We had a water in the fuel tank issue a few years ago. It was getting in at the fuel fill cap.
Excellent advice, sharphooks! We started at the tank - lots of crud came out, replaced fuel, fill and vent lines and cleaned fittings, replaced every filter, including in the VST and the injectors. End of problems!^^^^^^^^^ this^^^^^^
I had to pump 200 liters of fuel out of a contaminated tank last Fall. There was a blob of emusified crap in the plastic bowl of the fuel/water separator that had the consistency of mayonnaise. It killed one of my Suzuki outboards.
I started examining fuel lines, filler caps etc. I noticed the filler cap “O” ring had a flattened-out section surrounded by what appeared to be salt crystals. It was fitted to the top of the transom. The boat had just done a 6 hour run through snotty conditions (wind blowing waves sideways) returning from the albacore grounds .....
The filler cap seemed to be the logical place where we got the water intrusion into the tank....the outboards pulling fuel create a suction effect ...any salt water hitting the fuel cap got sucked in........
You probably don’t want to hear this, Sue, but if you had the outboard running problems you mentioned, you might consider pumping the tank and having the inside polished. For sure, swap out the filter in BOTH your fuel water separator (external) and the internal one in your outboard
Wouldn’t be a bad idea to clean out the VST (vapor separating tank) in the outboard also
It might have been overkill but I had the tank pumped dry as mentioned, swabbed down with solvent, polished, and ALL fuel lines/water seperators replumbed and replaced
Oh, and a new filler cap...have not had the problem since
Did you check the vent line for blockages? Air is literally 1000 times easier to suck in than water (try sucking on a straw with a pinhole leak) so if the vent is working well then the vacuum of the fuel system should not suck in much water because air easily comes in the vent.^^^^^^^^^ this^^^^^^
I had to pump 200 liters of fuel out of a contaminated tank last Fall. There was a blob of emusified crap in the plastic bowl of the fuel/water separator that had the consistency of mayonnaise. It killed one of my Suzuki outboards.
I started examining fuel lines, filler caps etc. I noticed the filler cap “O” ring had a flattened-out section surrounded by what appeared to be salt crystals. It was fitted to the top of the transom. The boat had just done a 6 hour run through snotty conditions (wind blowing waves sideways) returning from the albacore grounds .....
The filler cap seemed to be the logical place where we got the water intrusion into the tank....the outboards pulling fuel create a suction effect ...any salt water hitting the fuel cap got sucked in........
You probably don’t want to hear this, Sue, but if you had the outboard running problems you mentioned, you might consider pumping the tank and having the inside polished. For sure, swap out the filter in BOTH your fuel water separator (external) and the internal one in your outboard
Wouldn’t be a bad idea to clean out the VST (vapor separating tank) in the outboard also
It might have been overkill but I had the tank pumped dry as mentioned, swabbed down with solvent, polished, and ALL fuel lines/water seperators replumbed and replaced
Oh, and a new filler cap...have not had the problem since