282 Sailfish - Water in fuel!?!?

[SecondWind282]

My Islander has a recess on the gunnel where the fuel fills are located. Water runs down the boat, drops into this pocket and floods around the fuel fill. Probably makes leaving the fuel fill cap off especially problematic. Apparently Perko has figured this out and ships a 3/8" spacer with the new vented fuel fills (also cn be purchased separately). It's has a radius edge and diverts the water away and around the cap.
View attachment 33451
I also had a problem with adding stabilizer to my boat that was running fine only to have it stall after a short run with water in the filters. This happened to me two different years. Not sure if it was phase separation or what.

I found it difficult and expensive to remove fuel from the boat and dispose of it. I wound up cleaning it up and running it out in the boat.

I would cleanup my tanks using the Serira clear bowl and filters. If you stall the boat (way too much water in filters) I would drop the engine filters and primary filter cans, dump into to container, decant the fuel and put back into filter and top off with clean fuel from a container. Always fill filters up even if you just run out of gas (forget primer bulb) or you will be there forever. You could just dump it all and replace with clean fuel. Put them back up and run the boat. The running of the boat agitates the water and makes it easier to pickup. You may have to do this several times to really clean the tanks up.

Be careful with the resultant fuel. If it had ethanol in it to boost octane its not there anymore. At some point you need to add more fuel (few gas cans of premium or just more marine fuel).

My fuel fill already has the plastic lip on the fuel fill as you show.

I use the clear bowl on my racor separators with drain nipple on the bottom. I cut a piece of gas line the perfect length and attached to the nipple so I slide a large gatorade bottle in the bilge floor and open the drain and close when it's done. I can dump the Gatorade bottle into a larger 1 gal clear jug to monitor how much water I pulled out over multiple drainings

 

[SecondWind282]

I had (have) the water issue with my 330. New o-rings, all good gaskets, etc. I even covered the fill ports with taped down plastic bags to eliminate fill port intrusion. New fuel level sensors and gaskets. No gas smell anywhere. If I keep tanks full, 350 gallons, extra ton of weight, then problem goes away. In central FL we get large temp swings and high humidity. Condensation is my only source. Ruled out all other possibilities. My fix is to keep 1/2+ levels and drain separators every 100 gallons or so. For long runs I drain the separators before the trip and often find each separator to have nice clear clean water in it after 200 gallons. Much better in the winter when our humidity is typically lower. Yamaha separators do their job well and if drained regularly will keep the alarm at bay. I use non-ethanol with marine Techron.

Your situation sounds very similar to mine. I can't understand why every other boat doesn't have the same exact problem though

 

[SecondWind282]

My Islander has a recess on the gunnel where the fuel fills are located. Water runs down the boat, drops into this pocket and floods around the fuel fill. Probably makes leaving the fuel fill cap off especially problematic. Apparently Perko has figured this out and ships a 3/8" spacer with the new vented fuel fills (also cn be purchased separately). It's has a radius edge and diverts the water away and around the cap.
View attachment 33451
I also had a problem with adding stabilizer to my boat that was running fine only to have it stall after a short run with water in the filters. This happened to me two different years. Not sure if it was phase separation or what.

I found it difficult and expensive to remove fuel from the boat and dispose of it. I wound up cleaning it up and running it out in the boat.

I would cleanup my tanks using the Serira clear bowl and filters. If you stall the boat (way too much water in filters) I would drop the engine filters and primary filter cans, dump into to container, decant the fuel and put back into filter and top off with clean fuel from a container. Always fill filters up even if you just run out of gas (forget primer bulb) or you will be there forever. You could just dump it all and replace with clean fuel. Put them back up and run the boat. The running of the boat agitates the water and makes it easier to pickup. You may have to do this several times to really clean the tanks up.

Be careful with the resultant fuel. If it had ethanol in it to boost octane its not there anymore. At some point you need to add more fuel (few gas cans of premium or just more marine fuel).

I have that plastic lip on my fuel fill.

I empty my separator a lot. But I use clear bowl with drain nipple and a small gas line into bottle. It's a lot easier, faster and less mess than unscrewing the non-bowl filters.

