Old Gas in a tank

[johnman135]

I just acquired a Tartan 30 ( '77) with about 20 gallons of 5+ year old gas in a 30 gallon tank. What's the easiest way to get the gas out and clean the tank of any sludge etc. There's only the fill and guage sender access into the tank.
Thanks!

[Rachel]

I'll let those with more direct experience answer your question, but I just want to say "Welcome to the forum!"

Please feel free to show off your new boat here :)

Rachel

[triton #227]

Welcome to the form. I'd say get a small electric fuel pump and some hose and suck it out through the filler tube into 5 gallon cans. It is much better to do it this way than through the sending unit plate and filling the boat up with fumes.

[Quetzalsailor]

Been there. On the good news side, the Morgan 27 was on jack stands, most of the gas was more recent. On the bad news side, I had 19 gallons in a 19 gallon tank, and the tank had not been cleaned in a couple decades. I bought a Pep Boys gas pump / siphon toy. It was mostly worthless and slow. The idea was that the pump would pull the vacuum and start the siphon; nice idea, but I ended up doing it the old fashioned way. Lungs! Bear in mind that gas tastes terrible, is poisonous, and will do real damage to your lungs. If you buy an electric pump, be sure to get one made for the purpose: gas and sparks... With the boat on jackstands, the head was quite high, so once the gas was flowing, it was fast.

Siphons work from quite small dia. hoses to a maximum of about 3" dia., and a max. up-and-over of something like 30'. Clearly, the larger dia hose is faster than the smaller, but you have to pull the fluid up-and-over and the volume of air in the hose, from the top of the source fluid to well below the top of the source fluid down by the receiving end is what has to be removed. Minimizing the up-and-over, and the overall length of the hose, and maximizing the head are worthy aims. I used my army days 'Georgia Credit Card' which is 3/4" ID clear vinyl hose.

I siphoned the gas into plastic jerry cans and burned it a few gallons at a time added to mostly full automobile tanks. I burned the last couple gallons of sludge in open air.

Once empty, and the engine was out of the boat, the tank was readily removed and washed out with soap and water. The tank is cylindrical and suspended under the cockpit on straps. Dad had a much less satisfactory way to clean the tank: the boat was in the water, so siphoning and pumping dry was much more difficult. He loosened the straps, removed the connections, added soapy water, went sailing, came back, pumped out the soapy mess, rinsed several times, rotated the tank in the straps and dumped the remainder into the bottom of the boat.

[johnman135]

Thanks! My boat is up on stands as well, I already tried the "lungs" siphon method, god did that make me retch when I inhaled a lung full of fumes.
I'm going back tomorrow with a pump and some hose down the filler, I'm sure that'll do the trick. I was hoping there was some sort of cleaner I could put in the tank and pump out, the T30 tank can only be removed by cutting out the molded decking for the quarter berth the tank is under. I'm guessing the tank is Monel, seems to be corrosion free, thoughts anyone?
I poked around alot on various forums, this one seemed to be by far the best, alot of beautiful work being done by some knowledgable people.
I know my boat is a Tartan not a Triton but if you squint a little...

[bcooke]

This forum is far from a Triton forum. Any old classic is welcome here :-)

As for inhaling gas fumes; you don't have to use your lung power to siphon. The point is to fill the tube with the fluid and get the outlet below the level in the tank to get the siphon started. As an alternative to sucking the fuel up the hose, you can simply feed the siphon hose into the tank and let it fill up - or mostly fill up. Then, holding a finger over the end of the hose to prevent it from draining, take the end of the siphon hose out and bring it to a point lower than the tank level. The siphon will start working just fine.

-Britton

[sal's dad]

I always have a bunch of old outboard fuel lines around; the end connectors typically fail, and the hose gets brittle, but the squeeze bulb still works. Just cut off the ends for a versatile fuel siphon.

I keep one in the back of the truck, "just in case", or to use the 20 gallon truck tank to deliver the fuel to an outboard tank or jerry jug (make sure there isn't a deliberate blockage or kink in the fuel fill to prevent theft).

Sometimes with an old bulb you need to coordinate squeezing the bulb and closing/releasing the "outflow" end of the hose with your thumb. The small diameter hose may be slow, but it's steady.

No advice as to cleaning the tank.

Sal's Dad

[LazyGuy]

To get rid of 30 gallons of diesel I ended up paying the mechanic $1 a gallon. After it was empty I removed the tank to clean it. I am not sure you can really clean the tank effectively while it is in the boat. You might try leaving a few gallons of gas in the tank and get a carboy brush from a home brew supply store (a big bottle brush for cleaning the 5 gallon glass carboys), use it through the fill connection to clean the tank using the gasoline and then pump out the dregs as best you can.

I used a product called Marine Clean from POR that worked fantastic. I now have about 2 gallons of the nastiest looking liquid on earth waiting for the next toxic waste day at the town dump. Using marine clean required that I roll the tank on its side and end etc to get all the walls. It also made the diesel water soluble so the last rinse is with water before I try to figure out how to completely dry it out by spring.

Once I get the new engine beds in place, I will be doing a photo update on the Luders 33 repower.