Water in Fuel

Water in fuel has become a major problem for boaters during the last couple of months. The staff of one retail marine store reported five boaters came in with water in their gas one Saturday, and that was just before noon.

I don’t know where the water came from but it was there. Potential culprits include:

• Condensation,

• Water leaking into tank through a hole,

• Leak around fuel tank filler or sender,

• Water coming in through vent line, and

• Bad gas from gas station.

Many boaters are blaming ethanol, but who knows?

What to do about it?

Of course, the first objective is to find the source and remedy the problem. But after that the next objective is to remove the water. There are several ways to do this.

• If you have a portable tank, it is easy to remove the contaminated fuel, flush out tank, dry it, then refill and enjoy boating.

• For a built in tank the solution is not so simple. The popular buzz slogan is “fuel polishing”. This does not require a buffing machine as the name suggests. It requires a special high volume filter system and a high volume pump. The fuel is repeatedly circulated through the filters until no water or sediment appears in the filter.

Another solution will work if the volume of contaminants is small, using a fuel/water separator with a see-through base. This can work if you keep a close eye on the see-through base and empty it as often as necessary. Yamaha recommends 10 micron of finer filter. The major marine suppliers of this type of separator are Racor and Moeller. They can be purchased through most boat stores or through WWW.MarineSupplyHeadquarters.com.

Boating is supposed to be fun, but if your day on the water is spent with an engine that won’t run, it’s not nearly as enjoyable Make sure you can fix the problem before you hit the water.