C34MkII fuel tank maintenance

[Jim Hardesty]

If anyone is interested, here is what I do.
In the early spring when I'm eager to ready Shamrock but it's too cold to do much.  I remove the fuel gage cover and take a fuel sample from the bottom of the tank into a clear mason jar.  FWIW wish it was a straight shot from the fuel fill to tank.  It's been sitting all winter so anything that's going to settle has.  Has always been clean.  If there were anything settled out then I'd take action.
That's good enough for me not to worry about a dirty fuel tank.
Jim

[Ron Hill]

Jim : If you had the MK l fuel pump set up - you could just disconnect the inlet hose to the Racor and turn on the key switch and let the electric fuel pump pump a bit of that bottom fuel into a Mason jar and you could look for the any junk /water in the bottom of the jar!  Very evident!!

The first preflight of the Day always drained fuel from the tanks to look for condensation!!

A thought   

[Jim Hardesty]

you could just disconnect the inlet hose to the Racor and turn on the key switch and let the electric fuel pump pump a bit of that bottom fuel into a Mason jar

I don't believe the fuel pick-up tube goes to the very bottom of the tank. 

[Ron Hill]

Jim : The pickup tube goes down to about 2 inches above the bottom of the tank.  Then attached to the pickup tube is a piece of 3/8" flexible fuel line about 4" long.  That flex line is what lays on the bottom of the fuel tank.

It's made like that just so it picks up fuel from the very bottom!!

A few thoughts   

[Ron Hill]

Jim : With a MKII you can do the same!! 
Just disconnect the inlet fuel hose to the Racor.  Put that hose in to a mason jar and turn on the key switch (battery power ON) and go to the glow plug (spring loaded) position for 45+? seconds.  Enough to get all of the fuel out of the line and let the "old bottom" fuel fill and pump into the mason jar! 

A thought   

[Breakin Away]

Jim : With a MKII you can do the same!! 
Just disconnect the inlet fuel hose to the Racor.  Put that hose in to a mason jar and turn on the key switch (battery power ON) and go to the glow plug (spring loaded) position for 45+? seconds.  Enough to get all of the fuel out of the line and let the "old bottom" fuel fill and pump into the mason jar! 

A thought   

I'm coming back to this topic after a couple of months of working on other stuff. My fuel tank is down to about 5 gallons (based on the fuel gauge calibration that I posted elsewhere), and I am preparing to drain it for the winter like Maine Sail recommends. But I am a bit confused by your recommendation here. Isn't the lift pump downstream from the Racor filter? If so, disconnecting the fuel inlet to the Racor should allow the tank to gravity drain into the Mason jar without the pump running. A Mason jar would be fine for taking a sample (though I'm not sure why this sample would look any different from what's in the plastic water separation cup). In my case, I'll need something a little larger than a Mason jar to drain the whole tank.

It's been a little while since I looked over the boat, but I recall seeing something that indicated it would be difficult to for me to remove the tubing to the Racor filter, so I plan to attach a hose to the petcock under the water separation cup and drain the tank through there. I'm not going to try to drain the filter dry, because I don't like creating air pockets in the system. I plan to keep the end of the drain hose a few inches above the Racor filter so the fuel flow will stop before the Racor starts to empty.

[Jim Hardesty]

I am preparing to drain it for the winter like Maine Sail recommends.

As I posted, I remove the fuel gage plate, 3 screws, then I use a siphon pump to take fuel out.  This would be much faster and I believe much neater than pulling a fuel hose.  Here is what I use.

https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200407825_200407825

FWIW also use it to transfer gas from 5 gal jerry can to 1 gal dinghy gas can.  The new gas cans with the lawyer designed spouts are a pain to use and difficult to pour from without spilling.

Jim

[Roc]

I know what you mean, Jim, about the lawyer designed spouts.  They think they are helping by making them safe, but people are more prone to be spilling gas.  Wonder how many people blow themselves up by igniting spilled fuel!!  I have pre-regulation gas cans with normal spouts.  I hope they last forever.

Interesting about the website about the siphon pump.  It shows siphoning out of a car.  I remember during Hurricane Sandy, gas was just about impossible to get (no electricity, no way for stations to pump gas).  I had to fill the tank on a generator for my house so I tried to siphon some gas out of my car.  I couldn't.  I later found out that cars have an anti-siphon design, so nobody can steal gas out of a car. 

[Noah]

Roc: In that photo I thought they were putting gas into the car not syphoning it out.???

[Ron Hill]

Breaking : If you only have 5 gals of fuel in your tank - I'd remove it this spring before launch, clean it, reinstall and then you know that you have a clean tank.  Not that much work!!
I've known C34 owners that have had their flex hoses NOT attached and that could? have been JonW's problem which allowed all that sludge on the very bottom to accumulate!!

A few thoughts 

[Roc]

Ha!!  Noah, you're right 

[Breakin Away]

I finally made it to the boat today and planned to remove the wooden panel to expose the fuel tank. After getting all the stored junk out of the way and removing all the screws, I discovered that my A/C vent grill protrudes far enough from the front wall to prevent removing the panel. I unscrewed it briefly, but separating it from the vent hose required tools that I didn't have available, so I put it back in place so I wouldn't misplace the screws.

NOTHING on a boat is ever a easy as it seems.

[Stu Jackson]

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
...so I put it back in place so I wouldn't misplace the screws.

NOTHING on a boat is ever a easy as it seems.

True that.

Did you put the vent back in place or the whole "wall?"  I took my wall off many years ago, but put it back with only three or four of the twelve screws.  Put the screws in a plastic bag clearly labeled as "Fuel Tank Wall Screws."

Good luck, I hear the second time around is a charm! 

[Breakin Away]

Did you put the vent back in place or the whole "wall?"  I took my wall off many years ago, but put it back with only three or four of the twelve screws...

My wall is held in place by only 3 or 4 screws along the bottom. There is a fiddle that is molded into the top ceiling liner that locks in the top edge. (Perhaps this is an "improvement" made in the MkII boats?) There is also some teak trim piece that locks in the aft edge. So the only way to get the panel out is to pull out at the front edge, where the 1/4" protrusion of the A/C vent prevents getting it out.

If the whole thing was held in by 12 screws, with no other molded things holding it in, then I could probably pull out from the aft side and work around the A/C vent. But right now it's constrained on three of four edges, so removing the bottom screws is not good enough to get it out.

[Jim Hardesty]

I finally made it to the boat today and planned to remove the wooden panel to expose the fuel tank.

On Shamrock the aft panel needs to be removed before removing the port side panel, to remove the aft panel the steering cover needs to be removed.  All are Philips screws of various sizes and length.  When I do something like that I sketch what's getting dissembled, the panel in this case, on a piece of cardboard then stick the screws in the cardboard where they came from.  They all may be the same for you, there's no reason for the assorted screws, think it was what the guy at the factory had at the time.
As long as you are doing all that work, check that your fuel vent hose goes as high as possible.  When Shamrock has a very full tank and is healed well over sometimes get a little over flow from the vent.  On my list to fix if I'm in there.
Like you said, nothing on a boat is ever as easy as it seems.
Jim