ALMOST BLEW UP MY GAS TANK...READ THIS!

[RaceCarRich]

Could it have been a chemical reaction?

Fred were you using any cleaning chemicals or anything that could have spilled into tank when you had sender out?

You just added gasoline. Did you use a gas jug that might have had something else in it when you filled it?

Grabbing for straws but electrical doesn’t make sense. Perhaps an exothermic reaction leading to a precipitate (the “aluminum sludge”).

 

[PlayDate]

i sure they 20 years of experience fixing SR problems on the 'net. Good luck.

Is that English?

 

[Arminius]

Fire has always been the common enemy of boaters. A boat which bursts into flames during the night in a marina might be hauled into open water to sink by tugs with fireproof chains. A more likely outcome would be that the marina burns down with the only surviving hulls being those that were manned and could be motored out immediately. An owner can be a fire hazard.

 

[ttmott]

Fire has always been the common enemy of boaters. A boat which bursts into flames during the night in a marina might be hauled into open water to sink by tugs with fireproof chains. A more likely outcome would be that the marina burns down with the only surviving hulls being those that were manned and could be motored out immediately. An owner can be a fire hazard.

For some reason or another the OP believes the fuel tank need not be bonded nor the fuel level sender grounded. Several have tried to explain..... For the OP - look at your owner's manual and the electrical schematics. Here is a clip from the manual for the 52DB.. The upside down triangle denotes a bonding / ground connection. Notice also the "BLK" ground wire between the bond and fuel tank sender flange. Then in the second picture is how the bonding/grounding system is related to the battery negative buss including the fuel tank bonding tabs.

 

[joeyleggz]

Wow what a crazy thread welcome aboard!! most people first posts are what wax should I use and how do I remove boot stripes LOL. I have a few questions , Is it logical or feasible to vaporize/aerosol 12 gallons of gasoline in the time it took you to finish hooking up the wires and attempting to start the engine when you heard the boiling sound? Can 12 gallons of gasoline escape through a vent hole in a vapor form in that timeframe? I would think it would take hours to boil off 12 gallons of a liquid through a vent hole..
So if all power was shut off within a 5 minute time frame there should be no energy to heat up the tank or sending unit or wires. If the tank remain hot until the following day I could only assume that the surrounding area would show signs of damage melting fiberglass etc. even if the tank was warm to the touch 24 hours later it would’ve had to of been hot enough to boil gasoline inside the tank like a pot on the stove , the pot will always be hotter than the liquid inside of it, there should’ve been billowing smoke coming out of your boat after this event took place to the surrounding materials that the tank is sitting on . And if you did in fact remove aluminum sludge from the pot/tank melting/degrading I hope you’re not planning on using a new sending unit in the tank that just went through that situation . sounds like you would need to have the tank pulled and put a new one in ,no? Anyway again welcome aboard looking forward to your responses thank you

 

[joeyleggz]

I have a 1990 250DA. My gas sending unit died so I bought a Sierra replacement. Then I watched a bunch of You Tube videos. I noticed the old sending unit didn't have a ground. The new unit instructions said to ground it. The main ground terminal was located on the gas tank, 4 inches from the ground terminal of the sending unit. So I ran a ground wire.
I removed some old gas in my tank. I put in 12 gal of new gas and began to crank it until it got thru the system.
I heard something that sounded like boiling. Then hot fumes started belching from my gas weep hole. I rapidly cut off all power and got off the boat until things cooled down. The entire 12 gal. was gone. The inside of my gas tank was scarred. I had created a dead short and turned the tank into an oven!
I spent 2 days flushing my tank and removing residue. I am installing a second sending unit. The 1990 sending unit was grounded by the screws to the gas tank. No ground wire.
LESSON LEARNED. Observe and follow original wiring first.
Has anyone heard of this?

When did your sending unit stop working ? The day before you changed ? Is it possible the problem was there before you started the project ?

 

[Phasma]

Something is not adding up with this story. My BS radar detector is going off. Just a note.....this is not the place to BS or lie about Sea Ray boats. Could it be your original numbers were not accurate? There is about a million years of experience on here. It is an invaluable source of information For those in legitimate need

 

[Bt Doctur]

You CANNOT boil out gasoline without getting a BIG BANG out of it. Simply hooking up a ground had nothing to do with the problem.

 

[Steve S]

You CANNOT boil out gasoline without getting a BIG BANG out of it. Simply hooking up a ground had nothing to do with the problem.

