Emptying fuel tank

Robs_232

I bought my 2004 Captiva 232 from my sister last fall and want to start out this year with fresh fuel. I had a dealer winterize it last fall with a full tank (75 gal), but I don't know how fresh it is since my sister and BOL hardly used it the past several years. Actually I think I might be the last one to put gas in it. I am interested in hearing the best way to siphon/drain all of the fuel from the tank. I told my son he can have the gas since he's a college kid (ha ha). I did run the boat last fall and it ran fine but just want to start fresh. Will probably blend it to use it with price of gas. Thoughts welcome!

rinker312

I'd personally just run it. I've had plenty of experience with fuel problems, ethanol, etc. and if the gas was bad you wouldn't be running or barely getting above idle. But if you really feel the need what I had to do when I had a tank of ethanol gas separate on me was to buy a cheap fuel pump from the auto parts store. Remove fuel line and connect to fuel pump and add a little piece of line to go into your collection can. I put a set of alligator clips on the pump so I just hook to battery and she starts pumping. The nice thing about this approach is that it sucks from the bottom of the tank which will be where the bad fuel or water is. Good luck

Dream_Inn

Let me add, if you do it yourself, be very careful. Alligator clips do cause sparks. Only takes a small amount of fuel (take it from someone that experienced it)

rinker312

Yes very good point I should have added that. I put like an 8 foot extension wire on the pump so that the pump could be a good distance away from the battery I was hooking up to

raybo3

Run the tank down a little and fill it up again and you will be fine. Why take a chance of something bad happening because you want "fresh" gas????? Enjoy the boat while burning the old gas.......

Robs_232

raybo3, that sounds like the easiest way. Just don't want to get out on the water and have gas problems (ha ha) since some or all of the gas may be going on 2 years in the tank. I know the marine dealer put Sea Foam in the tank when winterized last fall. 

Michael T

There are a umber of great marine additives to "freshen" your gas - are you near a dealer or better yet a West Marine store?. Put some sdditive in and start the engine to see how it runs. If it runs okay take it out and run the tank down to 3/4 or 1/2 then fill it up with 91 octane to even the octane out a bit. I think you'll be fine if you do that. Great boat those 232's I had them in the past with 502's and silent choice - man did they ever move! :-) MT

Capt Ron

Launch and give her.... that gas won't be in there long and you have fun doing it...

Robs_232

Mike, any particular additive you may know of? I thought about the premium once I get some of the old fuel out just on the first tank then run it way down before filling it back up.

Michael T

Al (Alswagg) may correct me here - and I'd certainly yield to his expertise - I'm wary of "straight" octane boosters - although I have heard good things about Valvtec Octane booster. Personally, I now use StarTron additive all year long. I used to use StaBil and found it pretty good too. In my opinion, if you put one of those additives - according to the instructions on the label - into your tank and then fill it right up with 91 or if the tank is full now put the additive in , run the tank down to 2/3 or 1/2 then fill it with 91 you'll be fine. IF and I doubt it - your fuel was bad there are companies that can either remove it or "polish" it and return it to your tank. But I really doubt that your fuel is beyond saving. BUT - I sure as h*ll wouldn't be taking that fuel out of the tank myself. The gas itself is not a problem, it is the gas vapor. When it hits a 20:1 ratio with air and gets a spark - even static electricity -  BOOM!  MT

212rowboat

There is a metric ton of false advertising in octane boosters.. look for those that boost in full rand counts, not just some illusive % or mysterious unremarked point....

Octane makes fuel more inert, anyway, which is to say it makes it more stable and less likely to go boom before spark hits it... That is the compound we collectively call octane's sole purpose.... If you're really worried about it, just retard ignition timing for the remainder of that tank...

The collective advice on cutting it with good quality high octane and zero ethanol gas is dang good advice, by my reckoning... And likely just as good as fresh fuel..

Robs_232

Love this feedback as I think this is what makes this forum great. My gut feeling was to run part of the tank down at just over planning (cruising) RPM's or less with little load early this spring and refueling with premium fuel. Once I get that accomplished maybe the temps will allow for a little more fun and maybe some higher RPM's.

212rowboat

Not a bad plan, sir!! :-)

212rowboat

motorcraft cetane boost... can only be found at ford dealerships, @ around $10 a bottle that treats 120gal... if you can't find that, standydine is the go-to... there were several studies done that all point to these.... and then one of the major brands did their 'own' independent study to find theirs was the best, go figure, and they went out of their way to bash the methods and the premise of the others..... spent a lot of money to undermine it.. and failed when a university took notice and ran their own, and substantiated the original study/analysis...

I spill all of that over your screens to emphasize: there is a metric ton of misdirection and straight up BS surrounding additives, both oil and gas.

Startron is what my gassers get.. it's good stuff- and I saw first hand the results of 30~35k miles with and without the stuff.. the caveat is that it is fantastic when you have no choice but to use ethanol laced gasoline.... I'm not certain, but I'm not so big on it for true blue ethanol free fuel.. a matter of fact, I wouldn't add a thing to good clean and fresh ethanol free fuel at all... you fella's with huge tanks that top up once or twice a season, I'd surely recommend some sort of treatment for water infusion- maybe dry-fuel, stabil, or startron, but on the same token I'd highly rec you fellers also put in a fresh filter and water separator too, and accomplish nearing the same thing...

it seems a collective opinion of the fellers that follow this type of subject closely, that when a company bottles a product for gasoline additive and octane boosting, IF they provide information in whole rand count increases, they are usually an honorable product... it's the ones that just have flashy packaging and wild claims you gotta watch out for, and have customer testimonials all over the back of the bottle instead of information about the composition of what you're dumping into your tank...

seguir

after you have ran the gas through....lets not forget to change the fuel filter...

212rowboat

Yup.