Orange fuel/Water?

[Sea Shift]

So I am starting the process of replacing my fuel tanks in my 265 Express. I have had multiple setbacks. A leaking front tank to start. I pumped the contents of that tank into the rear tank. During which I siphoned off about 2 gallons of water/fuel from the bottom and sent it to recycle. No biggie since I was just gonna burn the remaining fuel in the rear tank. However I put the boat in today and the port motor died..........checked fuel switch, flow to make sure I was drawing from the rear tank and yes I was good. Then I checked the filters! This is what came out of the port fuel water separator and engine filter!



Now I get the separation showing water in the fruel. I probably accumulated of water in the past year and I havent changed the filter in a while. But whats the orange color?
Even thought the starboard motor was running fine I freaked out and pulled the boat and checked its filter........

This was the starboard motor. Again lots of water but mainly clear fuel??? Any ideas why? Yes this is off the same tank but it does have separate pickups.

 

[DennisG01]

Orange could be rust... but not sure exactly where you would pick that up from...

However, I'd lean more towards the "orange" actually being old fuel - which presents very close to that color... sort of a brownish-orange.

The weird thing is that both are from the same tank. Maybe the gas from the other tank didn't fully mix inside the tank you drew from.

At this point you probably need to drain the entire tank so it's pretty much a moot point.

 

[Sea Shift]

Orange could be rust... but not sure exactly where you would pick that up from...

However, I'd lean more towards the "orange" actually being old fuel - which presents very close to that color... sort of a brownish-orange.

The weird thing is that both are from the same tank. Maybe the gas from the other tank didn't fully mix inside the tank you drew from.

At this point you probably need to drain the entire tank so it's pretty much a moot point.

I agree and I would love to drain the tank. However the little research i have done shows disposal of gasoline at $10-$15 PER GALLON! I'm gonna try and flush the port side and see if I can work that little bit through.

 

[Hookup1]

How much fuel is in this tank? Is it ethanol free? You could get it out and burn it in your lawnmower. DO NOT put it in your car - they can't handle filtering the fuel and you will wreck your car. I have not found a way to dispose of old fuel so I burned it...carefully.

The pickups can't get all the water out of the tank. You can get it all out by raising the bow up, pulling the sending unit and use a automotive fuel pump and copper tubing on hose to clean tank out. A little dry ice in tank for explosion protection.

You can also run it out....but your filters can only hold so much and you need to agitate the tanks to get the water in suspension - not sitting on the bottom of the tank.

What I have done is install Sierra clear bowl filters instead of the Yamaha cans. Grab a gallon can of fresh fuel, a funnel and another fuel container. Fire extinguisher!
Dump the can filter and engine filter and fill with clean gas. Take the boat out in the back bay and run the boat to shake everything up in the tank. Stop and check clear bowls. If they have water stop the boat, drop the filters, get the water out and top them off. Repeat this and do it over a few days/trips.

This has worked well for me. All water in fuel problems gone.

 

[Sea Shift]

How much fuel is in this tank? Is it ethanol free? You could get it out and burn it in your lawnmower. DO NOT put it in your car - they can't handle filtering the fuel and you will wreck your car. I have not found a way to dispose of old fuel so I burned it...carefully.

The pickups can't get all the water out of the tank. You can get it all out by raising the bow up, pulling the sending unit and use a automotive fuel pump and copper tubing on hose to clean tank out. A little dry ice in tank for explosion protection.

You can also run it out....but your filters can only hold so much and you need to agitate the tanks to get the water in suspension - not sitting on the bottom of the tank.

What I have done is install Sierra clear bowl filters instead of the Yamaha cans. Grab a gallon can of fresh fuel, a funnel and another fuel container. Fire extinguisher!
Dump the can filter and engine filter and fill with clean gas. Take the boat out in the back bay and run the boat to shake everything up in the tank. Stop and check clear bowls. If they have water stop the boat, drop the filters, get the water out and top them off. Repeat this and do it over a few days/trips.

