Crisis Avoided...now water in gas...good story, but need advice

[ondarvr]

I did add a bottle of the red heet just to be safe. Ran the boat for a few hours and only had about an ounce of water come out of the separator.

A few ounces in the filter means you still have a bunch in the tank.

 

[KJM]

Just my opinion, but if OP is actually running the boat on the water and not on hose then the motion of the boat will churn up whatever water is left in bottom of the tank and should have been mostly sucked out when he ran her almost empty. The little remaining will also eventually go the same way with another few fill ups, just keep checking and dumping the fuel separater until it stops showing water and then put a clean one on and good to go.

 

[bruceb58]

Just my opinion, but if OP is actually running the boat on the water and not on hose then the motion of the boat will churn up whatever water is left in bottom of the tank and should have been mostly sucked out when he ran her almost empty.

Depends on the tank and the pickup. Some leave more at the bottom of the tank than others. If there is a lot of water in the tank and he someday happens to put gas with ethanol in it, he is totally screwed.

Plus, you can't just dump a separator filter and just resuse it. It has to be replaced. Also, hopefully OP does not have a clear glass filter as that is totally illegal on an I/O installation.

 

[KJM]

Why will ethanol in the gas cause a problem? My understanding is the ethanol will just absorb some of the water and allow it to mix with the gas and then exit as steam in the exhaust. We use ethanol in the lab I work in everyday mixed with anywhere from 50/50 water/alcohol to pure alcohol. Its used to take water out of surgical specimens so that they can then be saturated with xylene and then wax. As for the water separator, if its fairly new and clean and you have another fuel filter closer to the engine then I don't see the problem, but if its old and dirty and the only filter on the gas line then yeah, ditch the old one and put on a clean one.

 

[bruceb58]

Why will ethanol in the gas cause a problem? My understanding is the ethanol will just absorb some of the water and allow it to mix with the gas and then exit as steam in the exhaust. We use ethanol in the lab I work in everyday mixed with anywhere from 50/50 water/alcohol to pure alcohol. Its used to take water out of surgical specimens so that they can then be saturated with xylene and then wax. As for the water separator, if its fairly new and clean and you have another fuel filter closer to the engine then I don't see the problem, but if its old and dirty and the only filter on the gas line then yeah, ditch the old one and put on a clean one.

Once ethanol in gasoline reaches it's saturation point, you get phase separation and you get a mass of goo at the bottom of the tank. If you just have ethanol and water with nothing else, that of course is fine or you couldn't have a cocktail without phase separation.

As far as the filter is concerned, when you pour the contents of a filter, some of the contents of the input of the filter will get on the output side no matter how hard you try. This includes some water. All the care you took to get rid of the water/dirt is now going to be on the output side of the filter.

http://nationalpetroleum.net/Ethanol-Water-Phase-Separation-facts.pdf

 

[KJM]

If a tiny bit of water went thru to the engine when you first put the water separator back on, wouldn't it just pass thru the engine and out the exhaust with maybe just a sputter or two, if noticeable at all?

 

[ondarvr]

Water doesn't always pass through the carb with no issues, it may settle in a low spot and acumulate crud, or plug a passage.

He probably has a 20-30 gallon tank, we have no idea how low the pick up tube is, so is there a pint of water left in the tank, is there a quart, maybe a gallon, it's not something you want to cause a probelm when the water gets rough, which is when it will.

Whatever water is left in it can start to rust the tank, since he knows there's water in it, why not just get it all out now.

 

[bruceb58]

since he knows there's water in it, why not just get it all out now.

Exactly!!!

As DonS used to say...Why is there never enough time to do it right the first time,
But always enough time to do it again?

 

[funk6294]

I can tell you from first hand experience that it is much easier to check for excess water in your tank now rather than waiting until later. This is especially important if the tank is aluminum as they will corrode.

 

[smiles16]

So this thread has gotten a lot of responses, now I have an idea. I will pull the pickup this weekend and pump directly from the bottom. The tank is 20 gal, aluminum and centered longwise parallel with the keel. The boat will have been sitting tilted up on the trailer for a week. So, any water that is in the tank should be settled at the bottom right below the sender. I'll pull that off and hand pump it from the very bottom. THEN I'll freeze the first quart and see what I have. Water will freeze, gas won't. This will tell how wel my first method worked.

Should answer the debate.