water in fuel

[jenga]

Had major problems on opening day--Can you believe the bass gods would curse me like that? Fished for only about 2 hours at most before engine would not run.    Eventually made it back to launch-thanks to trolling motor. North Bay marine pumped some serious water out of our fuel. We are not sure if it is coming in through the gas fill cap area or through the vent. We have a 93 skeeter 200dx. Anyone else have a similar situation? The gas fill cap is above transom on back--how stupid was the boat builder that designed that? Why not make it so the gas fill spot is located along sides of boat. The vents are on the side but it seems to me that waves could still hit it and water could be running down the vent line too. Need to figure out something to modify this. I suggest to NB marine to just reroute the vent line to into the boat somewhere. Doug said not a good idea with gas fumes into the boat. I told him I really don't care where it vents but I need it somewhere water won't get into easily. Anyone else out there with a skeeter have any ideas?  Brand new gas today so I know it wasn't ethenol.

Thanks,

Jenga

[Fishing Rhino]

Regarding the vents.  There is a simple solution which prevents any incidental water which does get splashed into them from getting to the fuel tank.

Put a loop or two in the vent line.  Unless the vent ingests a lot of water, it will never make it to the fuel tank.  It settles in the bottom of the loop(s), and there it stays until it evaporates.

There are/were some fancy little doohickeys, don't know what they were called, but they had a water collector in the line.  Inside was a float which was like the needle and seat arrangement in carburetors.

The "plug" prevented gas fumes from escaping into the bilge.  But, when enough water collected, the float would lift the plug and let water escape until the plug once again sealed the drain hole.

The loopy vents worked fine for us at a much lower cost.

[stratos 375]

You didn't say if you had a spin off type fuel filter/ water separator. If you don't have one, you need one. But first of all, it's best to eliminate the source(s) of infiltration.

[fishfordollars]

Ain't the vent. It's the gas. Real problem for everyone. Don't leave the tank half full. Run a water seperator(Use the one with the glass bowl), inline fuel filter, and treat the hell out of any gas you buy. I have had this system on my boat for 6 months and have yet to see a drop of water in the bottom of the bowl. It's an ongoing problem that ain't going to go away.

I run a Skeeter and the vent is located over on the side of the cap. Never had a problem with water intrusion from it and never heard anyone even mention that to be a problem. Again, it's bad gas and/or lack of attention to the treatment of it. If skeeter even dreamed that would be a problem they would have relocated the venting tubes years ago.

[jenga]

Fishfordollars,

I know it is not bad gas. I use treatment all the time plus I just put in 10 gallons of gas. I only put gas in that I know I will use for the day. I have a water seperator on my boat. My mechanic metioned about putting a loop in the vent and putting new gaskets on the gas cap. Thanks for the advice.

Jenga

[Crestliner2008]

Get yourself a water separator and install it yourself. Cheap insurance. The canister filters made by Yamaha are the only ones with 10 micron filtration. Most others only filter down to 20 microns. Not sure this is as important as it sounds, but anything we do with boating (or fishing) comes down to only one thing - confidence.

[jenga]

I have a water seperator on my boat and don't know if I metioned it but the boat is a 93.  I would think that the vent would have a check valve.  Is this a common thing to have on the fuel vent.  I know it is not bad gas and there was a ton of water in my gas tank.  I was fishing in 3 footers on lake st. clair, which is normaly where I fish.  I need to figure something out so this doesn't happen again.

Thanks,

Jenga

[fishfordollars]

I have a water seperator on my boat and don't know if I metioned it but the boat is a 93. I would think that the vent would have a check valve. Is this a common thing to have on the fuel vent. I know it is not bad gas and there was a ton of water in my gas tank. I was fishing in 3 footers on lake st. clair, which is normaly where I fish. I need to figure something out so this doesn't happen again.

Thanks,

Jenga

The last bad gas I got came straight from the pump. It was trash. i have pics that i will post later. It's some bad looking stuff. Had to drain the entire system.

[Al Wolbach]

I would be willing to bet that if you kept your gas tank full, not empty, and use Stabil this problem would fix itself..........Al

[TrackerG]

A full tank of gas condensates a lot less than 1/2 tank or less

I try to keep mine full or close to it all the time...fill it up when I get back to town.  My boat sat all winter with a full tank and a little bit of stabilizer.....fired off the second crank a couple weeks ago...It doesnt cost any more to run on the top half of the tank and a lot fewer problems.

[jettech]

What Tracker G said.  on a half full tank, the air in the tank has moisture in it.  at night, or anytime the temp drops the moisture in the air condenses into water.  In the outside the tank world we call this dew.  when you fill the tank again the condense water goes to the bottom of the tank and sits.  Repeat this process over and over again.  and you will eventually get enough water to rise to the level of the fuel pickup in the tank.  Once that happens your engine gets a full dose of mostly water.  Bad gas isn't your problem, physics is your problem.  Always top off your tank on the way home.

Take the tank out and dump out the water.

[stratos 375]

Taking the gas tank out of a full sized bass boat ain't always that easy, at least it wasn't for me. There are much easier ways to completely get all the fuel/ water out of it.

[jettech]

Your correct. I hadn't thought of that. My fish/ski has a 12 gallon square tank that comes out easily. I guess you could suck the water out with a hose and a small pump of some sort. Too bad they dont put a sump system in boats like they do aircraft as this is a common problem.

[stratos 375]

I made what I referred to as a "ghetto gas card", just an old fuel pump out of a car with 12 volt clips on it, with extra long leads to avoid any major explosions. Worked like a charm. Once most of the gas was out, I made a large swab from a broom handle & rag , went in thru the fill tube & sopped up the rest. Flushed it with about a gallon of dry gas & repeated.

When I actually had to pull my tank ' cause it had a hole in it, even after the "L" clips were off, it still wouldn't budge. I had to fill it up with suds and cut it out in pieces.