Fuel Tank woes Part II

Need to fix it.

Replaced the Fuel supply hose and remade the pipe fittings where the hose connects to the Supply valve on top of the fuel tank.

Didn't fix it!

Time to pull out the tank.

Saturday: Went down to the boat with 3 Diesel Jugs (Cans) a new Fuel Pump and a lot of rags. 

Disconnected the tank supply hose from the Fuel Filter Input and attached the hose to the New Spare Fuel Pump. Jury rigged the fuel pump to the batteies and spent two hours pumping fuel - had to borrow a couple of extra tanks from my dock lord so now I have 5 Fuel Jugs at home full of Diesel Fuel. It took about 15 minutes to disconnect the Supply Hose, Return Hose, Fill Hose, Vent Hose and the grounding tabs as well as the Fuel level sender and just a couple more to remove the 8 screws that hold the tank in place.

This is the second time I have removed the tank and it's really not that hard. I made a sling out of 1/8" Nylon cord secured to the Fill hose inlet and the return and supply hose fittings on the tank. Manovered the tank out of the aft berth and up into the cockpit. This time I got most of the fuel out so it was very manageable on my own.

Today (Sunday) I inspected the tank and felt that I had a good candidate for the leak area. Used a Brass Wire brush to clean up around the 'hole' then tipped the tank so that the remaining fuel was in the area of the hole and WooHoo! Nailed it. (perhaps not the best pun 😏) 

That hole is about 3/32" across and now that it's cleaned out, fuel spills from the hole like from a faucet.

There's a second suspicious area, but no sign of weeping from that area, I still cleaned it up

Both of these areas are on the Outboard underside of the tank.

After cleaning them with the Brass Wire Brush, I used the wax removal chemical from my Fiber glass repair kit to de-grease the areas.

Next I mixed up about a 1" length of JB Water Weld, suitable for fuel tanks. Peggy made sure I was wearing protective gloves.

A few minutes of massaging the two part epoxy resin and it was ready to apply to the areas.

1st I forced the resin into the holes and then pressed it into the surrounding areas making it nice and smooth. 

Finally I applied some Baby Powder to the hardening surface which allowed me to make it really smooth. That was over an hour ago, so it should be ready by now but I'll wait till the morning before I test it by partially filling the tank. I'll filter the fuel as I fill, might as well.

Assuming (risky) that we're good, then I'll go down to the boat on Tuesday and reinstall the fuel tank. That should take less than an hour. Then time to bleed the system and run the engine.

WooHoo! Looks like we'll make it to the Father's Day Cruise with the HISC a week Saturday. - We're looking forward to it.

See you on the water.

Paul