Emptying Fuel Tank

[p h holder]

I have a 6.5m Ribcraft with an inbuilt fuel tank. This tank has 200litres of petrol in it which is over 2 years old. I am told that if I use this fuel I will destroy my 200hp Optimax engine.

My question is: How do I get this fuel out of the tank? I have tried to purchase a portable electric pump, I have tried to hire a portable electric pump, all to no avail.

There is a primer ball in the line, so far I have not tried to use this! Can anyone help me as to how to get this fuel out.

[Seaflyer02]

Assuming your boat is on the trailer, place your tank you are transferring the fuel into on the ground (receiving tank lower than the one in the boat).
Either use a separate hose fed direct into your boat tank and the other end placed in your receiving tank (straight forward syphoning task), or disconnect the feed from the engine and extend this feed to reach your receiving tank, again a simple syphoning task (this way you could use the bulb to start the flow).
If they are metal tanks don't forget to earth everything.

[HDAV]

You could ring the "mis fuelled your car" people, tell them you need some fuel pumping (are you keeping the fuel?) if you can find the actual man in the van and offer him £££ to pump it out

What's the plan with the 200litre of potentially stale fuel?

[beamishken]

For the £200+ value of fuel your going to dispose of you could install a first class filter and water separator system which you would then have for the rest of the boats life and use the old fuel
If your worried about the engine standing with old fuel in it if you can't empty the tank in one go then finish off the day on a 5 gallon can of fresh fuel so the engine stops on good fuel and restarts on good fuel
Most filter systems you can get different micron filters so you could possibly run a finer filter initially untill your sure the fuel is OK
Obviously keep a few spares onboard

[Poly]

How big is the tank?
Why do you think it will kill your engine - is there water or crud in it?
Do you have a petrol car?

[p h holder]

hi taking your advise I have found a racor clear bowl separator B32013 which will take out the water but I am still told that the fuel wont combust please give me your veiws

[beamishken]

The therory is as fuel ages if it's in certain plastic tanks the more volatile parts of the fuel can migrate out of the fuel which in theory means that the engine might not start it's not supposed to happen with metal tanks.
However I've never found an engine that wouldn't start on old fuel. Personally I think it's one of those urban myths that keep getting repeated with little actual proof
I'd fit a good filter/separator and just use it,if your concerned chuck a few ltrs of fresh fuel in with it
What will kill an injection engine is water or dirt which will corrode the internals of the fuel system if not filtered out
Water and dirt are not exclusive to old fuel you can get water and dirt from many sources ie dirty cans, careless filling not sealing the cap properly after filling dirty supply tanks etc hence the suggestion to spend your money on good filtration not disposing of fuel that is probably fine

Even if you do drain the tank unless you have an inspection hatch to mop up the dregs your more than likely going to leave the crap in the bottom of the tank after you've removed the good fuel from the top
It's the last half inch that has all the crap in and you usually can't get it out anyway