Fuel Tank Cleaning

[njadam]

Fuel tank is 100 gallons and 30 years old and has never been cleaned before. Are there any recommendations for services where someone will come out and clean our tank? Boat is not on a trailer and a vendor can likely not come into our boat yard.

Also what is the life of an aluminum gas tank?

Adam

[Gerry Zagorski]

Originally Posted by njadam

Fuel tank is 100 gallons and 30 years old and has never been cleaned before. Are there any recommendations for services where someone will come out and clean our tank? Boat is not on a trailer and a vendor can likely not come into our boat yard.

Also what is the life of an aluminum gas tank?

Adam

If it's not broke don't fix it If you're going through several tanks of fuel each year, with all the sloshing around you shouldn't be worried about the fuel or the tank being dirty.... Just use a good fuel filter as a safeguard.

There are fuel polishing services but they are mainly used for fuel where you know you have an issue and they usually don't deal with the public, they are usually hired through your boat yard.... Unless you know you have issues, got a bad batch of fuel etc, this would be a complete waste of money...

As far a Aluminum tanks... They are the best of the bunch but a lot depends on how they are installed and what type of beating your boat takes... You put one in a go fast that was not installed correctly and ride it hard it will eventually need to be replaced.... You put it in a heavy boat that does 11 knots, it will probably outlast the boat and you.

Hope that helps.

[Flygaff]

about 5 years ago I had the same issue. I went to Port Monmouth Marine on 36 south. They don't do it themselves but they had a guy come up from forked river to do the job. I have a 200 gallon tank that was about full. I don't remember the guys name that did the job but it came out great. He drained the fuel, pressure washed the inside of the tank, filtered all the fuel and put it back in the tank. I think everything was done for $175.00. You should contact PM Marine. I'm sure they know the guys name. + he did it right there at PM Marine. You can't believe how many oil and fuel additive caps came out of the tank

Good luck

[njadam]

Thanks guys, I really appreciate it. Just tying to think about getting ahead of any potential issues.

Adam