I'm feeling rather please with the decision I made to replace the bladder tank, which would probably not have been cleanable and would certainly have been very hard to do if it was. Also how I fitted the replacement, I feared a very difficult job in cleaning the tank because I was not sure the access would be good enough and particularly getting the inspection hatch off with the pick up tube being quite long, it came with the pick up tube installed and I was not sure if it could easily be removed with the cover in place. Moving the tank is possible but a major job, even with over 30 Kg of fuel in it pumped out.
I need not have worried, with the breather and fuel return pipe removed and after a struggle to slacken the fore and aft restraining strap the cover came off easily and I didn't even have to disconnect the fuel line which later saved a lot of pumping to get air out of the system.
When opened I could see the bottom of the tank on the outboard side and it looked pretty clean but when I took some pictures of the inboard side, that wasn't - it was awkward pressing the icon to take the shot whilst holding the phone and lamp, these are the best pics I could manage:
And looking aft. |
I pumped out the first 20 litres or so, filtering it into clean cans, and being careful not to disturb the debris. I then used the pump to suck up much of the gunk with the remainder of the fuel into a separate sacrificial spare can. This got rid of the majority of the rubbish but left some:
The rest of the fuel and dead bug were then mopped up with kitchen roll. |
Almost done. |
Finished, unfortunately the pic showing the cleaned area around the fuel sensor was too blurred to be meaningful. |
Fortunately the marina would take the contaminated diesel into their hazardous waste facility, some don't, along with the oil from my last oil changes.
Job done. I hope.
Job done. I hope.
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