I've looked into installing an ultra large capacity separator you might see on a tractor

 

[SkunkBoat]

Wow, thats a crazy problem.
I hesitate to speak because I will jinxs myself but

I replaced one vented cap. Chain broke and it fell in the water. Last year I replaced the o ring on the other cap with the wrong one. Used the pack on the left in my previous picture. It went on and hopefully was sealing. I had no problems during the season. You could see that it screwed in farther due to the thinner oring.

I have never had water in my clear separator(s) on 2 boats over 23 years. Boats with aluminum tanks. E10 fuel. I read about it and worried about it. I kept tank near full on my old boat with 60 gal tank. New boat did not want to have 250 gallons over the winter so keep them nearer to empty over winter.
I used the Startron stuff. For the last 4 years I use nothing during the season. Gas up at a Valvetech marina fuel- E10 89 octane. Says it has the stuff in it...
My 130 gal tank is usually full (because I like to be ready). The 120 tank is only full for the start of a tuna trip.. Very often I will run it down till one engine runs out...Most often it has maybe 50 gal in it during the hot humid summer.

The only time I ever had water was in portable 6 gal plastic tank on my tin boat 30 years ago. I was always forgetting to close the vent.

 

[itsaball]

I am not sure if this is in the details of the responses, but not to be overlooked are the tank vents. I have had 5 gradys and throught the period have seen the tank vent changed 3 times from a clamshell on the side of the hull, to the vented cap, to the removable carthridge screen that is on the side of my current 370 Express. I have replaced fill hoses due to cracking and escaping vapors but have not yet had a water in fuel issue. Of course like a mechanic once told me, I use to much fuel to have a fuel problem. I travel from New england to the Georgia coast and there in between every summer so 1000 plus gallons of consumption per season is normal. Currently I am having a problem whith my filler necks not takeing fuel from the pump fast enough and causes about an hour of delay at fuel stops. Vents are venting fine and with the carthridges removed, will not take fuel from medium flow despensers. Check those vents for your problem!

 

[seasick]

I am not sure if this is in the details of the responses, but not to be overlooked are the tank vents. I have had 5 gradys and throught the period have seen the tank vent changed 3 times from a clamshell on the side of the hull, to the vented cap, to the removable carthridge screen that is on the side of my current 370 Express. I have replaced fill hoses due to cracking and escaping vapors but have not yet had a water in fuel issue. Of course like a mechanic once told me, I use to much fuel to have a fuel problem. I travel from New england to the Georgia coast and there in between every summer so 1000 plus gallons of consumption per season is normal. Currently I am having a problem whith my filler necks not takeing fuel from the pump fast enough and causes about an hour of delay at fuel stops. Vents are venting fine and with the carthridges removed, will not take fuel from medium flow despensers. Check those vents for your problem!

In this specific thread, the OP boat has a combo fill/vent fitting. There is no outside clamshell

 

[wspitler]

Interestingly, I have a Seaark with a 33 gallon tank that has a different sort of cap that actually seems to pressurize slightly. Not sure of the mechanism but when opened it will burp a little somewhat regardless, it seems, of prior temperature changes. Like a car that has a sealed cap. I wonder if it’s possible that the Valve mechanisms inside the older caps are going bad allowing moist air in and out more easily.

 

[lazy grady]

Check the "sleeve" from the filler cap to the tank.

 

[Fishtales]

I've never had a water in the gas from storage in my boat. I'd def change the Perko O-rings to start. Then ensure they actually seal. Check the fill hose connections under the gunnel too.
If your going to take the deck up, I'd replace the fill lines. Gotta start changing some stuff as this is a tricky issue.

 

[amf282]

I had the same problem I put new o ring in and perko makes a fitting that lifts the cap off the gunnel that stops water from getting close to the cap

+1.....we had the same issue on our 282 and raised fill off the deck....problem solved. Took forever to figure it out.

 

[SecondWind282]

+1.....we had the same issue on our 282 and raised fill off the deck....problem solved. Took forever to figure it out.

Thank you!! I'll give this a try