Dead in the water

mbnarney · January 26

After months of storms and getting new canvas I finally got her out yesterday. Started fine at the dock , brought it up to temp and went out. About 20 minutes at wake speed she just died. Felt like it was running out of gas. I have 3/4 of a tank. Tried to start it and it would turn over and die. A couple times like that and then it wouldn't try to start at all. Got towed back to the dock.

I just ordered a new water separator fuel filter to see if the gas is gone. Anyone got another idea?

PickleRick · January 26

I'd check for water in the fuel and spark to the cylinders first. Then go from there.

My money is on water...water in gas makes my shop tons of money so my money is always on water because gasoline without water doesn't make me any money.

Money...had to say it one more time.

mbnarney · January 26

@PickleRick-That was my first thought as well. If the filter is loaded with water , I guess I will need to get the old out and worse than that, is disposing of it.

PickleRick · January 26

Pump as much out as possible, safely.

There is a product called Heet. Their slogan is "we make water burn" however it must be a minimum 1:1 ratio as the water.

If you can tilt the boat where the pickup is at the deepest point drain until you can't see any more water. Then add the heet. I'd fill the fuel filter with it as well if it's a spin on as there will be water your rail/line and injectors. If your engine has a Schrader valve I'd try suck it of that as well. Low pressure suction obviously

mbnarney · January 27

Motor was installed in 2019 but no injectors, no computers just a quadra crap carb. I store it on a rack so its bow up. I am probably going to have to pull some by siphon before I take the float cap off. I have heard of Heet but never used it. Sounds like a good time to give it a try.

Formulaben · January 27

I use the red Heet every de-winterization prior to filling the tank as cheap insurance. It's an absolute must-have in the snowmobile world, as any water in the tank will freeze and never unfreeze until you get the sled in a warm environment.

Speaking of cheap insurance, it might be worth considering a new fuel cap O-ring gasket...

mbnarney · January 30

Yep, I emptied the filter all but maybe a quarter inch was water, I have 3/4 tank of it so now I need to find someone to drain and dispose. Unless I am wrong that boat came with a 100 gallon tank. I have no way of getting rid of 75 gallons. I forgot to check on the O ring but going to order one anyway.

mattie · January 31

Formulaben said:

I use the red Heet every de-winterization prior to filling the tank as cheap insurance. It's an absolute must-have in the snowmobile world, as any water in the tank will freeze and never unfreeze until you get the sled in a warm environment.

Speaking of cheap insurance, it might be worth considering a new fuel cap O-ring gasket...

Had our boat on a trailer in the driveway just prior to storage. Went out during rainstorm to check the canvas water proofing.
PHENOMENAL amount of rainwater running over the fuel cap. Like gallons!
those O-rings are no joke.

PickleRick · January 31

mbnarney said:

Yep, I emptied the filter all but maybe a quarter inch was water, I have 3/4 tank of it so now I need to find someone to drain and dispose. Unless I am wrong that boat came with a 100 gallon tank. I have no way of getting rid of 75 gallons. I forgot to check on the O ring but going to order one anyway.

Water will settle to the bottom. No need to pump 75 gallons out. Have boat sitting where the tank pickup is at its lowest possible point. Pump until you are getting no more water. Then treat the tank with a few quarts or pints or however big the heet bottles are.

It will make whatever water is left usable as fuel.

The water doesn't have to come from rain running down over your filler cap. The water can come from the ethanol in the fuel that is absorbing moisture from the humidity in the air. Some Marina tanks are famous for water contamination.

I'm not going to tell you how I know Captain Hooks(I think that's the name) on the Vaca Cut directly by the bridge in Marathon Florida is stupid contaminated with water.

When I buy gas for my equipment I always treat it with marine stabil at the pump. Store fuel tanks completely full. Prevention saves time and money.

On mowers and other equipment we'll try to avoid going into the carb by running the engine on carb cleaner or brake cleaner until fresh treated fuel is pulled into the carb. Obvously this is too dangerous in a boat as a back fire will flame up. If the engine is starting or at least hitting momentarily you may get lucky and can try starting it a few dozen times to attempt to pull engine fuel to start it. Filling the fuel filter with heet as mentioned before will fire it off as it mixes with the water in the system.

Just don't deep cycle the batteries and kill the starter. Only turn it over 15-20 seconds. After 2-3 attempts let it cool for a few minutes. After about 12 attempts let it cool for a 5-10 minutes.

If the boat is on a trailer you can get a cheap roll of vinyl tubing. Run the tubing from a bucket, in trough your bigle drain and attach to your fuel pickup.

Using an outboard primer you can siphon the fuel into a bucket and watch it drain safely, outside the boat away from any sparks or potential ignition sources.

I highly doubt you'll get more than a gallon. I save a gallon of two to feed the ground hornets aka yellow jackets every summer when I find their nest on my property. Free old contaminated gas for drowning those little angry insects after dark.

mbnarney · January 31

Thanks I only run rec 90 non ethanol fuel in it
I could have still gotten a bad batch. I am going to give the hose a try. I just picked up 10 foot of fuel line. Might as well use it. Sure better than wasting all that gas.

PickleRick · January 31

I would be willing to bet money your non ethanol fuel will test positive for ethanol.

mbnarney · February 1

I will not take that bet. Everything i do with this boat is designed to beat me down. I am just too dumb to quit.

PickleRick · February 1

You've just described boaters and Pittsburgh sports fans.

Luckily water in the fuel isnt a terrible fix.

I had a bass boat that would take on water when waves would splash over the transom. Took me half a summer to figure out where the water was coming from.

rasbury · February 6

I had the problem with the water also. Here in florida, to keep dumb dumbs from dumping fuel, I was able to take 20 gallons to the local dump for disposal n/c. I got an auto electric fuel pump, used a battery outside the bilge for safety and sucked every drop out. It was about 75 gallons. I'll soon be installing that seal on my fuel cap- I'm having issues again and need to pull a sample as I don't think my issue is water but going to check the fuel before I proceed to the next.

GMSLITHO · February 7

ran if you need a gasket for the cap send me a label I replaced mine and had to buy a full bag of them so I have about 20

mbnarney · February 7

So i bit the bullet and hired an guy to come and extract the water from my tank. He pulled 18 gallons of water out. Checked the cap and there was no "0" ring at all. Put the "0" ring on and added a new water separator. He flushed the tank as well and fortunately there was not a bunch of junk in it. Going to try Saturday to run it out.

Formulaben · February 8

mbnarney said:

So i bit the bullet and hired an guy to come and extract the water from my tank. He pulled 18 gallons of water out.

WOWZERS!!!

captkevin · February 8

thats alot of water

mbnarney · February 8

So I put fuel in the filter and tried to start it today. No Luck, going back tomorrow and try filling the filter with Heet and see if that works.

rasbury · February 14

You might pit a fuel pressure gage on it- I had a similar problem and had to replace one of the fuel pumps...you can pick one up pretty cheap and a good place to start when things are not running right...

PickleRick · February 14

He's carbureted. Usually these didn't have electronic fuel pumps, although it is something that can be added.

They usually used a mechanical fuel pump that sat on the starboard side near the timing chain cover

verifying it is working probaby is a great idea. Cracking it open will hopefully let some of that water drain out of the carb so you can work some fresh treated fuel in there. Have plenty of rags or paper towels to catch any fuel that leaks out, let it all dry before starting. Although, it will probably be mostly water

mbnarney · February 14

@PickleRick carb was full of water. Running great. Next i have to go adjust the fuel sender that's out of wack.

Howdy, Stranger!

Quick Links

Categories

Dead in the water

Comments