water in fuel-gctid813450

[Guest]

Hello all. I have a 1988 bayliner with the 2.3L I/O. I bought this from my Dad well over 10 years ago and have ran the tar off of the thing!! Been running great after I had some work done the first couple summers. I live in Northern Wisconsin so obviously fresh water.

Here is my issue. I found some water in the fuel last summer. I emptied the fuel filter/water separator several times before I drained the whole tank through the fuel line. I refilled the tank with new fuel and it ran great the rest of the weekend. A couple weeks later I returned to my boat, which I keep on the lake with a nice cover, but it still ends up damp on the inside. I always have to run the bilge when it sits. Once I fired the boat up again I found water in the fuel again. This is basically how my summer ended.

Fast forward to this spring...I drained the fuel out through the fuel line again, I mean the line which leads directly to the fuel filter. I added 10 gallons of new fuel plus a bottle of HEET, the yellow one. I figured this should be the remedy I needed but once I got it into the lake I ran into the same issue again. Boat fired perfectly and idled just fine. once I started to take off and the engine had a load under it, it bogged down so I throttled back to neutral and kept it running. Once I pulled the fuel filter/water separator off it was plum full again. I dumped it and tried roughly 4 or 5 more times hoping it was the very end of the water. It unfortunately wasn't.

Since the whole system is enclosed, where could the water be coming from??? The way I see it there is no possible way there is this large amount of water in the fuel tank. I just can't see it happening. Is there a possibility that water is leaking through the fiberglass and getting into the fuel tank? I haven't seen or smelled any fuel leaking.

Any help would be great!!

Thanks from a fellow boater.

[builderdude]

Could it be rain water getting in? How's the o-ring on the filler cap?

[Guest]

I thought it could be rain water, but it doesn't answer the issue from this season. I had emptied the tank on a Wednesday and filled it on Friday with no rain in between those days. I will check the o ring anyways

[TenMile]

From 1988 -- probably an aluminum tank? If you're not smelling a leak, the tank might have a pinprick hole(s) in it at the top, possibly where a stainless fastener touches it? Could be letting water into your tank. Is it possible to inspect the tank? Empty it and see if you can do a pressure test to see if air leaks out?

[builderdude]

I'd think if the tank had a leak you'd see fuel in the bilge before you'd see water in the tank. Maybe there is still some water in the tank. I'd put it on the trailer bow way up and remove the pickup tube from the tank and suck the tank dry with a siphone. This would also allow you to peak into the tank to see if in fact all the contaminated fuel has been removed. Another thought, could water be entering at the fuel tank vent fitting at the hull?

As always use caution when messing around with gasoline in the engine bay.

[bhawes]

Sucking the water out through the fuel filler is obviously not removing all of the water from the fuel tank. The only sure fire way to remove all of the water is to remove the tab that holds in the fuel sensor. It'll be attached by 5-6 screws on the top side of the tank and will have two wires coming from it. Remove the wires, remove the screws and then use a hand pump (non electric) to remove everything in the tank, this may entail trailering the boat and getting enough tilt on it to force al of the fuel/water to the rear of the tank, which you are pumping from. Once you have the fuel removed let it stand and you'll see any water sitting in the bottom of the container.

Now you'll have to determine where the water's coming from. As mentioned, the o-ring in the filler top is always a culprit. Another source may be your vent tube on the side of your hull. If it is facing down, water can be forced into it if the vent makes contact with the water that your in when you're underway. Water may also have formed from condensation while the boat sat through the winter. It's always advisable to leave the fuel tank full when it sits like that. About the only other thing that I can think about is your fuel source. Are you purchasing fuel from a marine facility or land based? If it's marine, they may have contaminated fuel.

[drewhaas]

If the vent line has come off the thru-haul it may be laying in the bilge sucking up water as the engine runs.

[builderdude]

"bhawes" post=813466 wrote:
The only sure fire way to remove all of the water is to remove the tab that holds in the fuel sensor. It'll be attached by 5-6 screws on the top side of the tank and will have two wires coming from it.

Yep, that's what I should have said, remove the sender :blush:

[Pcpete]

I thought I had junk in my gas on my last boat and had a fuel polishing company come down and clean the fuel and tank. Most of the cost was based on the 110 gallons of fuel on board, but they accessed and cleaned by removing the sending unit. They didn't mess with the fuel pickups at all. My problem turned out being a bad coil on one engine and a broken rotor on the other.

I think you outta check the box on the vent line. Maybe just plain change it out as long as you're in there. The

[Guest]

I assume it is an aluminum tank but completely surrounded by fiberglass. Which also answers the inspection part which I cant do. I thought about doing a pressure test but I don't really have all the resources to do that yet. Trying to fix this issue on a zero budget. Unfortunately. But thanks for the response.

[Guest]

Thanks to all of you for the replies. I am heading out tomorrow to try and see what is going on with the fuel tank. I am going to run a separate line into a 5 gallon gas can to see if it is indeed the fuel tank which is causing the issue. I assume this will be proven to be true as I cant see how water can get into the fuel filter any other way, but it is a good test either way. After that I will get it out of the water and get all the liquid out of the tank again and see how things look after that.

Just wanted to say thanks for the help.