Water in fuel tank compartment repair.

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Spdnby

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Good morning my fellow Parker enthusiasts.
Came across the ugly during recent electrical troubleshooting.
Fuel level sender connected to aftermarket level gauge.
Original owner replaced the level sender and added an aftermarket gauge for fuel level also.
I recently installed a new ddashboard to fit a 9" garmin unit in the dash.

My parker as some will be most likely remember my resent notched transom and splashwell questions, is a 95 23' sport cabin boat with a 96 200hp HPDI unit hung on the back.

Well I lift the circular access hole in the deck to find my sending unit completely corroded and sitting in muck wet.

My 150 gallon tank is below a closed deck glassed in. Aluminum tank.
Access cover exposes 2 wire sensor and a little off to the side the ground tab bonded to exterior of the tank with a thru bolt for wire attachment.

Pictures will follow.

Aft of the tank compartment looking under the deck from that access hole to the transom under the deck I can see from my memory an oval hole roughly 3"x 6" opening with the bottom of that opening level with the top of my tank.
That opening would allow any water however or fuel if ever filling the tank exterior compartment area to spill over into the rear bilge and end up nearest the back transom wall at the rear bilge pump.

The under deck fuel tank compartment I'm discussing has a roughly from my memory a 1" perimeter what feels like open cell foam which is which is saturated to the top with sea water. No fuel. Just sea water.

I would have no way to get a picture of the space around the exterior of the tank and interior wall if the boats tank compartment.

Temporarily at the very least I need to drain that saturated foam that would occasionally slosh around land on the top of the tank and corrode my sending units.

I know I got bigger issue but this is my immediate task at hand.

I have several ideas that I am almost positive will work without cutting up my deck which to make like new would be the only solution.

I beleive this extra weight is contributing to the the scubber under water condition I had described if you look at my splashwell posts made maybe 2 moths ago where I discussed the issues with Linwood Parker.

Thank you.

I could post my HID if needed and pictures will be posted in a few hours.

I'll post a couple of ideas I got on a temp solution after I hear some of your comments. Thank you. This really sucks.

BTW when I bought the boat there was a fault in the rear bilge pump wiring where a connection corroded and failed the pump and the rear bilge filled with water. My compartments are not compromised so please focus on the saturated foam around the tank issue. It is this I am mostly conserned about at the moment. Even though even that is not an emergency concern for me either.
 
I just replaced the 155 gal. tank in my 95 cc . It was contained in a coffin box which had about 2-3 inches of foam around and under the tank. My tank was corroded from the outside in because it was sitting on water saturated foam. From my experience doing this I can see no way to dry out the foam under the tank. I tried to drill a hole in the aft bulk head to allow the water to drain out with the idea to plug it when drained. Very little came out. Maybe a quart. Upon removal of the tank I found that it was sitting in about 7-10 gallons of water that did not drain thru the foam and had been there for years.
I took pictures of the process but have not been unable to upload them to this site. (windows 7 using google photos )

If you would like to call me for more info 410 382 4555
Charles
 
Are the deck plates or pie plates leaking and or bad O rings? How many deck plates do you have? Remove the plates, if no gas odor, use a fan blowing to sky and should dry out. sounds like trapped water and need to find where it is entering. Maybe your limber hole under is cockpit is clogged thus not draining to bilge. search the archives for previous discussions

B2
 
charlesretired":349w0fdv said:
I just replaced the 155 gal. tank in my 95 cc . It was contained in a coffin box which had about 2-3 inches of foam around and under the tank. My tank was corroded from the outside in because it was sitting on water saturated foam. From my experience doing this I can see no way to dry out the foam under the tank. I tried to drill a hole in the aft bulk head to allow the water to drain out with the idea to plug it when drained. Very little came out. Maybe a quart. Upon removal of the tank I found that it was sitting in about 7-10 gallons of water that did not drain thru the foam and had been there for years.
I took pictures of the process but have not been unable to upload them to this site. (windows 7 using google photos )

If you would like to call me for more info 410 382 4555
Charles


Hi Charles....could you possibly send pics to [email protected]? Thanks.
 
Brent":2wpuy5cy said:
Are the deck plates or pie plates leaking and or bad O rings? How many deck plates do you have? Remove the plates, if no gas odor, use a fan blowing to sky and should dry out. sounds like trapped water and need to find where it is entering. Maybe your limber hole under is cockpit is clogged thus not draining to bilge. search the archives for previous discussions

B2
Good suggestions. I poured 5 gallon bucket fills in the cockpit limber hole. (I had to look up the term 'limber') and the water drained to bilge area very quickly. So I am almost sure that the limber hole is performing as designed.

Deck plates are old but I check the oring seals and they look solid.

