HOW TO REMOVE H2O FROM GAS TANKS

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highlander

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I fear that there is water in the tanks of my 2000 sailfish. Has anyone removed or know how to remove water from the fuel tanks.
 
You can have the tanks cleaned by a professional cleaner, they will suck it out and filter it and return the filtered fuel back into the tanl..if you do it yourself, you can syphon it out of the bottom of the tank where it has settled to...remove the sending unit and stick a syphon hose into the tank and suck the gas and water out from the bottom of the tank....
 
cgmiller said:
You can have the tanks cleaned by a professional cleaner, they will suck it out and filter it and return the filtered fuel back into the tanl..if you do it yourself, you can syphon it out of the bottom of the tank where it has settled to...remove the sending unit and stick a syphon hose into the tank and suck the gas and water out from the bottom of the tank....
Click to expand...

Be careful, if the tank is fairly full, fuel may spill out of the sender flange when you loosen it.
Now if you have a lot of water, you may be able to use the primer bulb with the output disconnected from the motor to pump the water out. Tilting the stern back or moving weight aft will help to pool the water in the rear near the pickup. It may take a lot of manual work but you wont have to remove the sender.
At some point, there will be water lower than the pickup and you won't be pumping it out. Pump some Believe it or not, one way to get that water is to add fresh ethanol fuel. E10 will absorb about 1/2 % of water by volume. Don't fill the tank, add about a half tank of fresh fuel, use it and repeat.

If you have phase separation, you will know by the stuff you see pump out. In that case, you will probably need to have the tank completely drained and cleaned.

You should drain or replace your water separator filter and engine filter. If there is a lot of water, don't replace the separator until the water situation improves or you will be wasting money on filters.

It is also important to try to find out where the water came from. More often than not, it is water intrusion from a bad fuel fill o-ring. It could be a bad load of gas. It could be a vent that lets water in.
The ethanol conspiracy theorists would also say that condensation is the cause but my experience is that water intrusion is much more prevalent.
 
to remove some 5 year old gas from my boat when I got it I bought a 12V universal fuel pump from a discount auto parts store. Added a long wire and terminals for a battery. Then attached the pump to the existing fuel line to the engine. Added a short peice of hose to the pump outlet and I was in business. Pumped it into 5 gallon cans. Now getting rid of the fuel was another problem. Eventually some helpful thief came around and stole the cans with the bad gas. Bless their hearts!
 
Pump the gas through the water separating fuel filter into 5G containers. If you don't want to use it in a car, any landscaper will gladly take it off your hands.
 
Before you start pumping 200 Gallons of gas out of your boat, be sure that you have water contamnation. Pull your filters and dump them into a clear container and see how much water there is if any. THEN you can decide the next step. If your gas is not very old and you used a stabilizer last fall, then you could possibly just drain off the water from the bottom of the tank(s). You will need to have the tanks down to about 1/2 full or at least down to the 2/3 level. SLOWLY using a MANUAL screwdriver, un-screw the 5 screws one at a time from the sending unit. If there is no fuel leaking out then procedd to remove the sender. I used an electric pump setup like the one mentioned earlier. I used a 3/8" hose and passed it thru a 3/4" piece of CPVC pipe so I could guide the 3/8 stuff to the rear corner of the tank. The Aux tank on my Gulfstream for some stupid reason is located in the FORWARD portion of the Aux tank. This meant I needed to point the boat downhill for the same procedure. IF and ONLY IF the gas is fairly fresh, then I would only drain out as much as needed to remove any water. You will be able to see the water as it flows in to a clear container. I used plastic windshield solvent jugs. My tanks had never been draind in 10 years and I got almost 3 GALLONS of water from EACH TANK. I do however suspect I got some of that water from buying fuel in a marina that had not tested the tanks in the early spring. Be sure to clear all the fuel lines of any lef-over fuel before reconnecting your lines to the engine(s). Good Luck. It can be a lot of work but I haven't had a problem since. DON'T FORGET --- Gasoline being heavier than air, ANY fumes will settle done in to the bilge area. Keep all hatches opened but DO NOT put a house fan down in any area with fumes collected in it.
Sorry to be so long winded about this, but I don't want to read about someone getting BLOWN UP or severly burned!
 
Bob's Cay said:
to remove some 5 year old gas from my boat when I got it I bought a 12V universal fuel pump from a discount auto parts store. Added a long wire and terminals for a battery. Then attached the pump to the existing fuel line to the engine. Added a short peice of hose to the pump outlet and I was in business. Pumped it into 5 gallon cans. Now getting rid of the fuel was another problem. Eventually some helpful thief came around and stole the cans with the bad gas. Bless their hearts!
Click to expand...

I use a similair approach but connected to the top of the tank were the motor draws fuel from.

Dont try to remove the sending unit on a 12 year old boat, you most likely will snap the screws or have to drill them out.

As mentioned if the boat is on land entire tank may not be bad - the water will be at the bottom.

I do this every season as preventive maintenance and pull 5 to 20 gallons out of the bottom of each tank.

I then use the fuel in my garden tractor.

Good luck

Tim
 
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