Wally

iTrader: (1)

A buddy of mine bought a boat that sat for 8years with full tank of gas. (80 gallons) first thing we did was level the trailer so we could take the sending unit out and look inside the tank to see if there was a lot of sludge...lucky for us there next to very little....we could see some water at the bottom too. So what we did was put the sending unit back in and siphon off about 10gal of gas to make some room in the tank. We ran over to menards and got 8 gallons of xylene and a few bottles of marvel mystery oil and a bottle of heat. Put 7 gallons of xylene the bottle of heat and two bottles of marvel in the main tank....the 10 gallons that was siphoned off got the last gallon of xylene. You mix it at a 10% ratio. Anyway hooked the boat up to the tow truck and ran around the neighborhood to mix it all up. Got back and started siphoning it out into 5gal gas cans. As the cans were filling up he was filling up all his cars trucks mowers etc......even put it in his wife's Lexus!! Was an older 2002 model but still i was shocked.......they all ran just fine! I had an older mid 90's Chevy beater pickup with a 5.0 and that didn't miss a beat on the mix either! The only thing we did was to make sure you didn't pour every last drop out of the gas can into what ever you were filling up....the water and varnish/crud settles down at the bottom so that was poured off into a separate container to be used for starting bon fires.
Just to be honest i still don't think i would use that gas today on anything i have right now...even my new (1yr old) lawn mower. But i was shocked that all the cars ran just fine with it...

frickstyle

I can speak from experience that this may become very painful and annoying. I had crap in one tank when I got the boat back together. I had it professionally cleaned, twice, and cycled a few hundred gallons of AV fuel through the systems. Still was plugin filters for close to two years. I probably went through 20 filters minimum between the 100 micron, Fuel/Water Separator (out of a diesel truck setup), and the 10 micron just before the carb.

It took FOREVER! I would get it professionally cleaned, they are mobile, I'll try to remember the company name (although I would prefer to forget!) There was a lot of idling back to the dock. If my hours meters show 100 hours, actual engine run time was possibly half of that @ 50 total hours on the boat. Not a good situation if you're out here in anything over 4 footers, you could sink the boat.

I hope that your situation is different, because I wouldn't want to wish that trouble on anyone. Good luck, I'll post up the info if I can dig it out. Real good guy that runs his own operation, easy to deal with, and fair.

getrdunn

iTrader: (7)

Egads that does sound miserable. I got extremely lucky on last boat I bought from a neighbor that was shrink rapped and stored outside for several years. Was a 32 spectra with two 70 gallon tanks. At that time I never gave it much of a thought as it had 454/330's that were gonna be pulled shortly there after anyway. All I did was prime and both started right up. That was with old school QJ and points dist. Didn't skip a beat. I was amazed to say the least. Changed the filters shortly there after and ran across the pond to Wisconsin and back the following day. No issues.

Not going that route again with new rebuilds with higher CR.

frickstyle

Nice - well hopefully I just had bad luck. There was "something" in one of the tanks. Like it caked onto the bottom surface of the tank and would flake up over time. Weird, no one could figure out exactly what it was. No leaks in the tanks, etc. Had to be more than just dried varnish I would guess.

Good luck, I'm sure you'll figure it out.

dunnitagain

Here is what I do at my Shop, I get old ass boats that somebody inherited from grandpa that sat 10 years.
Pull the fuel sender , ( They are probably about junk anyways) I have a tube that I hook up, to a farm fuel pump I got at TSC.
Suck out everything you can through the sender hole. Go to your local automotive paint store and buy 5 gallons of Paint Gun Wash thinner
Pour it in the tanks , Reinstall your senders temporally, hook it up to your truck and jerk it around the block for 15-20 minutes like the other guy said. ( I use my forklift and raise and lower the trailer)
Pump it out , Wash , Rinse , Repeat until its clean. Xylene will work also , but is pricey . Acetone evaporates to fast, mineral spirits isnt aggressive enough.
You can tyrap a rag around a broom handle to help scrub the stubborn **** of the bottom. Then let the rest of the thinner evaporate off.
Id recommend pulling your diptubes out and checking for screens , Ive found some older boats with Aluminum Pipe dip tubes ,
have a small screen inside the tube, at the elbow and are plugged full of crap.

JRider

iTrader: (1)

Pull the sender as others have said, it may not need as much attention as you think. For verification go in with a cheap cell phone scope camera, may save you a lot of work.

getrdunn

iTrader: (7)

Im good to go. Tks for all the replies. Even have fifty gallon plastic barrels. Anticipated on using them for water someday but I have enough.