I have had a good deal of experience with dirty diesel tanks and fuel polishing. I will be addressing this issue again in the 365 we just aquired. We also own and cruise a trawler with two 350 gallon fuel tanks. Those tanks had not been cleaned in 20 years and had sat unused for the two years prior to our purchasing her. We had to move her several hundred miles in open water soon after the purchase. The first thing I did was rig an onboard fuel polishing system with two filters and a 20 gal. day tank. I polished fuel from the large fuel tanks, diverted clean fuel to the day tank and ran the engine off the day tank. We did a lot of filter changing but were able to keep the engine running. When we reached her new port we had the tanks "professional polished" by two different companies. There efforts were helpful but not effective enough to be able to operate the vessel in rough seas. The solution was to install three inspection ports in each tank and use a high pressure pump to "wash" each area that was separated by baffels in the tank, drain the tank, and clean by hand the sludge that washed to the bottom of the tank. I did this with less than a half load of fuel so that I could pump all the fuel to one tank while I cleaned the other. I did this for both tanks and then ran the fuel polisher for several weeks pumping fuel back and forth between the tanks. I also run the fuel polisher whenever the engine is running. This battle was over a two year period. Once I decided to open the tanks and clean them we were able to beat the problem. We ran to Alaska and back without fuel issues. I use 4 micron filters for polishing and 10 micron on the engine. My four micron filters are located in such a way as to be able to change them in relative comfort and ease. The 10 micron are on the engine and are my last line of defense to protect my injecters. They are also more dificult to change. I like to keep them in good enough shape that I only change them at my time and place of chosing.
- Welcome to Pearson 365 and 367.