Ok, Ill try and be brief as possible. Boat crapped out on me about a month ago. Not getting fuel and had trash that looked like aburn colored plastic similar to what would be the lining of a fuel line in the seperator bowl. About a yr and 1/2 ago I had the carbs rebuilt and the tank cleaned out (plastic tank and a Yammy 115f4 2 stroke). I have been changing the the seperator more often than I should to stay safe (also run startron or stabil EVERY time). After my latest issue I changed every fuel line from the pick up in the tank to the carb, put a new racor seperator on, and just because I had it laying around added a large clear inline filter between the seperator and the motor. Well Saturday it happened again…(**() thing crapped out on me coming back from the rocks. Made 6 kts to the ramp, any more RPM’s (in neutral or in gear) than that and the thing felt like it was gonna shake off the boat. Get home and check things out only to find more of the auburn stuff in the both the seperator bowl and the clear inline fliter. My pick up tube has a stainless screen on it and the stuff Im finding is far to large to make it threw that. I am at a loss here…As a simple 1st fix attempt I did the Seafoam de carb trick. While I was doing that I removed the inline filter. The racor on there now is less than 3 wk old so I left it on…She seems to running right now but who knows. Any ideas or suggestions would be much aprreciated. The only place left that the crap coulb be coming from is the seperator mount and the with the amount of it that I have gotten out I don’t see how there could be any left on that little thing. I am on a serious budget, and pretty handy when it comes to the boat other wise I would just take it some where. Help please…
Was the primer bulb collapsing or staying firm? I was having issues with phase seperation an water in fuel tank not passing the screen in the uptake tube you mentioned. Try a portable tank with fresh gas as a test to eliminate that from the equation.
Could you be mixing non-ethanol fuel (with MTBE) and fuel containing ethanol? I have heard that if you mix the two that the MTBE will cause a problem similar to what you are describing. Or if you add startron to non-ethanol fuel. Chris V told me to NEVER add startron to non-ethanol fuel. Maybe Chris will weigh in on this later. He and his guys have seen and fixed just about every fuel issue related to fuel containing ethanol. If it was the fuel line, wouldn’t you be seeing little flakes of black rubber? That’s what mine did when the lining of the fuel line and bulb began to break down due to ethanol. Your issue sounds like a “jelling” of mixed fuels.
21’ Sea-Pro CC
Yamaha 150
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2008 Dodge Ram Mega-Cab 4x4 6.7 Cummins
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Kidalong, bulb stays tight so I don’t think thats the issue.
TR, you may be on to something there. I have not been putting any non ethonal fuel in the boat but I am totally paranoid about this gas issue now and if I know the boat is going to sit for a few days I have been adding Iso Heat as well (Which is a water removal chemical incase you didnt know). I may be screwing myself by doing so. Think Ill drain the tank into the truck this wk end since Im going on a rd trip and it will all burn up quick and start from scratch with just startron. What a pain…
Any body else have any brite ideas?
I still don’t understand the ethanol problem… I don’t add a thing to my fuel. I had a real water problem a couple of years back that was purely due to letting the boat sit for many months with less than 1/8 tank of fuel in a 38 gallon tank. It has always been the case that leaving a tank nearly empty (especially metal tanks) begets condensation. Every night, you get a little more. I remain totally unconvinced that the ethanol worsens the phase separation problem significantly. Maybe there is a chemist in the group who can straighten me out where/if I’m wrong. Since I got the water out of my system and have used the boat at least once a month, I have not had the first drop of water show up in the bottom of the sight bowl on my fuel filter. No additives. No nothing. Just keeping the tank topped off while not using it and using it regularly.
It seems to me that gasoline (a mixture of hydrocarbons of a certain range of molecular weights) will hold a certain amount of H2O in suspension. Some is always there in any gasoline, all the time. As you add more H2O to the mix, you approach the maximum amount (concentration) that the gas will hold. When you exceed that concentration, your gasoline is saturated with all the water it will hold in suspension and all other water separates out into a distinct layer (water is heavier than oil). Ethanol is hydrophylic. So, yes, ethanol will change that dynamic a little. But, you’ll still have a threshold below which you won’t separate and above which you will. The argument could be made that since ethanol gas will hold more H2O in suspension, it keeps you from getting phase separation. Again, please for a chemist to check this… Example: just picking numbers… If gas sans ethanol will hold 2% H2O and gas+ethanol will hold 3% H2O… And, if you have 1.9% ethanol, you’re good - no phase separation. If you have 2.5% in gas, you get phase separation. In gas+ethanol, you don’t.
The ethanol problem I believe is actually ‘real’ is that fact that many boa
plain gasoline will not hold water in suspension
ethanol fuel will
especiallywhen aggitated, like driving down the road, or across the harbor.
when allowed to rest, the water will fall out of suspension.
this happens in every location inyour fuel system that holds fuel.
fuel lines, primer bulbs, carb bowls, fuel pumps, VST tanks, injector rails, etc…
you then have water places a F/W seperator wont help.
if you have any old build up of crud in your system, the ethanol will disolve it, and when it sits, it will make things like elecric fuel pumps, and needle and seats stick.
another issue, is that ethanol fuel simply goes bad much faster, as in a month. not sure what the science is, but have seen fuel that was only 1 month old, have an orange color, and already changing its smell. seems to be the worst in carolina skiffs witht eh white tanks under the console, that are exposed to sunlight.
also, when you do get phase seperation, the ethanol will grow a white goo, and this also happens anywhere fuel sits.
its very easy to test this stuff.
get a clear glasscontainer, like a mason jar. put ethanol fuel in it about 1/2 full, add 1/4 water. shake it up. water will go into suspension
leave it exposed to light fora while, and it will grow a funky slime.
we have to bottles in the shop, on the counter, that we have pulled from tanks, that we use to show customers.
Chris, You have any thoughts on my particular issue?
nothing specific
but i would say you need to change that racor, and i would cut it in half to see whats in it. that will give you a starting point.