010, 10:14 AM   #24
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RE: First Cruise

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FF wrote:Unfortunatly the only cure is scraping.
I believe FF is right.* From everything I've read on the GB forum, other forums, and in talking to the few people I've met who've had to deal with dirty tanks, the only sure cure is to clean the tanks. Physically.* There is no good, dependable chemotherapy treatment for sludged-up tanks.

You can polish the fuel all day (or pay someone to do it) and you'll end up with clean fuel in a still-dirty, sludged-up tank.* The risk of having this stuff contaminate your fuel (again) will always be present, particularly if you venture into rough water.

As great as it would be to be able to pour a bottle of "mouse milk" as RickB likes to refer to it, into your tanks and have the sludge magically go away, I've never heard of this happening.* There are additives that can help prevent sludge, bacteria, and water from collecting in the tanks once they're clean, but these additives won't break loose and clean your tanks once the stuff has formed.

There may be chemicals that will aggressively attack and break up or dissolve accumlated sludge in a diesel fuel tank, but I suspect that they are not the sort of thing you want to (or can) run through the engine.* You would have to suck or vacuum them out and clean their residue up before putting fuel back in the tank.

*
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Old 08-30-2010, 11:37 AM   #25
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RE: First Cruise

Marin,
I suspect your right about the sludge sticking to the side of the tank. Mechanically removing it is probably the only sure way. The tops of my tanks would require the cutting of wood and fiberglass to get to, so I'm going to try to remove the gunk through the existing piping. If that doesn't work, major surgery may be in order. I hope not.
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Old 08-30-2010, 11:57 AM   #26
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RE: First Cruise

FWIW when the previous owner had all new tanks installed in his (now our) boat, the inspection ports were put in the sides of the new saddle tanks. This is because on a GB, the tops of the tanks are less than a foot below the underside of the deck.

The inspection ports are pretty good size and the covers are held on with a whole bunch of studs and nuts, and have pretty thick gaskets under them. So an inspection port does not have to be in the top of at tank. If it's in the side, though, it obviously must be designed and built to be immersed in fuel on the inside.
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Old 08-30-2010, 02:16 PM   #27
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RE: First Cruise

*TJ:

I may have missed it in your previous posts:

--*- have you changed out the on engine fuel filters as well as the Racors?
-*-- have you sampled/tested your fuel for contaminants
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Old 09-01-2010, 08:38 AM   #28
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RE: First Cruise

TJ

One more thought - post your questions on boatdiesel.com - I note a recent and similar question there elicited a response to check that the pick up tubes in the tanks are not blocked.

Boatdiesel is a great site for diesel issues discussion. Tony Athens, the main moderator, is not supportive of "mouse milk" (credit rickB)*remedies. His mantra (as others on this posting have noted)*is proper 3 stage filtration, using spin ons for a 30u, 10u and on engine filter. With a similar filter setup* your fuel problems may well go away.
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Old 09-01-2010, 09:59 AM   #29
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RE: First Cruise

Changing to 3 stage fixed all my fuel problems although I stuck with Racor filters.
Since I've gone 30 to 10 to on engine (7) I have not had any problems at all.* Knock on teak of course
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