Pacemaker Boat Owners Association

I am in the process of restoring my 74 pacemaker and want to ask if anybody has a good way to clean out the fuel tanks. Mine are the round steel tanks and look to be in good shape. The fuel gages read just over 1/2 full so that means I have about 35 gallons of old fuel in each tank. I can pump out the old fuel, but am wondering if there is a way to make sure that any old gelled gas is also removed before it plugs up my new powerplants. I had my oil company clean out my oil tank at home and they used a pumping system which re-circulated the oil through filters. They did this until the filters stopped collecting sludge. Since I dont have this machine, Has anybody else ever found a good way to clean out the fuel tanks while they are in place?

I'll have to check. They are the galvanized steel type. If my memory serves me right they are made by Levalor? There is some rust on the end of the starbord tank, but it doesnt look that bad. When I get the fuel out, I will see if I can look inside and see if there is any flaking of the coating. I had a chance to get some plastic tanks, but decided to stay with the steel one after reading the post about plastic tanks and ethanol.

What I was told and found out for myself was that the inside metal starts to break down into small metal particles.
I took a magnetic rod and put in into the tank at the pickup tube and I could feel the gunk in the bottom of tank. When I removed the rod, it was covered with metal.
I purchased my tanks from SP sheet metal in Toms River MJ.
Made to the exact size of orginal. Found out they make tanks for Silverton, Ocean and others.
Tom

What type of boat is it. Replaced my tanks in a 1974 36 SF two years ago found a place in southern RI that specializes in marine certified tanks. Mine where also Galv tanks and were rusted but not leaking. Had new stainless steel tanks made up the same extact size with extra pickups and returns in case I ever did decide to replace the engines again. There are some new USCG rules regarding fuel tanks. Mine needed to be made of a thicker metal and have two baffles in them to meet the regs, old tank had one baffle. There are also some rules about USCG certified testing before you can use them. Also there are different categories for inspected and non-inspected vessels fuel tanks. Boy what you learn by just wanting to replace a fuel tank, not so simple!

Mike -

Hey Tom ... I had tanks made for my last Pace (28' SF) at SP in Toms River .. they did a great job with them ..I see you live in Willingboro in the 'off season' ... where do you call home in the summer?? I now have a 36' SF I spend my summers in Wildwood/Cape May ........ Tom

I berth my 31 at Riverside Marina in Delran. I have been there for 6 years now.
Tom

Mike,
My boat is a 1974 28 footer (pic's are in photo section).
I will be checking the tanks Thursday like Pacemaker 78 said. I really dont want to replace them if I dont have to, but I also dont want to screw up my new powerplants and all of the new fuel pumps and filters

Could not agree more! Mine was a big job! Had to cut the cockpit deck out than lift the tanks out! They were 175 gallons each made by <s>evcor</s> 747 Flory Mill Road Lancaster Pa 17604. I don't know if the company is still in business but as I said I had mine updated to the new USCG specs.

Mike -

Mike,
Checked my fuel tanks last night. They are made by the same company you posted. I ran some of the fuel through a fine cone filter and did not see any metal in it. I will check with a magnet as soon as I can find one small enough to go up the bottom through the fuel line port. The gas smelled old but wasnt as bad as I thought. Email me the name of the company in RI that you got your new tanks from if you still have it, and I will see what they want for 2 tanks.
Thanks
Terry

Terry,

The name of the outfit was Luther's Welding and Tank Fabrications. Their toll free phone number is 1-888-luthers. The person I arranged the work with was Jennifer Luther. Their address is 500 Wood Street - Bristol, RI 02809 Phone: 401-253-5550 Fax: 401-396-9314. They do have a web site http://www.lutherswelding.com/. Hope this helps! Let me know how you make out!


Mike -

alrighty gotta ask, i have best i can tell the original monel tank's,to the best of my knowledge i have'nt had any fuel line problem's,i had inspected them when we got our boat and found no external problem's, looked at them again this last weekened,still look fine,i dont know what kind of care they've had,or what kind of maintanence they need, any thought's or tip's on caring for them?

I had a 1967 Alglas25. When I had it surveyed for insurance, the surveyor stated that the monel tanks were worth more that the boat and would last a lifetime.
Good luck
Tom

Mike,
I went looking for the tank manufacturer and had found Luthers before you posted, but appreciate the help. I have to go down and measure the old tanks, then fill inj his form for a quote.
Will measuer tonight and then send them the info to get my quote
Terry

In general Monel tanks will last longer than you will! You can not have them made today and are worth a small fortue if you didi have them built. The most that will happen to the tank is that they may collect some outside contaminent and you might need to flush them out. About the only problem I have seen with the tanks isn't with the tank at all but the fuel pickup going bad. Of course the rotted pieces of the pickup end up at the bottom of the tank. So I would not worry about the tanks as much as the pickups.

Mike -

thank you gentelmen, i was getting awfull nervous following along here,nice to know there's at least one thing i can relax on,

well guess I'll add my 2 cents. as far as the old fuel problem there is a product called PRI G . that claims it can make old fuel usable again , it can be ordered from camping world . now as for the fuel lines, I had a problem with mine this past summer, they looked fine but had broken down inside and pluged themselves , the parts store I deal with said they have seen this before on older cars around 20 - 25 years old , so it would be a good idea to change them if they are very old . trust me it is no fun getting caught out after dark with one engine.[:(]

now this does get kind of interesting here,a neighbor has if i remember right a 68 coronet stock and all original he got in minnisota, he was still able to get regular high octane gas up there,on his way home he fueled up with unleaded,he said he didnt get 30 mile's before he started haveing problem's, something about the unleaded fuel started eating some of the rubber item's on the way to the fuel filter,said his filter and can were loaded with rubbery soup,with the so called cleaning additive's they put in gas today, gotta wonder if this does'nt contibute to some of the fuel line problem's some are expierencing.

Xccentrc40 don't see any problems now but who knows in the future when they start adding enthenol to the fuel to help with the oil situation. Have heard several complaints on plastic tanks being eaten away by the new mix. Could cause some problems for us with older boats because the hoses were not made to handle this. We may need to upgrade all of our fuel lines and filters.

Mike -

Mike,
I read your post about the ethanol fuel and had to put my 2 cents in. There is a guy here at my marina who blended his own ethanol and gas mixture. He added 10% ethanol to his gas and swore that his boat ran much better, got on plane quicker etc. After his boat sat for awhile, he started having problems with a goopy substance in his filters. Seems he had plastic tanks. What he found out was that the ethanol started to leech the plasticizer out of the tanks and it was plugging his filters and killing his engines. When he pulled his pick-ups out they were almost totally plugged with what looks like plastic material.
Me, I'll stay with the steel tanks and regular gasoline.
I sent Luthers the dimensions for my tanks and have ordered all new fuel lines and filters.
Terry

I posted an artical from boatUS magazine in the general discusion section about the ethenol problems with plastic tanks it seems to only effect the older plastic tanks , the fuel tank on my 99 f250 is plastic and I have no problems with 10% ethenol , and with gas being so high I park the v10 most of the time.[;)]