Surprised at the fuel dock

Just a thought if you polish your fuel where dose the waste return go ?

No valves on those sight tubes?

dwhatty said:

No valves on those sight tubes?

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Yes there is one at the top and one at the bottom.

Is there a bottom drain tap to pull off the bottom contents into a clear container just to be sure there is no water? If not use the test kit posted by JDCave and watch your Racors.

High Wire said:

Is there a bottom drain tap to pull off the bottom contents into a clear container just to be sure there is no water? If not use the test kit posted by JDCave and watch your Racors.

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Yes there is a drain valve. I will do that later this week. Thanks.

I would test salt water vs. fresh and tap vs. rain as mentioned above. That can certainly narrow it down a lot for you. Even if kept in "fresh" water, test for "salt content" to differentiate vs. tap and rain.

drb1025 said:

Yes there is one at the top and one at the bottom.

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Sorry about the thread drift, but this got me questioning about what I do with my sight tube valves. When away from the boat I keep them closed, and when on the boat I leave them open (the lower ones are not that easy to get to) so I can read them easily when on a trip.

What do others do, or recommend?

drb1025 said:

I pulled some mystery fluid from the tank and it appears to be diesel fuel. Here are two pics, the first is the site tube after putting in a few gallons at the dock then realizing it was full. You can see how it isn't red. The second is today after opening the site tube valves, now red top to bottom.
View attachment 52278View attachment 52279

Apparently the dye faded in the site tube and I forgot I had filled it three years ago. No excuse for that.

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Chuckle! I had a senior's moment last winter with my site tubes for the same reason. The fuel was colourless. I had a slight weep from the sight tube valve and thought the whole tank had disappeared into the bilge and pumped over board. Scared the poop out me. Turns out the tank was near full.

Jim
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I'd go with the dyed versus undyed fuel. The diesel I buy for my home generator is yellowish as it comes from the filling station locally.

Islanddreamer said:

I'd go with the dyed versus undyed fuel. The diesel I buy for my home generator is yellowish as it comes from the filling station locally.

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Well that's what the fuel truck in Sointula delivered. It's the cheapest fuel in BC, so you get what you get. Not sure I'd do the "Once a week fuel dock dance" ever again though. We waited 4 hours for fuel.


Jim
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Nsail said:

Sorry about the thread drift, but this got me questioning about what I do with my sight tube valves. When away from the boat I keep them closed, and when on the boat I leave them open (the lower ones are not that easy to get to) so I can read them easily when on a trip.

What do others do, or recommend?

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Keep them closed except when reading them. The tubing is not the most robust and probably the weak link in the fuel system when opened.

Nsail said:

Sorry about the thread drift, but this got me questioning about what I do with my sight tube valves. When away from the boat I keep them closed, and when on the boat I leave them open (the lower ones are not that easy to get to) so I can read them easily when on a trip.

What do others do, or recommend?

Click to expand...

My boat only has valves at the bottom. That is something the surveyor flagged BTW. The surveyor said that there should be valves top and bottom. The reason is in case of fire the site tube hose will melt fast. Without closed valves top and bottom that would simply fuel a fire. So, even though I don't have two valves I always close then unless checking fuel levels.

I do have working fuel gauges and a tank tender, so lots of redundancy.