First post on here, but I have been on here reading and learning from the many projects and topics for a few years- Thanks to everyone for the input! I have a 2004 2501 center console, which I bought about 4 years ago. The boat was repowered in 2015 w/ twin yam F200s, then the starboard one blew the powerhead 12 months ago (with 967 hours and 13 months out of warranty). Anyway, about 2 weeks ago I came down to the boat to find a couple cups of gas in the bilge. Not surprisingly, it was a couple days after running the boat hard in rough seas for a couple days straight in a tournament. Immediately pulled the bilge fuse and cleaned out as much fuel as possible before pulling the boat out, and putting in my driveway with the bow jacked all the way up on the trailer. Note- its a 200 gallon RDS aluminum tank, and it has about 57 gallons in it (according to Garmin/Yamaha J1939 integration, which has been accurate to the gallon for quite a while). Let it sit a day, cleaned bilge out again, waited another day then checked to see if there was any more fuel visible- there was not. Then dropped the bow as low as it would go on the trailer and let it sit another day, then jacked it back up again. About a 1/2 gallon showed up then. At this point I am pretty certain there is a hole or pin holes or broken weld somewhere on the front of the tank- not leaking from fill or vent connections, and only leaking when the bow was down (remember there's only about a 1/4 tank of fuel in it). Also tried having a friend put about 5 gallons of fuel in it while I watched at the fill/ vent hoses to see if there was a visible leak just while refueling- there was not. At this point I'm coming to the reality that its the tank, but wanted to do a pressure test to see.
Today, I cut the vent line at the vent, plugged it, and used a pneumatic pipe plug stuffed way down the fill pipe to plug the fill line. Then removed both fuel lines from the water separators in the bilge. Plugged one and put a 0-15PSI guage with a schrader valve on the last remaining fuel line. When I put air to it, I can hear the gas in tank gurgling, but its not even holding .5 PSI (1/2 PSI). Had a spray bottle with soapy water to spray at connections, but not even holding enough pressure to find a leak/bubbles. Prob should try that with another person to really inspect it while the air is going in.
So, looks like I'm down again for the time being. Fortunately, I own a cabinet shop and have enough space inside to bring the boat to the shop to de-rig it and get started removing the T-top, console etc to cut the deck out and pull the tank. I can find the stringers on outboard port and starboard sides of the tank, as well as forward tank bulkhead, and aft bulkhead seems to be just under the forward edge of the livewell/leaning post. Had hoped to get a layout from Parker as I have done before on another boat, but they suck now that the Parkers sold it and don't call or email anyone back. I have looked thru the threads on CP and THT that came up on fuel leak, tank replacement etc searches and found a lot of good info. Figured I'd put it out there now and see if anyone has any suggestions or advice for me given the details here. It would be great if I could get the tank dimensions or even a drawing so I can get my aluminum guy going on the new tank while I tear everything down. Thanks in advance!
Drew
Today, I cut the vent line at the vent, plugged it, and used a pneumatic pipe plug stuffed way down the fill pipe to plug the fill line. Then removed both fuel lines from the water separators in the bilge. Plugged one and put a 0-15PSI guage with a schrader valve on the last remaining fuel line. When I put air to it, I can hear the gas in tank gurgling, but its not even holding .5 PSI (1/2 PSI). Had a spray bottle with soapy water to spray at connections, but not even holding enough pressure to find a leak/bubbles. Prob should try that with another person to really inspect it while the air is going in.
So, looks like I'm down again for the time being. Fortunately, I own a cabinet shop and have enough space inside to bring the boat to the shop to de-rig it and get started removing the T-top, console etc to cut the deck out and pull the tank. I can find the stringers on outboard port and starboard sides of the tank, as well as forward tank bulkhead, and aft bulkhead seems to be just under the forward edge of the livewell/leaning post. Had hoped to get a layout from Parker as I have done before on another boat, but they suck now that the Parkers sold it and don't call or email anyone back. I have looked thru the threads on CP and THT that came up on fuel leak, tank replacement etc searches and found a lot of good info. Figured I'd put it out there now and see if anyone has any suggestions or advice for me given the details here. It would be great if I could get the tank dimensions or even a drawing so I can get my aluminum guy going on the new tank while I tear everything down. Thanks in advance!
Drew