IP 29 FUEL TANK CLEANING AND/OR REPLACEMENT

1992 IP 29 FUEL TANK NEEDS GOOD CLEAN OUT--PREFERABLY OUT OF THE BOAT. LOOKING FOR POINTERS ON CLEANING WHILE IN THE BOAT. ALSO, NEED GUIDANCE ON GETTING THE FUEL TANK OUT OF THE BOAT.

THANKS,
RUSS

I'd be interested to know what you learned as I would like to consider replacing mine. My IP29 holding tank just failed and Ezell Industries, who made the original tank, still had drawings. They made and shipped me a replacement for a very reasonable cost, compared to having one made. They were great to deal with, faxing me the drawings to assure that we had a match. It is not clear to me that one can remove the fuel tank without cutting out the floor, hence my interest in what you learned.

As for cleaning -- I use a simple fuel polishing system annually on my boats to assure that cleaning is not required. It is built using an inexpensive filter system, a Mr. Gasket diesel pump, marine grade hose, and alligator clips to connect to the batteries. Of course, once your tank is filthy -- well, cleaning them is a mess which by now you probably know.

Ted

I had crud in my fuel tank on my IP 380. Here's what I did, and it's worked well. I made a fuel polishing loop (Shelco filter & Webco pump) and mounted it on the starboard engine door. I used the aux pickup and return connectors on the fuel tank for this loop. I also added the capability to switch from the existing fuel loop to the polishing loop by fipping 2 side by side cross over valves. In this when, when under engine power, if needed I can bypass the Racor and have the Shelco filter feed the engine with out missing a beat.

No with a polishing loop in place, I used it to empty the fuel tank into a couple clear trash cans. Once empty, I opened the small circular acess hatch for the sending unit and lifted it out. I used a mini long handled roller (from Home Depot) and was able to go through the access hatch and use several rollers to scrub the bottom of the tank. Couldn't reach everywhere, but this is right above the deepest point and baffel and looked to be the worst area. Then using a 3 gallon garden sprayer, I filled it with diesel, stuck the sprayer into the tank and sprayed, on pin point mode, the bottom and side of tank and over into areas the roller could reach. This 3 gallons of diesel in the tank was dirty so I off loaded it, using polisher, into a separate jerry jug. I then added 1 gallon of desiel to the sprayer and 3 bottle of this tank clearner. Sprayed it all around the tank and let it sit overnight. Next day, I used the mini rollers to clearn out the crud that collected in the tank bottom and offloaded the liquid into a jerry jug for disposal. I sprayed in another 3 gallons of desiel and polished that of into the other fuel in the trask cans and then polished all that fuel back into the tank. The tank inside, that I can see, looks clean.

and let it sit overnight. Next day, I repeated the above empty tank / cleaning process, except I didn't add another bottle of the tank cleaner