Water leaking into tank when I forgot to plug the drain.

[Pbarrett2]

water was in the doat for a 3 year period. after having all interior rebuilt, engine wouldn't start. finally pumped some gas out of the gas line to the engine. into clear glass, saw water to the 1/3 line! pumped all gas out of 20 gallon tank, separated gas and water ended up with 12 gallons. Now the question? tank is empty to the pickup tube. Obviously there may be a small amount under the pick up. How do I get the tank completely empty and dry of water? IPO 99%? fill tank with fresh gas and IPO 99%?

 

[Scott Danforth]

Pull the sender, put a rag on a stick and sop it up.

More importantly, you have a fuel tank leak if standing water made it in your tank

Also, your foam is most likely waterlogged.

 

[zellerj]

What is IPO?

 

[achris]

Throw a 2 pint bottle of metho in the tank, then fill it with fresh fuel. Job done.

 

[tpenfield]

I'm with Scott on the leaking tank. Better check that out before you go filling it up. With a bicycle pump and some fittings, you could hook up a pressure test to see if the tank 'passes' a low pressure test (about 3 psi)

 

[Grub54891]

You will have to pull the carb and clean that out also. Once water gets in there, it gunks up the carb.

 

[Oshkosh1]

Throw a 2 pint bottle of metho in the tank, then fill it with fresh fuel. Job done.

^^That^^ But don't bother with the methanol. Just fill with E-10...plenty of alcohol.

The mantra of wastewater management is "There's no substitution for dilution"...same goes for water in fuel.

Fill it up, Fire it up, go for a hard run to see if the carb has been affected before tearing into it. You may find out it's just fine

Now, that's one issue...the other is to find out HOW that much water seeped into your tank. My boat sat for 7 years and while there was water from condensation(even though it was mostly full)...nothing on that order. I filled it with fresh gas, dropped the hammer and ran it hard to both burn fuel and to stretch the engine out. Took two fill ups(from about 1/2) until I saw no water in the filter.