Almost scared to post what came out of my F/W separator...

[M.A.CCruiser]

So I changed my F/W separator today along with my coil, cap, rotor and other things.... I forgot a jar to pour the contents into... But found a clear Tupperware container on the boat I used for dry storage... Here is what came out....





I don't know how old the filter was - and I'm hoping that red stuff was just pieces of the filter element itself.... But has anyone seen anything like that?

Mercruiser 5.7 Quadrajet carb

 

[M.A.CCruiser]

Side not - the reddish liquid came out in "droplets" along with the rest of the fuel and water. And some of the "dirt" was probably already in the container - I didn't clean it before I poured the contents in. The lines of black are from the step-ladder underneath

 

[Bondo]

I don't know how old the filter was - and I'm hoping that red stuff was just pieces of the filter element itself....

Ayuh,.... Appears to be water on the bottom, phase separated ethanol in the middle, 'n rust stained gas on the top,....

If the filter has been on there long enough, I'm guessin' the rust stain is from there,...

 

[M.A.CCruiser]

I've never put ethanol gas in there in the 9 months I've owned it - so that concerns me.... Worth getting the tank pumped? Or just run it to damn near empty and top it with good gas?

I added some Marine Sta-Bil to the tank and filled the new F/W with some sea foam (mainly because I forgot to bring fuel to fill it with) and a dash of Sta-Bil and ran the engine up to operating temp today

 

[Fun Times]

But first you'll want to pull some fuel directly from the tank to ensure the problem lies within the filter and not the tank.... But be prepared to remove as much bad fuel as you can until it starts to flow clean at the very minimum.

How much fuel is in the tank at the moment? Your tank size is?

 

[M.A.CCruiser]

There's about 10-15 gallons in the tank now. Tanks is 60 Gallons.

This may seem elementary. But, how would I go about pulling fuel from the tank?

I feel like the problem lies in the filter - or at least I hope. I put about 20-30 gallons in every weekend to start the day, and run most of that out by the end of the weekend.

 

[nickmo]

It's best to pull the sender and pump from there.

 

[Bondo]

This may seem elementary. But, how would I go about pulling fuel from the tank?

Ayuh,.... The easiest is the same way the motor does it,.....

Suck it out through the gas line,....
Fuel line to filter, to pump, to catchcan,....

 

[M.A.CCruiser]

Ayuh,.... The easiest is the same way the motor does it,.....

Suck it out through the gas line,....
Fuel line to filter, to pump, to catchcan,....

Sounds delicious

 

[stonyloam]

Hmmm... If I am not mistaken the fuel pickup in your tank is a tube that runs from the top of the tank down to the bottom. So since the water will all be in a layer at the bottom it should be sucked out FIRST, so any water that could have been pulled out should be gone, and been trapped by the f/w separator, which looks to be what happened. The droplets would have been the water coming out. The fuel looks clean, so change the filter and you should be good to go. IMHO.

 

[NHGuy]

Pull it down til empty. Then remove the sender and look to be sure it's perfect in there.

 

[M.A.CCruiser]

Hmmm... If I am not mistaken the fuel pickup in your tank is a tube that runs from the top of the tank down to the bottom. So since the water will all be in a layer at the bottom it should be sucked out FIRST, so any water that could have been pulled out should be gone, and been trapped by the f/w separator, which looks to be what happened. The droplets would have been the water coming out. The fuel looks clean, so change the filter and you should be good to go. IMHO.

So maybe that's just the collection of crud from before I bought it? Guess that would make sense as well.

 

[stonyloam]

Yeah it will accumulate over time. remember even if you suck your tank "dry" through the fuel line you will still have some fuel left in the tank and that is where most of the water and crud is. With a full tank it is not going to be too much of a problem, but when the tank is nearly empty the fuel is sloshing around a lot more and the contaminants get stirred up and are more likely to be sucked in with the fuel. A full 20 gal tank with a quart of water in it has about 1% water, that same tank run down to 2 gal will have about 25% water in it, if your filter is working you should be OK, but when it gets full of water it it can't do its job. If you want to see how it works, take a jar and put in some of that stuff you drained out and shake it up and see how it acts.