Fuel water nightmare!!

[Blevins]

For the love of all that is holy please help! I have a racor fuel/water separator. I have a 1998 carb merc 225hp. When I throttle up the clear view bulb fills. I have just put 40 gallons of brand new 89 octane fuel into it with the appropriate amount of startron. It still fills up when I throttle up. This boat said for a year and a half untouched. Do I need to just keep running the motor and keep emptying the bulb until it stops filling. It fills to the point of chocking out the motor so this is a must fix. Please advise

 

[CRFan1]

Re: Fuel water nightmare!!

I would probably drain that tank ASAP before I did anything else! I would also consider hooking up another tank and running that motor to make sure to get and bad gas out of it quickly.....

 

[CharlieB]

Re: Fuel water nightmare!!

It may be unsafe to remove the fuel level sending unit from a full tank without leaking fuel. Siphon off enough fuel (5 or 10 gal) to ensure the level is low enough to safely remove the sending unit. Then you can drop a weighted hose to the bottom of the tank and siphon off accumulated water from under the fuel.

Cut a very small notch in the end of the hose so that it cannot suck itself to the bottom and screw on a nut or two the outside diameter of the hose to provide the weight needed to make the hose hang straight down to the bottom of the tank.

If the boat is on a trailer you can jack/block it to tilt the tank causing the water to accumulate in a smaller area making it easier to get most all of the water out.

Be SURE to carefully check for any fuel leaks after reinstalling the sender.

 

[rodbolt]

Re: Fuel water nightmare!!

if you have E fuels and water in the tank DISPOSE of the fuel
once its water saturated it phase seperates and lowers the octane and leaves serious deposits on pistons.
drain the tank,clean the bottom as best you can,find the water intrusion source and go play.

 

[Blevins]

Re: Fuel water nightmare!!

Ok well I put 40 gallons of fresh fuel in it before I asked this question with an additional 5 gallons of high octane fuel. Is it possible that my fuel water separator filter isn't big enough to handle the fuel demand. It idles perfect starts immediately everytime and will run slowly for days. I feel like it's only when I really get going that the motor feels like it is starving for fuel and bogs out

 

[gss036]

Re: Fuel water nightmare!!

If that much water is getting into the Racor while running, then when you throttle it up, you are sucking the fuel off the top of the water. Drain it and keep an eye on the filter and keep draining the filter (I would get an extra filter, carry it with you), then run at a RPM that the motor will run at until the fuel is used up. If you can get enough RPM to run comfortable without fuel starvation problems, (if you run too lean then you risk blowing the engine). Like Rodbolt said, if you have that much water, then get rid of it.
Startron is passing out pamphlets around here now because starting today, stations are required to start pumping E-10. It is a real rip off because you loose power and get a lot lower MPG with the junk. I think it is all politics.

 

[rodbolt]

Re: Fuel water nightmare!!

ill watch for the post about detonated pistons.
you now have 45 gallons of extra waste fuel.

 

[donzi gt230]

Re: Fuel water nightmare!!

Rodbolt's dead on. In case you don't know, much of the octane in ethanol gas is in the ethanol. When enough water gets in there to phase separate (all the water and alcohol drops to the bottom) the gas left over has a lowered octane. I learned a lot about this while replacing my brother's engines. The safe bet is to dump the fuel and make sure the tank is cleared of all water. I guess you could keep topping with high octane and run gently 'till the water's gone, but it's just a few knocks away from a holed piston.

 

[Blevins]

Re: Fuel water nightmare!!

Ok well I found out that the fume dump for my gas tank goes straight from the scoop to my gas tank without any bend. So anytime your wake caught up with you it would force water down the fume dump. So we put a bend in it so the water now has to be forced down the hole. Anyways so we are puting weighted line down the fuel lines and are draining the water as we speak. The an "octane" test to check the worth of the fuel. Wish me luck on not losing 40gallons of fuel