Fuel tank check and repair

[Sicrx69]

Morning yall,
I recently purchased a used 2000 palm beach 161 thats in pretty good shape. I had to repair several issues including replacing bildge pump and aeroator that appeared to be out of service for a while. The person i bought the boat from told me the previous and orginal owner told him something was up with the fuel tank and thats why he has an external fuel tank hooked up. After chasing down a loss power issue to the main switch panel, I noticed a purple wire coming from the fuel gauge was also disconnected. I am assuming this is the fuel gauge sending unit but haven't not verified it. Ultimately I want to diagnose the fuel tank issue and see if it can be salvaged without ripping up the floor. At minimum I wanna make sure the fuel tank isnt full of old fuel and weighing down my boat. If the tank has fuel in it, I hate to attempt to run it without knowing the condition of the tank, for everyone knows thats opening a can of worms for constant carb cleaning...just looking for advice or something someone else has done to start this process.

Thanks,
John

 

[Woodonglass]

From the filler tube I'd snake an external transfer pump hose into the tank an see if you can pump anything out. You can buy a cheap pump from Harbor Freight.

http://www.harborfreight.com/multi-u...ump-66418.html

It's next to impossible to pressure check a below deck tank without having access to it and that means removing at least some portion of the deck unless there's an access hatch to the sending unit etc.. Posting pics of your boat and setup would help us to SEE what you're working with.

If you know anyone with some fiber optics equipment (plumber, electrician etc..) that might have a fiber optic snake you could snake an eyeball down in there and take a look as well.

 

[kcassells]

Even if you do get the snake in there with a camera the baffles inside the tank will prevent alot of further investigation. Internally may and usually does look shiny new it's the exterior where the problems start from corrosion. Not sure if you can put optics into dedicated fuel. ? You need any inny and an outy view of the tank to come to a safe conclusion.

 

[jc55]

You should have access to: vent and filler hose attachments, and the fuel sender and fuel pickup areas. With access to the fuel sender, you can put a meter between the insulated post and the ground or mounting screw. 240 ish ohms= empty, 33 ohms leans towards more full.

You can jack up the trailer tongue slightly, attach a primer bulb to the fuel line connected to your tank, and run more hose out of your bilge drain or up and over your transom and siphon the tank's fuel into containers.

You can remove the sender and examine the inside of your tank. My tank was pressure tested at 4 psi. Wouldn't be hard to do in the boat with some creativity. All your corrosion would be on the outside, most likely between the tank and the foam.

 

[kcassells]

Jc55 has some good ideas there. Hows about a picture? Are the access hatches to the tank?

 

[Sicrx69]

Thx for responses, I definitely thought about the siphon technique and gonna try that soon. I haven't really found an access port for sending unit unless I am just missing it. It has an access port for bilge pump and aerator but havent seen anything that looks like an access for a sending unit. The previous owner disconnected the inboard tank and attached an external fuel tank. I am going to look more tomorrow and will take photos and attach them. Thanks again yall.
John