Rear Aux. Tank in 355/356 Carver AC/MY

[tomschauer]

I think maybe someone said: hey, there's a big empty space here that no one can get to, what should we do with it? Someone else said lets put a third fuel tank in there, increase our fuel capacity and range specs to help sales!

[mjk1040]

Yea Tom, I'd like to invite them all to the boat for a drink and then say which one of you geniuses came up with this bright idea and how do we fix it now without cutting open my boat!

[bud37]

Qr Bbpost Yea Tom, I'd like to invite them all to the boat for a drink and then say which one of you geniuses came up with this bright idea and how do we fix it now without cutting open my boat!

Sorry about your turn of events.....on one hand you are lucky to catch this when you did,could have been summer out on the lake....also cutting the swim platform has to be better than some people I have seen that had to cut the side hull open, another bulkheads, stringers and hardtop roof.....good luck with it for you and your dock mate and please be extra careful with the gas stuff .......

[mjk1040]

Thanks All!

[Elliott]

Qr Bbpost Thanks again all for the endless knowledge, on with the decommissioning project. 3 Months till launch and another great season I hope!

mjk1040
Sorry it took me so long, I have not used the forum in so long , other than facebook , that I forgot how to get to this point, which took 20 minutes.
I have several pictures of the inside are. If you could send an email to me it would make it easier to get them to you. otherwise I might go through fb. I never did end up even trying to purt fuel in the tank as the previous owner said he had never used it either.
send to ellshu@gmail.com and they will go out tonight
Elliott

[mjk1040]

Follow up! Took the aft cabin bolster apart on the rear port side of our 355 to see what was what. In Elliot's pictures it shows the electric shore power box and to the starboard side of that an open space where he took pictures starboard of his rear aux fuel tank. Well his boat has a wall missing or has been cut out, cause to the starboard of the shore power box I have a solid plywood wall that was fiber glassed in when the boat was built. No access at all to the top of the aft aux tank to remove anything to gain access to pump this tank down. It now appears that the only way I am going to gain access to any of the tank top to remove fuel sending unit or the larger inspection cover it to remove the night stand located to the starboard of the aft berth. It appears that after removing about 6 - 8 drywall screws the entire night stand as a unit will come out. Can anyone confirm this? If this works, I then have about 3" space to work in to remove the fuel sending unit to gain access to the bottom of the tank. Then again has anyone been able to feed a pick up hose down the fill port to the bottom of this aft tank? The marina just pumped off the neighbors 356, going to check with them how they did it too.

[Viper]

That sounds kind of strange Mike. Unless the vintage makes a difference, my recollection is that there is access to the top of the tank. I don't recall what I've gone through to get at them but they weren't completely blocked off and I didn't have to cut anything to get there, just panel removal. Does yours have a removable section of counter top on the starboard side next to the bed?

[tomschauer]

Mike when we bought our boat it had sat on the hard for three years (they wanted to much$$) with all three tanks 1/2 full or better. I insisted they drain all three before survey and sea trial. They pumped them all out though the fills. I have used all three without any problems.
If you are going to abandon your aft tank, maybe pump out through the fill, add several gallons of water and pump out again. I would think that would dilute any fuel to the point where you would not have safety or smell issue from your leaking tank.

[mjk1040]

Viper the night stand top pops off, then there is a cross panel to the cabinet in the way. Looks like a few correct screws removed and the entire cabinet can be removed, then there is a 3-4" space between the plywood panel and the swim platform to reach in and get to the sending unit or farther back to the center inspection cover. Since I have a long endoscope camera, I'm going to attempt the fill port route first as Tom mentioned. The marina crew just pumped off a 2001 356 rear aux tank next to me, so I was gong to see how they did it today. The fill port is 2", so its just a matter of getting the right type of hose down the fill hose and to the bottom of the tank. Where there's a will, there's a way!

[Viper]

That sounds more like it. There's not much access just a few inches as you mentioned but you can get there without cutting anything. If I remember right, the deck fill is on the port side, get a couple of hefty friends to stand on that side of the boat in hopes of guiding all the liquid in that direction. Fingers crossed that it's a straight fitting on top of the tank and not a 90* elbow, I don't remember.