First day out and poop!! '99 OX66 Issues

[johnnyboy]

Good evening to all.

Been a while since my last post...

Took my '99 sail fish and had no problems on the way out for the first few minutes at low throttle. Put 15 gallons of fresh fuel in earlier and thought all is well. All pumps are new, t stats from last season. To be honest I did not change my large water separators, yes I know dumb mistake.

As we brought the boat up, she began to shrug, more shrug till both engines just stalled. Tried to restart and almost sounded like I had no gas, but I did have gas.

Did the safe thing; threw anchor and called towboat and got myself towed in.

Any suggestions to possible issue?

One other thing i noticed that I never took into account for. On the fuel separator lines for the fuel, the left says main and the right reserve. My boat was open all on reserve, is there a correct valve alignment or just having the valve in the open position is fine?


Any help is appreciated!!

 

[Lainie J]

You said you put 15 gallons of fuel in but did you put that fuel in the reserve tank? Your reserve holds 52 and main 150. If you have both switches pointing to the reserve then you are pulling fuel only from that tank. Theres no right and wrong on how to pull fuel its just preference. I choose to run both engines off the same tank then when empty switch over to the other and refuel the empty tank.

 

[Lainie J]

You said you put 15 gallons of fuel in but did you put that fuel in the reserve tank? Your reserve holds 52 and main 150. If you have both switches pointing to the reserve then you are pulling fuel only from that tank. Theres no right and wrong on how to pull fuel its just preference. I choose to run both engines off the same tank then when empty switch over to the other and refuel the empty tank.

 

[Tucker]

Yep, wondering if you added fuel to the wrong tank. Forward fill is the main, aft is the reserve. Why are you running both motors off a 52-gal tank??

 

[Grog]

You probably have the same valves as I do. The pointer of the valve points to the tank being used, not the handle. If you don't notice the pointer you may be on the opposite tank.

Do you see/find water in the separator? Did you have any issues from Sandy?

I can run my main tank way down but anything less than 10 gallons in the reserve will cause stumbles from fuel starvation (unless I'm trolling).

 

[johnnyboy]

To be honest, thats a point I made in my head on the way home that day-- I never took her out since Sandy. She was drydocked but who knows what could of happened, I was by an area hit by a 10 foot surge.

Im going to put some ring free or similar product, more fresh gas, change the fuel separators and see how it goes from there.


I've read in other posts the primer balls can go bad.

I have a tach for them, whats the average anyone pump them till? (I stop when they sound full)

Although ive always heard hand pumping is better.

Hopefully Ill find a fix soon. I appreciate the constant replies.

 

[zimm]

I would pull the cowlings and look at the fuel filter bowls. On my '01 there's a red ring that is supposed to float if there's water in there. Also change the big fuel filters. When you take the old ones out, dump the contents into a clear container and see what you get. My guess is you have a bunch of water in the fuel. Water doesn't burn and needs to be removed. Since it lays on the bottom of the fuel tanks, maybe you can get a hose down there and pump some out to see what you get.

In my pic you can see the yellow fuel bowl and the red ring at the bottom. I think your '99 has carbs, so maybe it's different...

 

[seasick]

To be honest, thats a point I made in my head on the way home that day-- I never took her out since Sandy. She was drydocked but who knows what could of happened, I was by an area hit by a 10 foot surge.

Im going to put some ring free or similar product, more fresh gas, change the fuel separators and see how it goes from there.


I've read in other posts the primer balls can go bad.

I have a tach for them, whats the average anyone pump them till? (I stop when they sound full)

Although ive always heard hand pumping is better.

Hopefully Ill find a fix soon. I appreciate the constant replies.

If you have water in the bottom that is being picked up, no amount of Ring Free or fresh gas is going to help. You will need to pump the water out of the tank and drain the fuel filters.

 

[Grog]

Did you check to see if you have water in the separators? The Yamaha filters have to be dumped in a clear container to see what's inside, if you changed to the clear bowl Racors you can see if there is water in the bottom (and drain a little out). Just changing them doesn't tell you anything, water may be an issue or it can be something else.

If the water came from the storm, your insurance would cover the cost (well part of) to fix your fuel issues. Also if you're not sure how deep the water was inside the boat check the oil in tanks.

 

[johnnyboy]

Hey guys some updates:

Found fouled spark plugs, replaced them all.

Then ending up pumping out fuel from reserve tank and finding frothy water.

Removed it all safely and tried starting engines again.

Nothing at all.

Cleaned out gas from vts from the little bolt at the bottom and also cleaned gas out of gas filter on engine. Changed fuel filters and still nothing.

Bought low pressure pumps just in case but techie doesnt think thats the problem.

Anyone have further suggestions? Can I sitll have water in my line?

The techie also stated putting star tron in the gas can cause the gas to be unusable ( which I dont think makes sense)


Is there anything else I need to check or try?


All the help is appreciated

 

[grady33]

Are you getting a spark? Have you checked ignition switch? Perhaps there is a fuse that tripped? Without more information, you're simply guessing which can be costly.

 

[johnnyboy]

Havent checked the ignition but we are getting pressure to the cylinders. How do you check for ignition issues?

 

[johnnyboy]

Hey guys: update:

Ending up taking alot of water out of my reserve tank, almost 10 gallons and also some water out of my main. Wiped down the floor in the aux tank and drained all fuel lines; at the end of it all batteries were dead so tomorrow I will try my first crank to see if we get anywhere.

 

[Tucker]

10-Gal?? Holy smoke!! That's huge considering you aux tank only holds 50-gal!! You've gotten new o-rings for your fill caps right?? I think you have a season of draining your fuel/water seps after every ride

 

[Parthery]

Sounds like what happened to me...

The only way to cure it is to drain the tank, the lines, replace all the filters, and start over. You need to figure out how so much water got in there...in my case it was the o-ring on the fuel fill cap.

 

[Tucker]

Sounds like what happened to me...

The only way to cure it is to drain the tank, the lines, replace all the filters, and start over. You need to figure out how so much water got in there...in my case it was the o-ring on the fuel fill cap.

Yep, I've had to do that twice. Only way to do it cheap is put boat on a trailer and syphon gas out through sending units into 5-gal cans. You wont get it all out so you have to keep an eye on your fuel water seps.

 

[Grog]

10 gallons of water from the o-ring? If you never used it and left the top lose maybe. Any chance of water from Sandy? I had both vents knocked off and I'm hoping there isn't too much water in the tanks.

 

[johnnyboy]

A big thanks to everyone whom helped out in giving me different options to look at to resolve the issue.

In the end the issue was over 15 gallons of water in my tanks total. How it all got there, not sure... I haven't used the boat since Sandy and God only knows how/where water could of gotten in from.

I literally wiped down both tanks, filtered all fuel, changed fuel separators and put some fresh fuel in.

Today I was finally able to take her out with no headaches this season, what a relief!!

Thanks to all again