BT, agreed. If I understand the physics correctly, gasoline in the liquid state is "relatively" inert. It is the gasoline fumes that create the explosive ratio of air/gasoline that allow combustion. That is why carburetor jets/injectors "atomize" the gasoline to create the proper air/fuel mixture (fumes) to allow combustion in the cylinders.

 

[Arminius]

The Monroe Co. Marina burned on 12/4/20. Please don't play with fire:

 

[jima]

Please do this to trouble shoot. With a volt meter .put ground lead onto the neg post of the battery that operates the fuel gauge with the problem. Place the positive lead onto the tank. Have some one start that engine. If positive voltage is found on the volt meter
there is a positive 12volt wire touches the tank


Place the positive lead on to the
tank. Have some one start that engine and read the meter. If there is positive volts on the meter, there is a positive 12 volt wire some where.
Some times when I was repairing fire appartus like under the dash board, when I was done what I was doing, a problem occured right in the area where I was working. And Shure enough I had either broke off a wire or loosend a wire at a connection point. I hope I have helped you.
Jima

 

[JimG]

Fred, the OP has not been back here since November 2nd... either he has fixed the problem or set the boat on fire.

 

[Juliery]

Fred, the OP has not been back here since November 2nd... either he has fixed the problem or set the boat on fire.

My bet is the OP is a troll. Nothing about his story made much sense to anyone here. Good riddance to him and drama queens everywhere. What a waste of our time! I talked with an insurance adjuster about boat fires. He said relatively rare but when they occur, often electrical or propane related. Most boat claims are some sort of collision. Gasoline fires are further down the list and usually a result of notable stupidity.

 

[FredM]

Hey Guys,
Thanks for all your replies. As I have said before, I cannot determine what caused the problem. So you can discuss the gas situation forever. I don't care. What I said happened, happened. Get over it.

The boat is running fine. I asked a buddy that owns local marine repair house to help me.
I found a broken wire on the starboard side of the gas tank that was attached to the ground strip. I ran the ground from there to the ground on the fuel sending unit I installed. Fuel gauge worked perfectly.

My buddy took it as a personal challenge to help me with the tank. After running new gas line and bending a new copper line to the carb, removing the carb twice for cleaning, installing a new fuel pump, flushing the tank with 30 gal of gas, and then installing a 4 micron filter from Amazon, the boat ran like a champ. The 4 micron filter does reduce some fuel flow. I'm not worried about that.

TO CLOSE: DON'T CONNECT THE GROUND OF THE FUEL SENDING UNIT TO THE GROUND TAB ATTACHED TO THE FUEL TANK.
ATTACH IT TO THE GROUND STRIP ON THE SIDE OF THE BULKHEAD ON THE STARBOARD SIDE OF THE FUEL TANK.

i will be happy to send a picture of the ground strip location if anyone wishes.
Sorry for the delay. It has been a challenging winter.

 

[Lazy Daze]

Glad you're still around, Fred... and haven't blown yourself up!

TO CLOSE: DON'T CONNECT THE GROUND OF THE FUEL SENDING UNIT TO THE GROUND TAB ATTACHED TO THE FUEL TANK.

Just to be clear, this statement is (still) false. Adding a ground in this way is perfectly fine and acceptable. In fact, if anything, it creates a better grounding situation should a certain ground pathway fail. Although we've said this a bunch of times already, I'm reiterating this primarily in case anyone reading this doesn't read through the whole thread. This is not opinion - this is fact.

 

[Juliery]

Glad you're still around, Fred... and haven't blown yourself up!


Just to be clear, this statement is (still) false. Adding a ground in this way is perfectly fine and acceptable. In fact, if anything, it creates a better grounding situation should a certain ground pathway fail. Although we've said this a bunch of times already, I'm reiterating this primarily in case anyone reading this doesn't read through the whole thread. This is not opinion - this is fact.

I totally agree with Lazy Daze. The OP conclusion of the ground connection being an issue is entirely mistaken. The ground buss bar and the ground connection on the tank are on the same circuit. All grounds eventually connect together. A good connection to any ground, although perhaps indirect, will have the same result. There is more to this story that remains untold.

 

[bobeast]

I totally agree with Lazy Daze. The OP conclusion of the ground connection being an issue is entirely mistaken. The ground buss bar and the ground connection on the tank are on the same circuit. All grounds eventually connect together. A good connection to any ground, although perhaps indirect, will have the same result. There is more to this story that remains untold.

agreed. Conclusions made on pseudo-science are often mistaken as trolls when in fact it is just a misunderstanding of how things work. Whichever the case, I'm glad the OP is up, running, and safe.