WATERGUY- We keep our 34 ss in Poulsbo but live in Vancouver, Wa . I did all the work on removing/installing the engines and getting the tanks out and back in by myself with a little bit of help from some friends on manhandling the tanks out of the boat. I made up an A frame that fit inside the salon (with all the furniture removed) and lifted the engines out one at a time and slide the removed engine over on top of the other while we got the tank out and had one built. Then I repeated the process on the other side. The boat sat at a severe list one side or the other during this whole process. These were 350's but the process would be the same if you have 454's or the Dodge 460's. In that I live in Vancouver, Wa . I had a fabricator on Hayden Island, Oregon build the new tanks. He was competitive with the Bellingham people that I talked to plus there was no sales tax. I had the dimensions changed a little bit to make it a little easier to get the tanks in and out by making them an inch or two shorter and a couple of inches wider so I did not lose much capacity so each tank was still close to 100 gallons capacity. I did the work right in the slip. The biggest problem was safely getting the fuel out of the tanks as they were nearly full when the slow leak started in the starboard tank. I used a jack rabbit pump run by a drill and pumped out of the pick up tube until the level got below the pickup tube and then made up a longer tube to get the majority of the gas out. I made sure that all the hatches were open and I had a large fan running near the drill pump to keep fumes from concentrating I put the gas in a bunch of 5 gallon cans and saved them until it was time to refill the tanks. I now have 13 five gallon plastic gas containers if anyone need one or two. It was a lot of work and took the better part of 4 months during the winter to get it all done. I was able to get the tanks out with the transmissions still in place. One thing that helped getting the tanks out was finally figuring out that they were not built as a rectangle but were wider at the top than at the bottom (makes since as it fits the contour of the boat) and that they had to come out by tilting the top out first rather that trying to tilt the bottom out first. Seems like you would notice something like that but it took us awhile to catch on. Good luck. I have no idea what the cost would be to have this all done in a yard but it would be high. The tank costs were in the $850.00 apiece range. Hal ----- Original Message ----- From: " waterguy " < markmoburg @ mindspring .com> To: " UnifliteWorld " < unifliteworld @ googlegroups .com> Sent: Wednesday, September 29, 2010 11:39:50 AM Subject: [ UnifliteWorld ] Re: Gig Harbor Sunset
hmatthie - where are you located? I am probably going to have to have my tanks on my 36 SS replaced in the near future. If you're in the Puget Sound area, I'd like to talk to you about the job, e.g., who did it, did you like them, who supplied the tanks, what the cost was, etc. Many thanks. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups " UnifliteWorld " group. To post to this group, send email to unifliteworld @ googlegroups .com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to unifliteworld + unsubscribe @ googlegroups .com. For more options, visit this group at http ://groups. google .com/group/ unifliteworld ? hl =en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "UnifliteWorld" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/unifliteworld?hl=en.
