Downeaster Yachts.com - Topic: FUEL TANK REPAIR ON DE 38

jimha on FUEL TANK REPAIR ON DE 38

Tue, 16 Aug 2016 09:47:45 -0400

Rick,

My fuel tank is aluminum. The water tanks are stainless. I am under the impression that diesel is not compatible with stainless. My boat was built in 1975. A good honest boat that served us well.

Cheers , Jim

Rick on FUEL TANK REPAIR ON DE 38

Wed, 20 Jul 2016 16:44:31 -0400

Jim:

What year is your boat? Mine is a 79 and we have stainless tanks. The PO was so cheap I would not think he would have upgraded to SS if it was aluminum originally.

Rick

jimha on FUEL TANK REPAIR ON DE 38

Tue, 19 Jul 2016 08:52:21 -0400

Have recently repaired leaky fuel tank. Was a hundred hour job that stretched over 2 years. Cost was $150 to weld a new bottom onto the tank. My tank is Y shaped and I had to cut 8 inches off the bottom portion in order to get the tank out of the boat. I also had to remove the teak trim on the sides of the main hatch to get the tank out of the boat. The tank itself is just placed into the hull and then glassed in on the top, so it is easy to cut the tank out.

By keeping the tank dry and free from stray electric current, the aluminum was in good shape and a replacement was not needed. Lost 8 gallons of capacity so now we hold ONLY 75 gallons. Have many pictures but can't figure out how to get them from PICASA to this web site.

Cheers and beers,

Jim