Fuel System Main Tank

[ajh]

Just purchased a 1989 48 foot Californian\Carver Aft Cabin Motor yacht. Vessel is equipped with two 85 gallon saddle tanks in the engine room and one 350 gallon tank under the main bedroom bed. The previous owner only used the two 85 gallon saddle tanks. The attached photo shows, i assume, the valving required to feed from the main tank. What is the proper valve positions required to feed from the main tank? Are there any other valves in the engine room required to be set to feed from the main tank? Also how does this work? Does the main tank fill the the two saddle tanks so that the engines only obtain fuel directly from the saddle tanks?

[buster53]

Just a heads up...
Any chance there is fuel, even if only a couple of gallons that have been sitting in the main tank, possibly for years?
I suggest having that tank checked out, even pressure tested to make sure there are no leaks. Putting that tank back into service after years of non use could potentially open up a big can of worms.

[ajh]

Fuel gage suggest the tank is full. That's about 300 gallons. Not sure how long the fuel has be in the tank, but my guess would be 3 to 5 years. No leaks from the tank since i owned the boat and not sure why the previous owner never used the main tank. I do know that he would only travel short distances, from marina to marina, so using the saddle tanks may have been sufficient for him.

If the fuel is old as I think would adding a fuel stabilizer minimize the risk of using?

[buster53]

Fuel stabilizer won’t make it better. All it does is make fresh fuel last longer. At the very least, that fuel needs to be polished...worst case, pumped out and disposed of. All depends on how old it is.

Polishing will filter out any crud floating around the tank and pull out any water that could be there.

[buster53]

Source of the post Fuel gage suggest the tank is full. That's about 300 gallons. Not sure how long the fuel has be in the tank, but my guess would be 3 to 5 years. No leaks from the tank since i owned the boat and not sure why the previous owner never used the main tank. I do know that he would only travel short distances, from marina to marina, so using the saddle tanks may have been sufficient for him.

If the fuel is old as I think would adding a fuel stabilizer minimize the risk of using?

How long did the previous owner own the boat? Is it possible that 300 gallons has been sitting in the tank since the owner before him?

[bud37]

Have to admit, that valve set up is a little hard to look at.....almost like there are some labels missing or we are not seeing all of it.I know I would have to see what is behind there to figure it out. Perhaps there is a transfer pump somewhere, do you have the original manuals ?

A question, what did your surveyor write about the valving and tank fuel control ? I guess you could get all the fuel polished ( which would be a good idea at this point ), but the valving still needs to be sorted out.

I wonder if Carver has any old info for that model.