There are 2. One for sender and ground bond tab for tank and the other is for the tank fill and vent hose connections for the top of the tank.
 
Brent":2hc4qqcw said:
Are the deck plates or pie plates leaking and or bad O rings? How many deck plates do you have? Remove the plates, if no gas odor, use a fan blowing to sky and should dry out. sounds like trapped water and need to find where it is entering. Maybe your limber hole under is cockpit is clogged thus not draining to bilge. search the archives for previous discussions

B2


Hi Brent I beleive it entered and has been there since I had a bad electrical connection to bilge pump which caused it to fail and bilge area to fill abnormally high.
 
makes sense
a fan blowing outward over a open deck plate should help. I have a solar fan when boat is not in use. Dale H who started this site use an inverted P trap in a pie plate. Either one allows the below deck to ventilate . Adding a high water alarm make be useful, too. Often we check the pump and vision check the bilge before leaving the dock

B2
 
Brent":1tnq34z4 said:
makes sense
a fan blowing outward over a open deck plate should help. I have a solar fan when boat is not in use. Dale H who started this site use an inverted P trap in a pie plate. Either one allows the below deck to ventilate . Adding a high water alarm make be useful, too. Often we check the pump and vision check the bilge before leaving the dock

B2

Hi Brent,
I'm not quite sure I understand the '' inverted p trap in a pie plate..".....
Ummm if I use an a fan blowing out ward over an open deck lid it would pull air from the rear bilge area thru the fuel compartment opening in the rear transverse stringer.
I'm thinking it could help too but the foam is saturated to the top.
 
Brent":22ubo082 said:
viewtopic.php?t=6718


Holy crap Brent that was a great read.....

And do you know that over the winter this year I did get mold symptoms.......easily cleaned and killed for the most part...but coincidence .....I think not. Thank you very much.

Oh how hindsight is 20/20.
 
charlesretired":39u7zkc6 said:
I just replaced the 155 gal. tank in my 95 cc . It was contained in a coffin box which had about 2-3 inches of foam around and under the tank. My tank was corroded from the outside in because it was sitting on water saturated foam. From my experience doing this I can see no way to dry out the foam under the tank. I tried to drill a hole in the aft bulk head to allow the water to drain out with the idea to plug it when drained. Very little came out. Maybe a quart. Upon removal of the tank I found that it was sitting in about 7-10 gallons of water that did not drain thru the foam and had been there for years.
I took pictures of the process but have not been unable to upload them to this site. (windows 7 using google photos )

If you would like to call me for more info 410 382 4555
Charles

Thank you so much and special shout out for accepting my call and giving me all your awesome info and insight. I am truly humbled by yours and Brent's info and efforts in helping me to quickly understanding the issues at hand. Thanks again!
 
Brent":xhqg3c02 said:
Only way I know how to dry it out is open all deck plates

P trap turned upside down into a pie plate


Do you know in its simplest term and description I could only visualize and inverted p threaded in to the deck plate as you described. And that's exactly what Dale has built.
As I have just a lil more time I will get pics posted. I need to convert all my pics to smaller sizes for posting on this site.....if there is one annoying thing about this site is the 350kb max picture size.....I understand wholly why though too!
 
New o-rings are a quick fix. I just did mine recently.
Ventilation........ is key.
 
Brent":sirlo1hw said:
any updates?

B2

Hi Brent.
I'm at a crossroads at the moment. The slosh water laying on the tank that corroded my fuel level sensor is still an issue. Although ugh it is not dire that it be replaced right this minute. A little research and diligence is needed to determine the extent of the saruated foam. My symptom could just be water that never dried laying up there due to the failed bilge pump I described the OP.
Due to several other priorities I only just put my boat in the slip 2 weeks ago. With the installation of a custom dash I fabbed I only got out last Saturday afternoon for the first time. And three more times since that. My main priority is to fish. NJ season is short.....usually first week of November. So.....for the time being it's gonna wait.

Captain Charles has been an invaluable resource as well. Discussing with him I have gained some great insight and several possibilities for the repair.
Your comments have also been invaluable as well with the venting issues and what not.

Thank you both for the help!!


I also may bring just for the sake of a second opinion to a fiber glass specialist who has pulled several tanks and who could potentially have a procedure to determine the extent of the saturation and determine a price and cost basis of me doing the repair vs this specialist. Tank alone is a grand. So I will prob take up the task.

Tapatalk needs to be installed as well......

To be continued.....
 
Megabyte":2hmtx3dy said:
New o-rings are a quick fix. I just did mine recently.
Ventilation........ is key.


That definitely needs to be done as a simple 'upgrade' but I know mine don't leak and if I pull the floor and even not these pie plated and mating flanges will get replaced as a hole.
Get it? 'AS A HOLE" LOL :D
 
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