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I recently bought a 27 Cat and the previous owner warned me that the gas might have sat for a while. Well I put 7 gallons in (17 gal tank) to fill it up and figured it would be fine. Well the motor died after probably 4-6 hours of use, and when I unscrewed the gas filter (some kind of fram) it hissed like it was under a vacuum. So I'm pretty sure the fuel tank needs to be cleaned.
I don't really want to pay $4/gal or whatever they charge to get the tank I just filled empty.
I'm considering putting a second fuel filter on the boat (a Racor 320R-RAC-02) and plumbing it up with a Y valve so I can switch between the cheap filter and the racor and just buy a bunch of the cheap filters and see if I can clean the tank that way. The Y valve is so I can switch to the other filter if conditions won't allow me to safely change the plugged one.
In the event that the fuel filter clogs really fast, I also thought about pulling the electric fuel pump off and re-plumbing it so it recirculates the gas in the tank thru a filter setup, so I can polish it myself. From searching I'm guessing that would save a lot of money, since it seems like I'd be looking at $400-$600 to get the tank polished professionally.
Any thoughts or advice? Where to get the parts? Any recommendations on parts? It looks like from the picture I'll have to buy nipples for the new filter? Should I get a bulb and setup a way to plumb it in, in case of emergency? Any warnings/advice?
BTW I love sailing with no motor running, but when the motor dies and there's no wind and you have some place you're trying to get to... that sucks!
I don't really want to pay $4/gal or whatever they charge to get the tank I just filled empty.
I'm considering putting a second fuel filter on the boat (a Racor 320R-RAC-02) and plumbing it up with a Y valve so I can switch between the cheap filter and the racor and just buy a bunch of the cheap filters and see if I can clean the tank that way. The Y valve is so I can switch to the other filter if conditions won't allow me to safely change the plugged one.
In the event that the fuel filter clogs really fast, I also thought about pulling the electric fuel pump off and re-plumbing it so it recirculates the gas in the tank thru a filter setup, so I can polish it myself. From searching I'm guessing that would save a lot of money, since it seems like I'd be looking at $400-$600 to get the tank polished professionally.
Any thoughts or advice? Where to get the parts? Any recommendations on parts? It looks like from the picture I'll have to buy nipples for the new filter? Should I get a bulb and setup a way to plumb it in, in case of emergency? Any warnings/advice?
BTW I love sailing with no motor running, but when the motor dies and there's no wind and you have some place you're trying to get to... that sucks!