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Author Topic:   Salt water in fuel

mhoyt01 posted 09-25-2003 02:42 AM ET (US)
Well, some of you have been helping me with my leaky fuel tank. Unfortunetly, right at the same time my fuel tank started leaking, my engines both stopped running. I got a tow in and was worrying about the fuel tank first. After doing all the test the guys talked about, I'm 99% sure I have a hole in my fuel tank and a hole in my gelcoat in the fuel tank cavity which leak through the foam and out the front compartments drainholes. Conversly, the salt water apparently was cruising in the drain holes and making it's way to my tank.
My '99 Honda 130's both stopped running within 5 minutes of each other. Both the inline and in-engine fuel/water separators and fuel filters were all full of salt water.
I disconnected the feul lines to the main tank(boat now at home) and put both fuel lines, just before the fuel pump, into a 5 gallon tank. I then proceeded what appear to be the sump where the high pressure sump resides. It was mostly water. I started pumped fuel through and draining, repeating the process till the water was gone. Then I cranked them over, try to push the water through the high pressure system and drain it out of the bowl. The water is 99% gone, but they won't start. The spark plugs look excellent. Should I fire some starting either into the intake and get them running to flush hte last bit out and get them going again, or am I way off.
Looks like I picked the wrong day to buy a whaler with a tank that was going to give out 8 months later,
Matt
Knockerjoe posted 09-25-2003 10:11 AM ET (US)
Matt, that is some bad news. You need to hook up an 5 gal external tank right away to your engines and get them running in case there is some salt water inside your engines. it sounds like you have a gapping hole somewhere on the tank. Doing a fuel tank is probably the worst job you can do in a boat especially if the damn thing is full like when mine went bad on my last boat! It is that much harder on a whaler due to the console. I have read other posts that say you can tilt the deck and console to one side and have access to the tank. Good luck and let us know how it goes.

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Author	Topic: Salt water in fuel
mhoyt01	posted 09-25-2003 02:42 AM ET (US) Well, some of you have been helping me with my leaky fuel tank. Unfortunetly, right at the same time my fuel tank started leaking, my engines both stopped running. I got a tow in and was worrying about the fuel tank first. After doing all the test the guys talked about, I'm 99% sure I have a hole in my fuel tank and a hole in my gelcoat in the fuel tank cavity which leak through the foam and out the front compartments drainholes. Conversly, the salt water apparently was cruising in the drain holes and making it's way to my tank. My '99 Honda 130's both stopped running within 5 minutes of each other. Both the inline and in-engine fuel/water separators and fuel filters were all full of salt water. I disconnected the feul lines to the main tank(boat now at home) and put both fuel lines, just before the fuel pump, into a 5 gallon tank. I then proceeded what appear to be the sump where the high pressure sump resides. It was mostly water. I started pumped fuel through and draining, repeating the process till the water was gone. Then I cranked them over, try to push the water through the high pressure system and drain it out of the bowl. The water is 99% gone, but they won't start. The spark plugs look excellent. Should I fire some starting either into the intake and get them running to flush hte last bit out and get them going again, or am I way off. Looks like I picked the wrong day to buy a whaler with a tank that was going to give out 8 months later, Matt
Knockerjoe	posted 09-25-2003 10:11 AM ET (US) Matt, that is some bad news. You need to hook up an 5 gal external tank right away to your engines and get them running in case there is some salt water inside your engines. it sounds like you have a gapping hole somewhere on the tank. Doing a fuel tank is probably the worst job you can do in a boat especially if the damn thing is full like when mine went bad on my last boat! It is that much harder on a whaler due to the console. I have read other posts that say you can tilt the deck and console to one side and have access to the tank. Good luck and let us know how it goes.