P30 fuel system

[Loki9]

I dragged the old A4 from the engine room under the cockpit of my P30, leaving a rather ragged and greasy hole.



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Now that the A4 is out, I'll clean the area (probably for the first time in the boat's life) and I'll also remove the fuel tank for cleaning and inspection. I pumped about 12 gallons of really crappy looking gas from the tank, so I know the inside won't be pretty.

Here's the tank after I pulled it out. It's a 20 gallon tank made from monel.

The tank was covered in green fuzz, except the ends that were covered by the hold-down straps. As I suspected, the tank had plenty of crud in it. I took the tank to a local radiator shop for cleaning. They "boiled it out" (whatever that means) and pressure tested it. Their work did wonders for the inside of the tank, but nothing for the outside.

A bit of work with some 220 grit sand paper got rid of the green fuzz and had the tank looking like new.

[Loki9]

The dip tube from the tank didn't look so good, so I unsoldered it from the fitting.


The copper tube was pitted,


and clogged with crap.


I could clean the tube, but with all the pitting, I'll just replace it. It's cheap insurance as it is so much work to get to the tank if it ever does need replacing. I'm fairly sure that the tank has never been out of the boat since it was built and if I do this right, it may not need to come out for another 35 years.

[jpian0923]

Nice work!

Is that bilge full of rusty water and oil?

[Loki9]

Nice work!

Is that bilge full of rusty water and oil?

It's mostly rusty water with some oil. It's just in the pan under the engine mount though, not the entire bilge (not that the rest of the bilge was any cleaner ).

[ILikeRust]

Your fiberglass engine bed looks very similar, if not identical, to mine. Here is what mine looked like immediately after I pulled the engine out:



Yeah, pretty nasty.

[msauntry]

Nice job on the tank. That Monel is wonderful material.

[TomG]

You soldered a fuel tank? That must've been exciting!

[jpian0923]

I think he had it "boiled out" first, otherwise, that would have been very very exciting!

[Loki9]

You soldered a fuel tank? That must've been exciting!

I didn't solder directly on the tank. I soldered (sweated) a new pickup tube onto a pipe fitting, which was then threaded into the tank.

Here's what it looked like after the soldering and before I installed it.



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