Tank remove/replace

[hellosailor]

Pulling a tank is easy when there's a big empty space in front of it.<G>

And there's pretty much guaranteed a load of crap in it, easy to clean out when the tank is out in the open.

I'd say go for it.

[eherlihy]

While you have the engine out, you may as well do it. If you are paying to have the work done, it might cost you another $150 in labor to remove and reinstall the tank. Compared to R&R of the engine, this is trivial.

I agree with HS, it will assuredly have a pile of crap at the bottom.

Good luck, and post pix!

[centaursailor]

Tip for a leaky deisel tank.
Rub the leak with hard soap, carbolic works well on a seam leak .
Get you home safe, just don,t forget to fix it.
Safe sailing

[ColinHulse]

I have looked over your posts. It looks like I will be the proud owner of a 1983 30 o'day next week. It is located in Michigan, I am in Canada. I hope I don't have too many problems but it has sat for 3 years! 16 Hp universal diesel.
Colin

[deniseO30]

Nice choice Colin! same as my boat. replace tank. can almost bet you need to anyway. here's a slide show of my boat with ash I used for table and icebox tops.

[centaursailor]

Fab pictures, not sure about the intelligence test tho I could see 74. Bit high for me.
Cleaning the diesel tank every few years is a worthwhile job. I just let it run low and suck everything out.
Adding diesel conditioner helps the tank and engin and always fill using a filter, not direct from the pump.
Safe sailing

[Sailoday34]

Well, I join in the chorus that I would replace the tank. If anyone is interested, I posted back in October about my tank in an 1983 O'day 34. Being the anal engineer I am, I did some calculating and I contacted the Florida Marine Tank for original drawings. I calculated that if I lowered the over all height of the tank by 3" I would not have to cut any fiberglass and it would reduce the tank from 30 gal to 24 gal - which was acceptable to me.

Well it worked as I installed this weekend. My old tank had 3 weep holes that caused the problem in the forward bottom lip. Since the fuel had gotten into the wood cradle, I removed the entire wooden cradle and replaced. If anyone does this, just be careful to remove the four wooden cradle sides intact so you can use them as a pattern. Also, the foward panel, you will need to lower the lip by 1 1/2" so the tank will slip into place as the tank top will come in contact with the steering pulleys. By lowering the lip, the tank slipped in like a champ. This kept me from having to remove another parts and I had the tank completely in and engine running in about 10 hours with out removing anything or cutting anything except pullng out the batteries.

[sailingcal21]

Congratulations. That's good info to know.