Ran out of gas, both engines will not start

[djohnson52]

I am looking for a little info on where to begin. I ran out of gas yesterday afternoon, was brought ten gallons of gas by sea tow but could not get motors( Yamaha 150 hpdi) started. We tilted motors up in case they were flooded, primed the bulbs manually and then tried to fire the motors up in neutral and using the choke. One motor ran for a couple seconds and then would not start again, the other would not fire up.

Apparently my gas gauge was not working and I thought the aux tank was full, but appears it was empty. No fuel in the main tank. I am wondering if their could possibly be an air lock, maybe a clog if it sucked up some debris from the bottom of the tank, or possibly the fuel pump itself is going? Without actually looking into the tank I am not 100% sure the tank is empty, but feel it was before I added the ten gallons yesterday while stuck at sea.


I am going to start at the water separators and work my way up from there.Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated. I do use stabil and ring free in my fuel. Thanks.

 

[seasick]

I am looking for a little info on where to begin. I ran out of gas yesterday afternoon, was brought ten gallons of gas by sea tow but could not get motors( Yamaha 150 hpdi) started. We tilted motors up in case they were flooded, primed the bulbs manually and then tried to fire the motors up in neutral and using the choke. One motor ran for a couple seconds and then would not start again, the other would not fire up.

Apparently my gas gauge was not working and I thought the aux tank was full, but appears it was empty. No fuel in the main tank. I am wondering if their could possibly be an air lock, maybe a clog if it sucked up some debris from the bottom of the tank, or possibly the fuel pump itself is going? Without actually looking into the tank I am not 100% sure the tank is empty, but feel it was before I added the ten gallons yesterday while stuck at sea.


I am going to start at the water separators and work my way up from there.Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated. I do use stabil and ring free in my fuel. Thanks.

Check for water in the fuel. LP pumps could be bad and not have enough oomph to draw fuel. Try pumping primer bulbs. They should get firm at a minimum. If not, no fuel. They shouldn't collapse. If so, fuel line, filter or pickup is blocked. Check the motor mounted fuel filter. It should not have water in it and should be about half full.
I am curious about the choke statement. If these are injected, there is no choke.
My first bet would be clogged filter(s) due to garbage in the tank.

 

[Parthery]

Like Seasick said....

If these are HPDIs then no choke. Pushing in the key does nothing.

Check your water separator/fuel filters. Is the primer bulb firming up when you squeeze it?

 

[VeroWing]

Probably lost prime in fuel lines when gas ran out. Remove fuel/water separator, fill it with fuel and reinstall. That usually is enough to reestablish prime and fuel flow through fuel lines.

 

[djohnson52]

Thanks for the response.

My bad on the choke, I was pushing the key in while trying to turn over, thought I was choking the motors. The primer bulbs never filled or got hard, just completely soft.

I will attempt the fuel separators first and post an update as soon as I can get back there. Thanks again.

 

[Grady_Crazy]

I had a Welcraft V-20 with 16 gal side tanks. If a tank ran out, which it did often I had a hard time getting it primed again. I had to pump the bulb a lot to get it primed. I had a 150 Johnson and you can imagine how quickly I went through 16 gals of gas.

 

[Ron Semenza]

That happened to me right after I bought my boat in 2000. I got the motor started but could not go more than 5-7mph. Yamaha tec told me that running out of gas will fry one of the two fuel pumps. Warranty covered mine. He found out about it at a Yamaha school after it happened. Now I switch over to my Aux tank before running out of gas. So check the fuel pumps.

 

[ahill]

Probably separators.
Your primer bulb should be before the separators so that you can draw from the tank to the separator. Primers after the separator suck air for a long time. If the bulb is after, fill the canister with fuel before installing.

 

[seasick]

Thanks for the response.

My bad on the choke, I was pushing the key in while trying to turn over, thought I was choking the motors. The primer bulbs never filled or got hard, just completely soft.

I will attempt the fuel separators first and post an update as soon as I can get back there. Thanks again.

If the primer bulbs are between the motor and the filters and it stays soft and doesn't collapse and the primer bulb is good, you either have no fuel or an air leak. If the separators were clogged, the bulb would flatten. If the filters were empty and there are no air leaks, eventually the filters should fill with fuel.
One thought I had was if you ran out of fuel while at speed and with the hull angled up in the front, then when it leveled out, 10 gals of gas may not be enough to reach the level of the pickup tubes. That is easy to check, add more gas.

 

[djohnson52]

**** Update ****
Thanks to everyone who replied, appreciate the opinions and advice.

I finally got back to the boat last weekend and checked the water separators. They wee half filled with water when I dumped them out into a plastic bottle, and I am assuming clogged the filter not allowing me to get gas. Replaced both separators and cleaned out the lines from the feed valve to just passed the primer bulb. I noticed the small fuel filter on the motor was not filling when pumping the bulb, as soon as I cleaned out the lines the filter filled and it took a few cranks but both motors started up and ran fine for my short little test drive. This weekend I will fill the tank and give it a real test. Thanks again for everyone's help, much appreciated as this is all new to me!

 

[seasick]

**** Update ****
Thanks to everyone who replied, appreciate the opinions and advice.

I finally got back to the boat last weekend and checked the water separators. They wee half filled with water when I dumped them out into a plastic bottle, and I am assuming clogged the filter not allowing me to get gas. Replaced both separators and cleaned out the lines from the feed valve to just passed the primer bulb. I noticed the small fuel filter on the motor was not filling when pumping the bulb, as soon as I cleaned out the lines the filter filled and it took a few cranks but both motors started up and ran fine for my short little test drive. This weekend I will fill the tank and give it a real test. Thanks again for everyone's help, much appreciated as this is all new to me!

The water doesn't clog the filters but instead it gets pumped into the motor and they don't run on water. ( I wish they could)
I would be concerned about what is in your tank. It most likely had or has water in it and when you fuel level got low, you sucked up water.
The mall filter you mention should have some fuel but should not be full. If full, you have an air leak.
The good news of course is that the motors are running but keep an eye out for possible issues again.
Thanks for the update