Found tank open, potential rain. Drain or additives?

[rcon]

Been gone a while, horrid weather here, well, on the weekends anyway :smt021. Went to the boat recently and found the gas cap off. Had been raining since I was last there.

Now it was potentially me that left the tank open :smt089 so we'll just assume it had been a while and there may had been rain around.

Questions.

How good are fuel additives at protecting my engines?

Can I just stick a long PVC tube down my fuel inlet and use a hand pump to suck up a few gallons and look for separation before treating?

Is there some sort of filter on the end of the vent line that is going to prevent that?

Can I just put a half litre of methanol and some dry fuel additive in there and let it sort itself out?



Any ideas here please, I'd never really given much though to this kind of problem.

 

[IanBat]

This may be worthwhile, to check if you do have water in the tank,

http://www.fuelequipmentspecialists.com.au/water-finding-paste/

I have used Methylated Spirits, however I would want to check how much water there is. Also the following herd from a fishing site might be helpful

http://www.sydneyangler.com.au/forum/archive/index.php/t-14646.html


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[rcon]

Cheers, Ian.

another thought, would my standard fuel filters be water separating?

 

[IanBat]

Water seperators, normally have a glass bowl at the bottom, the idea being that you can actually see the water. Water drops to the bottom, so they also often have a drain so you can drain the water out.


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[rcon]

Hmmmm.

Old one in the shed actually says "water separating"

Any idea how much water they can deal w/?

 

[rcon]

Yep, in there with a mirror and we've got a 'Quicksilver water separating fuel filter'

 

[IanBat]

About as much as you can fit in the glass bowl!


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[Lazy Daze]

Standard Mercruiser (Quicksilver) spin-on-style "fuel filters" are indeed water-separating. They look like an oil filter with no glass bowl.

Depending on how much water got in there, keeping a few spare filters on board for a quick change is a possibility, but if there's a decent amount you'll be changing them rather quickly and most likely at an inopportune time.

I'd start with siphoning out what you can until you get clear gas, but unless the boat is very still for a few hours it's going to mix up in the tank as it sloshes around. After that, I would do a 4x dose with Startron since that will help to breakdown the water to small enough particles that it can pass through the engine without harming anything.

You probably can't get a hose down the fill tube (I think, but not sure, that there's a block-off in there). The pickup tube's fitting on the tank should have an anti-siphon valve. The easiest way to siphon gas out is through the sending unit. Mark it so you put it back in correctly and then simply remove it. This gives you a large opening that allows you to easily control where your hose goes.

 

[JimFromMD]

Can I just put a half litre of methanol and some dry fuel additive in there and let it sort itself out?

So I did a lot of reading on this when I was having generator problems. I thought I had gotten water in my tanks from a fuel dock which subsequently closed because the tank had a leak. Most sites recommend against adding methanol / HEET / Dry gas etc. The rationale is that they are just like ethanol, in that they attract water, so you are exacerbating the problem instead of fixing it.

In the end it was not water in my tanks, but a bad generator carb.

Any ideas here please, I'd never really given much though to this kind of problem.

I found one stabil product that had a non-ethanol additive that would help disipate water in gasoline. It was a dark blue color (I'll see if I can find a link on lunch). Also, it may be worth while to establish a baseline by taking off your spin-on (oil can) fuel filter and dump the contents into a glass jar and close it. Put the filter back on (it will still continue separate water... or use a new one if you prefer) and then let the fuel in the glass jar settle for a while to see if there is any water in it. Looking up at the bottom or from the side, you'll see a clear water "bubble" sitting on the bottom below the fuel.

Start up your motor (after ventilating to make sure no gas fumes left in the bilge) and let it run at a mid-speed idle or take it for a short ride to get some fuel flowing through the system. After a bit, take the filter back off and dump into another glass jar/container. See if there is any water in it this time. If there is, you know there is water in your tank (since you got any water out of the filter when you dumped it the first time).

 

[Lazy Daze]

I found one stabil product that had a non-ethanol additive that would help disipate water in gasoline. It was a dark blue color (I'll see if I can find a link on lunch).

