Cleaning Your Fuel Tanks on the Cheap

Your cockpit can look like this too when you clean out your fuel tank!

As I mentioned before, we had a slight problem with sludge in our tanks when Vlad's family was in town, and we had to get two - I repeat - two tows. I also mentioned that Vlad would come up with a ingenious, low-cost method of removing said sludge, and I was right!

He and our friend, Raymond, spent about five hours on Saturday up to their armpits in dirty, dirty diesel, and now we have a sparkling fuel tank. Here's how they did it on the cheap:

• First, they pumped out the fuel with an automotive fuel pump through a filter into diesel cans, many of them generously donated by our marina neighbors.
• Then, Vlad scrapped the sludge/gel/nasty gunk out of the tank, wiped it down with paper towels and used a toilet brush with more diesel to really scrub down the tanks.
• Next, he ran the diesel through the inline filters, bypassing the engine by putting the pump and filter between the send and return lines on the tank.
• In order to clean out the lines, he still has to run the fuel further up the lines through the water separator, bypassing the engine again. 
• Finally, he has to change the filters and bleed the lines of air.

Theoretically, we will then have a beautiful, working engine just in time for Thanksgiving when my dad and brother come for a visit and all for a little more than $100.00. To put that in perspective, one of our friends paid $1,000.00 to have his two tanks cleaned, though, granted, he didn't have to spend hours in a diesel haze scrubbing his tank with a toilet brush. In life, there always seem to be trade offs.