This has worked well for me. All water in fuel problems gone.

Im not sure on the Ethanol content. Since were in CA im guessing yes. Unfortunately I have 120 gallons so disposal is the big issue. Thats alot of lawn mowing. I wish I knew someone with an old gas truck. They could burn it. At this point Im trying to "clean" the system of the old fuel which i think i have done by removing 5 gallons till it ran clear and no settling of water in a mason jar. I drained the engine filter and purged lines. But it still will not fire. Im thinking I may have pluged the "F" filter at the VST or lord forbid the actual VST filter. Uggh.

 

[Hookup1]

Dump the filters, put clean fuel in and try again. Hopefully injectors not messed up. Run it! But don't let primary fill up and get to secondaries on engine before dumping again.

Your wallet would know if the fuel is ethanol free. In Florida it's called Rec 90 at about $6.00/gallon last winter. Great stuff though.

Be careful burning that old fuel off. It's phase separated and lost the ethanol octane booster. Don't run it too hard until you get rid of it.

 

[seasick]

It looks like there may there may be three layers in that jar. That would indicate phase separation. If so, the mixture has to be disposed of.
If two layers you may have more water than gas. If your nose works ( my doesn't) smell it. If it doesn't really smell like gas, it's probably mostly water.
Remember that the water settles to the bottom and gas to the top so if you have a mixture of gas and water, you have about 80 % water in the the jar.

 

[DennisG01]

As noted above, with ethanol gas, you have another problem - phase separation. The ethanol binds with the water and that mixture is what drops to the bottom of the tank. It's not like "regular" gasoline where the good gas just floats to the top. With ethanol, the gasoline is depleted of the necessary octane (ethanol) to safely run an engine... and could actually cause damage.

But, maybe you could add some octane boost (or a lot) to counter that. Do some research on how much octane could have been lost.

Just make sure you've been siphoning from the lowest spot.

The VST filter is easy - besides, you want to at least drain the VST tank to check fuel quality there. The VST filter is nothing to fret about - just unbolt the VST tank and remove the lower half and remove the filter to check it. You can just clean it and put it back on if it's good.

 

[Hookup1]

I fought water in fuel problems for a few years. O-rings on fuel fills likely the cause. Some condensation. Couple of time adding stabilizer caused engines to stall - filters full of water. Every time I cleaned the fuel up and burnt it. My F150's have 2,230 hours on them and run like new. I used my tips in post #4 above to clean the fuel up.

From a post I did in 2009...

A gallon of E10 suspends FOUR (4) TEASPOONS of water per gallon of fuel before phase separation. That's 0.41%. About 1/2 gallon water for 100 gallons of E10. That is not much.

The alcohol/water will drop out and go to the bottom of the tank. Not sure if this mix will even burn let alone run a motor. The fuel floating on top in the tank will now have a lower octane. There is no way to put it back together.

Water separating fuel filter do a good job separating the fuel out but you can't let the filter fill all the way with water and spill over into the engine filter. I use a Sierra filter with a clear bowl so I can see what is going on.

Three Ethanol Myths Clarified

In the few years since ethanol began to be widely used in the United States, a lot has been written about its properties, the problems it's created, and how to best cope with its possible effects. It's time we get to the bottom of how E10 is affecting our engines.

www.boatus.com

 

[PointedRose]

I think it’s worth investing in a small 6 gal fuel tank to run engines on fresh gas while working on the old fuel tank.
When I was trying to get rid of old gas, my marina wouldn’t take it, even though they dispose of oil, because gas is more combustible. The harbor master said to put the old gas out in the sun in an oil pan and it evaporated over a few days. Probably not an option for the volume you are dealing with though.

 

[Beyond A Wake]

Some times the pick ups are at different level for different motors and of course generators so they don't run the tank dry. Leaving motors or one motor with more gas to run til the end .