New member has question about fueling a GW 208

Flying Fish

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Greetings, all. I'm a new member and look forward to learning a lot here. My question concerns the fueling of my 1989 208 Overnighter, which has been a royal pain ever since I got the boat in 1989. It just takes forever, because if I try to pump the gas any faster than a trickle, it overflows the vent and shut itself off. On a good day, I can pump 3 gallons/minute, so if I need to put say 45 gallons in, I'm there for a while. I've asked Grady about it and they say there's no problem, but I'm here to tell you there is a problem. I tried putting a Racor fuel/AIR separator in the line, and it seemed to help a bit for a while, but not permanently.

Perhaps this question has come up before, but I'd be most grateful for any help any of you can offer, or perhaps refer me to another thread on the topic.

Thanks.

FF
 

Grog

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Do a search, that's been talked about before.

How is the vent? You might have a clog in the vent or a belly with some gas.
 

catch22

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I agree with what Grog said.
Once you've got fuel trapped in the vent line, every time you fuel up, the pressure will spit it out.
Check out the vent, and either replace the vent line, or atleast try to shorten it, so there's no dip, (trap) that would hold fuel.
Even if you don't over fill and flood the vent line, I think the vapors can condensate back to a liquid, and can be trapped.
 

gw204

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Part of the problem is that the fill line runs uphill to get to the tank. It would have been a much better design if the fill was mounted on the gunwale and the tank inlet was at the front of the tank.
 

Tashmoo

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Fueling

Had the same problem twice, once was caused by salt deposits in the vent. Replace the vent problem went away until a spider decided to take up residence in the vent one fall. Removed the vent cleaned out the spider condo and all work well again. It's probably your vent or vent line from the tank. If the volume of fuel added to the tank cannot displace the air in the tank then the only place left for the fuel to go is back up the old gozinta.
 

Legend

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I had a similar issue with a 19 foot Mako. The boat was about 20 years old and it turned out that the fuel hose had actually softened and collapsed making it impossible for the fuel to pass. Sounds like your boat may be in the same age range. Good Luck
 

Flying Fish

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Thanks for the replies. I couldn't figure out how to enter a search term that didn't produce many hundreds of returns; I'd be very grateful for a hint on what to search for (I tried "fueling problem," but that's obviously not right).

It's not a question of old, collapsed hoses, though, because the boat has had the problem since day 1. I do agree that when GW moved the filler to the gunwale, the problem apparently went away (mine is on the transom).

FF
 

cdwood

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GW204 knows. The only thing that will help other than making sure your lines are clear is to get as many people as you can to the bow of the boat to get her level or better yet bow down.
 

Crazyfish1

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Greetings, all. I'm a new member and look forward to learning a lot here. My question concerns the fueling of my 1989 208 Overnighter, which has been a royal pain ever since I got the boat in 1989. It just takes forever, because if I try to pump the gas any faster than a trickle, it overflows the vent and shut itself off. On a good day, I can pump 3 gallons/minute, so if I need to put say 45 gallons in, I'm there for a while. I've asked Grady about it and they say there's no problem, but I'm here to tell you there is a problem. I tried putting a Racor fuel/AIR separator in the line, and it seemed to help a bit for a while, but not permanently.

Perhaps this question has come up before, but I'd be most grateful for any help any of you can offer, or perhaps refer me to another thread on the topic.

Thanks.

FF
 

Crazyfish1

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Check your vent maybe blocked or the fill line is kinked or try putting a SMALL like 7/16 or 3/8 line down the fill line But don’t let it go in the fuel just to release air and try to put fuel if that works then you no it’s a vent problem