Replacing port fuel tank

Liberty44140

Got in to my engine room the weekend before our planned May 3 launch to smell and then see diesel fuel. Had been 3-4 weeks since I was down there. I spent some time reviewing the fittings and fuel lines and from my view, tank was leaking. But I asked the yard to review and they came back with the same diagnosis, tank leak. Fast forward and new tank is on order. Will be 3/16 instead of oem 1/8. Yard pumped as much fuel out of bad and in to good tank but it’s still slowly bleeding. The big question is why is it leaking, fairly rare for a freshwater diesel tank to leak on a 2007 Cruisers 390 so we don’t know if a weld went bad or a baffle weld pulled through, or if there is corrosion. Can’t see anything. 

New tank arrives in 2 weeks and then they will remove cockpit floor, port main engine, and then tank. Yard is doing all work. Diesel tech will come review engine to see if any pro active maintenance is needed while out and we will replace the drip less shaft lip seals while out. I’m planning to replace engine mounts but we will see.

planning to launch by June 14. Luckily less than a gallon has leaked out and of course has been cleaned up. 

LaRea

Fun.  Any concerns about the stbd tank?

Liberty44140

What is that always the first question?  right now no reason to worry but really it depends on why the port leaked. If it’s a bad weld, crack, bulge, etc then no reason to be concerned with stbd. Same for external corrosion which is unlikely. But if it’s internal corrosion from water in tank, I will be concerned.  The yard is not open to doing the starboard now even if we wanted to do both so that makes it easy. Only would save 4ish hours of labor anyway and that’s not much here. I always used a water dispersing additive in my gas engines but never in diesel. Well I added Valvtech biogguard plus 6 to the starboard tank this weekend. Again we don’t know that this is corrosion inside or outside but just in case I’ll be using additives from here on for new and old tank. Can’t hurt!

Liberty44140

Tank is done! Lakecraft in Port Clinton, OH did a great job and they did it fast. Pics below of tank before and after end caps went on. Love that he added L brackets at the bottom of the pickups and returns to keep them steady at the bottom of the tank. Hoping it can go in next week:

LaRea

Boat p0rn for sure.

What kind of tank senders do you have?  Ultrasonic, or floats?

Liberty44140

Floats. Figuring out which one was an issue. Being an American boat one would think American standard sender but being Volvo engines with fuel on the EVC we thought could be VDO. Ended up getting 189ohm on the sender which aligned with the gauge saying 21% full so went with American Standard sender.

Dream_Inn

Pretty neat to see how it's made, especially with the baffles.  Reminds me of my old welding days as a teenager!  Lots of diesel to fill her up!

PickleRick

With all the engine swap popularity these days there's a fix to running fuel gauges with mismatched sending units.

You can now buy a programmer that installs between the two.

Allows me to run a 2005 Passat gauge cluster in my 87 4 runner with stock sender. 

Not appropriate to your situation but might help a future reader who's found sweet gauges but doesn't want new senders 

LaRea

True!  For example, the Yacht Devices YDTA tank monitor sends NMEA2000 outputs for up to four tanks, and each one can have a different ohm or volt range.  Each one can have a custom calibration to account for non-rectangular tanks like on Lib's boat.  

Liberty44140

Dream I lost one gallon  Was a 150 gal but now going with 3/16 thickness vs 1/8 she is now a 149 gallon. 
Thanks for the info on the sender's. Good to know if we have any issues getting things working. Will have a Volvo diesel mechanic involved in start up when everything is back in. 

Liberty44140

Went to the boat Monday to drop off the new tank. It fit in my Yukon with an inch to spare! Was pleased to see work had started. Fingers crossed they pull the engine and tank today so that I can go to bilge cleaning tomorrow and I’m going to circulate barnacle buster through both engines while I have all the space. Get the heat exchanger and inter cooler cleaned out.

captkevin

Quite the project. Good luck.

rasbury

My biggest fear is my tank...

Liberty44140

Spent the day at the boat yesterday. Circulated barnacle buster through. Both engines for 2-3 hours each while I had all of the space to do it. Also did a lot of bilge cleaning. Crazy to see it with the cockpit floor removed and an engine and tank out!

TonyG13

Liberty44140 said:

I believe that's what designers call an "exploded view" 

PickleRick

Don't want to sound too forward but that's one sexy a$$ diesel engine!   

earl1z19

I am assuming your boat is an all fresh water unit, did you get a bunch of junk out after the barnacle buster?

mattie

egad!

Liberty44140

Did not get a ton out with the BB Earl. Not like when I did my ac units, there I got a lot of junk out. Here I definitely had some sediment at the bottom and very green water. My strainers had some crud in them that is now gone. Yes my boat has always been freshwater, Lake Michigan and then Lake Erie. I did it purely as preventative while I had the space. 

earl1z19

Liberty44140 said:

Did not get a ton out with the BB Earl. Not like when I did my ac units, there I got a lot of junk out. Here I definitely had some sediment at the bottom and very green water. My strainers had some crud in them that is now gone. Yes my boat has always been freshwater, Lake Michigan and then Lake Erie. I did it purely as preventative while I had the space. 

I am going to do the same to mine just for the sake of knowing everything is clean.

Lake_Bum

Maybe I missed it, buried in the comments.  But did you find the source of the leak on the other tank?