Foreign Material in Gas Tank

[Sharphooks]

hey Gents

So I'm getting the boat ready for my annual Bamfield trip. Everything is all packed away, I just fueled up. Last order of business--put some Stabil-Marine fuel stabilizer in the gas tank. So I'm peeling the inner seal off the spout of the Stabil container and what happens? It suddenly pops free and does a perfect five foot arc directly into the fill spout of my boat's gas tank!

Oh, what the hell---just what I didn't need! It's the size of a quarter, but it's probably made of special material that would be impervious to fuel (???) and won't degrade in the tank (???) and bugger things up.......or will it?

I go to sleep last night but while in bed, I toss and turn, my brain coming up with all these scenarios on why I should do whatever I can to get that cap out of the fuel tank. I have visions of losing power while running Alberni Inlet; I'm dead in the water without power because the freaking seal got sucked into the fuel line... and so on.

Long story short, the next morning (today), I remember I'd found a four foot long slender steel rod in the street last week and I set is aside, thinking hey, might come in handy some day....

I get out the dremel, sharpen one end into a long nasty point, get a flash light and turning it on, slide it under the gas tank in the stern of the boat and whoaaa, I can see that freaking seal on the bottom of the tank!! Several tries later, I spear it (not a easy task on the sloping bottom) and gently withdraw the wire out of the fill tube --- holy crap, I get the seal out of the tank and suddenly, life is good again!!!!!!

So I just have to ask the question: what could have happened if I'd just left it there? Again, a seal the size of a quarter, hard material used as a secondary seal under a screw cap, some type of formed felt with plasticine covering (at least on one side)

Could it have stopped the flow of fuel by leaving it in there? What kind of mischief would go on in a boat gas tank with foreign material of this type?

thanks for the comments---I'm curious and I've never seen the pick-up line in a 50 gallon tank so not sure of the implications

 

[directmule]

I would go out and buy a lottery ticket if I was you

 

[Fish-Hunter]

Foriegn material in fuel tanks suck (literally). When we bought our boat it was explained to us that there were some fuel problems with the boat. So we went through the regulars new filter system, new lines, cleaned dirty carb etc... Took boat out for trial run on a windy day, now that was a really bright idea, trials on a windy day, don't do that one no matter how bad you want to test the boat out. So we pulled out of French Creek Harbour after a ten minute or so warm up at the dock, all semed well until we cleared the harbour entrance and opened it up to see how it would handle some waves,,, and BRRRrrrwaaaaaaa... Dead, and won't start, at all and shore is looming. Kicker won't start either now, WTF?? Shore is getting really close, and there is no way in hell that the paddle is going to do anything but fend off or break in this wind and waves, drop the anchor, whew... Finally get the motor going, run for ten or more minutes all seems fine pull anchor and get out into the straights everything works fine at low RPMs give it some throtle and bwaaaaa dead. Over and over, head back in, drag boat home. Drain tank down and tear it out, there is a rattle in the tank, take sending unit out, and WTF there is several screws in the tank, remove supply line, and look at that, there is a screw in the end of the line. So the more fuel demand that was placed on the fuel line the harder the head of the screw seated into the opening to the fitting. Not cool to have any foreign material in tank for sure.

 

[Sharphooks]

Wow, now I'm glad I busted a move and got that junk out of there! Never could have pulled off that trick with an aluminum tank--my tank is plastic which allowed me to get a flashlight underneath and see the seal in there on the bottom. Directmule has a good point--I lucked out big time and should prolly' go buy a lottery ticket .

As if we don't have enough trouble with ethanol in the gas--- Last summer I was playing cat and mouse with a ferry (all the salmon were holding off the end of the ferry dock so that's what you had to do) I waited too long, the captain started blowing his horn and WTF--I was dead in the water---couldn't get my Yamaha T-8 to fire up. First time since I owned it that it wouldn't catch a spark. I finally lunged for the F150, got it fired up, and got out of there just before getting run over by a pissed off 8,000 GT ferry.

Went home, pulled the fuel pump off the T-8---WTF--it looked like someone blew up a frog in there! Yep, ethanol ate up the diaphragm in the squeeze bulb and it got sucked down the line into the fuel pump, gummed everything up, and stopped me dead in my tracks.