I/O Boat/Fuel tank very dirty inside/how to clean?

[callbay]

1998 27 foot Formula Fastec with 454 385 HP- my son's boat. Has about 400 hours on it. Bought it at the beginning of this season and it had not run for three years. Sat covered outside.

Drained the gas twice and new fuel filer a few times. It ran bad for a while but now runs well except it will clog a fuel filter in about 15 minutes of high speed running.

Any way to clean the fuel tank?

 

[A_Harman]

Nothing easy. Maybe put two in-line fuel filters in parallel with selector valves so you can change one while running through the other one.

 

[Rand]

What color fuel lines do you have?
they might not be ethanol compatible?
IIRC if the fuel line is gray that's not good.

are you using 100% gas or regular auto gas(e10)?

The ethanol will clean the gas tank and make it shiny but you will have to deal with all the crud and possibly phase seperation.

 

[CT8]

Let me be the first to say a boat is a hole in the water in which you throw money. What kind of filter . Is it one that looks like an oil filter?

 

[Donald]

Originally Posted By: callbay
1998 27 foot Formula Fastec with 454 385 HP- my son's boat. Has about 400 hours on it. Bought it at the beginning of this season and it had not run for three years. Sat covered outside.

Drained the gas twice and new fuel filer a few times. It ran bad for a while but now runs well except it will clog a fuel filter in about 15 minutes of high speed running.

Any way to clean the fuel tank?


If you drain the tank you can add a few gallons of alcohol, agitate if possible and drain in a few days.

For diesel fuel that can "polish the fuel". They pump fuel from the tank through a large filter and return it to the tank. Maybe you could do the same.

 

[leroyd92]

get a huge fram fuel filter and mount it. they sell one that looks like a 16oz system... just let it clean itsself

mount it where you can change it easily.

both our boats have similar systems. i make sure to check them after each season start up

 

[4wheeldog]

Anything you put in the tank to clean it will wind up downstream in the filter, best case.

It is probably peeling varnish off the bottom of the tank. Using Techron or the like will clean the tank......But you will be changing lots of fuel filters, until you get it all out.

But I believe that is what I would do, short of removing the tank and physically cleaning it out. I like the parallel filtets idea......The bigger, the better!