Sand in Carb

[team shadow]

A friend of mine has a 1995 350 MAG four barrel with a Weber carb that was rebuilt last year.
He had to take it there again and when the guy opened it he said there was fine sand particles inside which he showed to my friend before doing the cleaning and repairs.
He had a Mercruiser water separator on it and changed it twice to a 10 Micron Sierra.
He did have some water when we dumped it out the first time.
We never saw any particles when we dumped out the gas in the separator and we pumped out a gallon from the bottom of the tank in to a glass jug and it was clean.
All I can think of is this may have been river water getting in through the vent hose or his fuel cap isn't right and he's washing dirt in there.

Anyone heard of sand or grit in a carb?

 

[Don S]

Re: Sand in Carb

Anyone heard of sand or grit in a carb?

Water and aluminum corrosion inside the carb. Seen it many times.

 

[team shadow]

Re: Sand in Carb

He just text me and he installed a Moeller clear filter between tank and separator and took a run and its full of crap. Mercruiser and Sieera make one for inboard engines since you aren't suppose to use plastic or glass filters on inboard or sterndrive motors. But the water and aluminum makes sense too.

 

[team shadow]

Re: Sand in Carb

http://www.boatfix.com/merc/Bullet/02/02_02.pdf

 

[Don S]

Re: Sand in Carb

That service bulletin has absolutely nothing to do with your engine. Nothing.
Get rid of the clear filter. It is not CG approved for use in the engine compartment of an IO engine. They will not pass the fire test.
Besides, you don't need a filter to filter the gas going to a water separating fuel filter.

 

[team shadow]

Re: Sand in Carb

He was using the clear filter as a test to see if crap is coming in and it is. Hopefully he will remove it when he can see the fuel is running clear. In the mean time I will stay clear of him in case he blows up. Either way he's got crap in the tank or the fuel line or pickup is deteriating and along with the water problem he had or has. I spoke to Mercruiser and they said you can use the metal pre filter on a carb motor as long as it doesn't cause performance problems like not getting smooth acceleration and as long as you can reach the same WOT.

 

[Don S]

Re: Sand in Carb

He was using the clear filter as a test to see if crap is coming in and it is.

Sounds like the tank needs cleaned out.

 

[team shadow]

Re: Sand in Carb

Thanks for your advice. Weird when we pumped some out it looked good but maybe it's while he's moving it gets stirred up.