Had to open up the port fuel tank..always something.

[Southern Boater]

A trick I have employed for years for cleaning diesel tanks is to use a 5 gal pail with a tight sealing top. I cut one hole in the lid to fit my shop vac hose and another for a flexible 1/2" PVC hose. Seal both tubes to the lid with duct tape. The shop vac creates vacuum in the pail which allows the PVC hose to suck up whatever is in the tank. The fuel/crap mixture drops into the pail. It should go without saying that this should NOT be used for gasoline.

Thanks for the tip

 

[Barking Sands]

Just to follow up and bring this to a close. Today I put 30 fresh gallons in the port tank, Then transferred approximately 65-70 gallons from the stbd to the port. We let the ~100 gallons sit in the tank for a few hours, Inspection panel was leak fee and dry. Then transferred fuel back towards the stbd tank to equalize the levels. Cleaned the Racor bowl. I just need to put a new filter in and run the fuel pump for a bit and we should be ready to go. Very happy with the Sea built inspection plate. All in all not a bad job that probably took me about 8 man hours give or take. The vast majority of that was actually transferring fuel and cleaning the interior of the tank. The actual cutting of the hole, drilling stud pattern and deburring and assembly was maybe 2-3 hours.

Very very happy to have an access port now.