I'll save you the time... It's called "Marine" Stabil and it is indeed, a bluish-green color. Same idea as the Startron stuff. The only reason I usually recommend the Startron is that they (Starbrite) did most, if not all, of the initial research on ethanol and developed Startron... Everyone else pretty much copied and pasted. Plus, the Startron is more highly concentrated (as long as you don't buy the Wal-Mart version) so it's a bit cheaper.

 

[JimFromMD]

I'll save you the time... It's called "Marine" Stabil and it is indeed, a bluish-green color. Same idea as the Startron stuff. The only reason I usually recommend the Startron is that they (Starbrite) did most, if not all, of the initial research on ethanol and developed Startron... Everyone else pretty much copied and pasted. Plus, the Startron is more highly concentrated (as long as you don't buy the Wal-Mart version) so it's a bit cheaper.

Thats good to know. Im religious about using startron because it's never let me down so far!

 

[1990-270-da-lover]

+1 on the Startron, I have never had water issues when using this product. Also if you read the little bio they attach to the bottles, it says it will rehabilitate old fuel which is interesting if you've had a boat sitting for some time.:thumbsup:

 

[rcon]

Thanks guys.

Visited today and treated with stabil. Says separates out the water and I've got water separating fuel filters on both old and new engine. figure its good if I need to turn the engine over until I can drain.

Did some recon on the sender unit and it looks like i can just screw it out and get a pump in there.

Questions.

Do I need to do anything to "safe" the boat before cracking open the fuel tank? Figured I'd detach shore power and have battery selector switch off.
What do I seal the sender unit back in with?
Is this a job I really should get someone who's done it before?

 

[Lazy Daze]

To be as safe as possible, I would disconnect the negative leads from all your batteries. If you're going to siphon it out the old fashioned way, I would keep the pump outside the boat (at least outside the bilge) and just run the hose into the bilge.

Next, use a Sharpie and draw a short line - start "on" the sending unit and continue onto the tank. That's your orientation mark.

All of the tanks I've ever worked on have used a rubber (probably nitrile?) seal. It looks like yours might have some sealant/goop? In that case Permatex makes a sealant that is approved for fuel. There's probably other brands, but Permatex is readily available at auto parts stores.

Can you do it yourself? Can't answer that. But, one of the things to take into account is how you will collect and dispose of the bad gas. Maybe jerry cans to get it into a larger container (clean garbage can, maybe) and then refilter it and use it up in your cars a little at a time?

 

[rcmafgny]

i use ezorb like it better then startron

 

[rcon]

Hand pump only at this point. Going to be a big job, but it's only 100l ish *rolls eyes*

Thanks again.

 

[Lazy Daze]

Hand pump only at this point. Going to be a big job, but it's only 100l ish *rolls eyes*

Thanks again.

Good luck - take your time and I think you'll be fine. I took about 30 gallons out of a 215EC I had years ago. The tank surprisingly spring a leak that happened to be the exact same size as a 1/8" drill bit... :smt001

 

[AFD]

Good luck - take your time and I think you'll be fine. I took about 30 gallons out of a 215EC I had years ago. The tank surprisingly spring a leak that happened to be the exact same size as a 1/8" drill bit... :smt001

strange how that happens sometimes isn't it?

startron is amazing, i bought my boat late this summer and it was put in the last two years to try to sell it so it was recommissioned and decommissioned every year but the fuel was full 3 years ago and had only used a half of a tank over the 3 years so we know the fuel was OLD. I was having stalling issues and didn't want to pay for the fuel to be pumped out as it was running just not very strong so i dumped a bottle of startron in. all of $4-$6 something like that, let it sit for a day and took it for a ride, although i went through 3 filters each motor that still only equates to $24 per motor, $48 total for filters plus $6 for the startron and it actually saved the 70+ gallons of fuel i waited as long as i was comfortable doing and then filled with fresh gas and used the startron again only filling up about 1/2 a tank. after 2, half tank stops at the fuel dock and burning the hell out of it as fast as i could (as we all know it doesn't take long) engines run amazingly smooth and quiet and boat has tons of power again. never had to pay to pump out 3 year old fuel. instead of topping off and just making twice as much bad diluted gas i ran it as empty as i was comfortable doing to prevent dilution of crap fuel.