Clean fuel tank

[joeu235]

My skid steer has some gunk and water in the diesel tank. I'd like to pull the tank but that involves pulling the engine out first which I'm not going to do. Anyone know of a method or product that would help?

 

[davesl708]

Have you tried draining the tank, disconnect the fuel line and use a shop vac with a small hose from the fill cap and suck the junk out?
Then do a flush with some fuel to get the fine stuff out.

 

[hslogger]

Daves' got the right idea. I recently cleaned up a riding mower left abused for ions. Tank pull was not in my sights. I opened it up and used a siphon to empty it. Then shop vac'ed out the rest. THEN,blew clean air in there and shopvac once again. I had the line plugged at the engine.

Then, I unplugged the line and blew air back through to the tank and shop vac once again. I replaced inline filter and then primed the hose and the filter,filled the tank up with the same fresh new fuel and voila. Doggone funky fuel tanks are something you have to go overboard on cleaning or they will give you fits forever.

 

[ultrarunner]

On the boat I used a fuel pump with a 30" length of copper tubing... got a lot of nasty stuff out the far corners.

 

[Sprinklerman]

Go get some cheap in line fuel filters and an electric fuel pump and fuel line . First siphon out as much as possible . Next unhook the fuel line from the tank , install a fuel filter then the electric fuel pump , put in a 1/4 tank of fuel and recirculate fom the bottom of the tank to the top . Change filters when clogged . Do this till clean .

 

[joeu235]

I pulled the common supply and return fitting and stuck a wet vac hose down inside the tank. I bought the cheapest unit Lowes had because I wasn't going to use the $600 vacuum I have for my remodeling business. Skid steer is back together and working fine. Thanks for the input.

 

[Coyote machine]

Good job! Now make sure all the fuel in is as clean as possible. :thumbsup:

 

[JRobyn]

Not to sound like the Safety Police or anything, but guys, please be very cautious with the shop vac method!! Pulling a 10 or 20 gal vacuum tank full of gasoline (or any fuel) fumes with a cheap, non-sealed, high rpm electric motor is a recipe for disaster. At least be sure to do it outside well away from anything combustible and with no one but you around to incinerate.

- Jay

 

[joeu235]

I was smoking cigars and did the work in the hay barn.

I purposely ran the skid steer until the low fuel light came on. Then I emptied the rest of the tank out with the bottom drain. The shop vac maybe sucked out 2 gallons of stuff.

 

[Coyote machine]

I was smoking cigars and did the work in the hay barn.

I purposely ran the skid steer until the low fuel light came on. Then I emptied the rest of the tank out with the bottom drain. The shop vac maybe sucked out 2 gallons of stuff.

I hope you remembered to cut the 3rd prong off the shop vac cord before standing in the water hole on the barn floor, in old flip flops. Oh, and you did of course use a hair dryer to light your cigars, right?!