Gas Tank Crud...Anybody?
 

See pictures below.


Until my 21 gets done I have been running a 17' Whaler that has a 1997 115 Yamaha.

Just lately my fuel filter has been plugging up with crud. When the stuff is wet it is like paste. When it dries it is like brown talc.

The gas in the tank has always been marine gas. Except the last 50 or so gallons that I put in when the boat was on a trailer for service. So that was a 10% ethanol blend. Gas tank is aluminum.


Filter wet...

http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/i...CIMG0010-1.jpg

Crud in bottom of canister...

http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/i...CIMG0009-1.jpg

Any ideas...oh yea that filter has only one month on it and 6 hours.

Do you think I will need a gas tank flush or will changing filters take care of it.

Re: Gas Tank Crud...Anybody?
 

What kind of tank do you have? If it's one of the fiberglass tanks (Pate) ethanol will slowly break it down.

Re: Gas Tank Crud...Anybody?
 

I edited my post to answer your question...tank is aluminum.

Re: Gas Tank Crud...Anybody?
 

Ethanol in the fuel. Been seeing it in lots of boats. That is what it tends to look like. How long ago did you put that 50 gallons in the boat? The longer it sits the worse it seems to get.

Re: Gas Tank Crud...Anybody?
 

After last years switch, I had problems. @30/40 hrs and the racor was loaded w what looked like raw untreated sewage.20 yr old tank. Happened again @ 50 on the new one. Good so far, but I carry a spare and a strap wrench if I`m going to run and gun. I usually just fish the reefs. Tomorrow, hopefully, we can go run.
Cheers,
GFS

Re: Gas Tank Crud...Anybody?
 

I spent my winter vacation filtering crap like that out of my poly tank. I had been able to run non-ethanol since re-powering in '08, up until I brought the boat north to do some tinkering last summer. Found that it would not pick up a prime, replaced the bulb, still no go, went to a local gas station (ethanol only up here) and pumped in a whole tank full, seems that someone else needed the gas I added before putting it into storage! Anyway, my best guess is that the ethanol (with 1,800 miles of agitation to aid the process) disolved some or all of the varnish that had accumulated in the tank over the 19 years since I bought the boat. After a couple of months use and several sets of filters, the bowl on my Racor looks clear again. Along with the brown filters I had my first "running" issues (after 320 trouble free hours) with my efi 4st merc. Occasional lack of power and intermittent cutting out at trolling speeds. I don't know if they are related to the "stuff", I was hoping that the 3 filters took care of that before it got to the engine but.... Need to drive down to BPK soon and get the boat, haul it home and see if my local dealer can get it fixed.

Bruce

Re: Gas Tank Crud...Anybody?
 

Yes Sir.....Same old story....over and over with this ethanol crap! The really "good news".....NOT.....is the government wants to go to 15%......jeeeeez! I'm lucky that in most cases I can buy non-ethanol gas, however if you can't and add up the cost of additives like "startron", whatever additive you prefer to combat the ethanol the cost per gallon goes crazy!!!! I now run the carbs on my old Yamaha empty of gas when I flush my engine. I've already rebuilt them once and I'm a fast learner on this issue. My neighbor is in the process of a SMOOTH $1000+ expense to replace/repair his injectors on his 225 Yamaha four stroke because of the ethanol issue. Ain't this fun?

Re: Gas Tank Crud...Anybody?
 

I think the problem is identified. I put that gas in last November and did not burn it out till March.

The previous owner always used non-ethanol gas...but never ran the boat off shore. So I guess all my bouncing around has stirred up the dissolved varnish. Like gofast said maybe two or three more filter changes will do the trick.

Engine runs strong and then like some one turns on a light switch and bam...

So an extra filter on boat at all times and change at the first sign of trouble or check every 10 hours.

Re: Gas Tank Crud...Anybody?
 

My Seafari has a 50 gal aluminum and since I put it back into service I have had nothing but problems with the old varnish and sediment clogging up filter after filter. I am looking for a pre-filter settling bowl to let the big chunks settle out and not clog the filter during high demand. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Re: Gas Tank Crud...Anybody?
 

Last Oct I pumped my tank dry, changed filters, and am on 120 gal. tank #5 of non-ethanol. Not a hiccup! I drained the bowl after 4 tanks and had ~ 2 tablespoons of water.

Re: Gas Tank Crud...Anybody?
 

Get a fuel polisher or tank cleaner on it. They will suck out the old fuel, filter the sh!+ out of it numerous times all the while rattling the varnish free from the walls of the tank, and then re-filtering again and again. Out west the job is about $300. They guarantee their work so it'll be like a new tank when they're. Probably as smart a $300 one can invest. Especially out east where seas and weather changes more abruptly... Good luck.

Re: Gas Tank Crud...Anybody?
 

Terry,

You probably should run the highest octane fuel you can find until you've used up all the ethanol fuel!

I bought 90+ octane non-ethanol gas at every marina during my circumnavigation trip and I made a habit of opening the drain on the bottom of my Racor's sediment bowl every time I refueled to check for water. I found 4-6 oz of water EVERY TIME until after Flamingo, where they had big filters on the pumps! My vent fitting has a trap in it so I don't think I was getting any spray or water in thru the vent fitting, and it sure didn't sit long enough to condense that much water! Didn't find any more water after buying gas in Flamingo, Key Largo, Matheson Hammock and Ft. Lauderdale. Bottom line is that I think you can probably count on getting water in the tank when you buy fuel at most marinas on the west coast of Fl.! :shocked

I bought gas in Clewiston, St. James City, Gasparilla Marina (near your place), Sanibel, and Chockolosee Island and drained water out of filter at each subsequent refueling! That's not a big problem as long as you have a good water separating filter and are running non-ethanol fuel. However if you add ethanol fuel to a tank that may have some water in it, there is risk of phase separation, where the water combines with the ethanol in the fuel, which can reduce octane of the fuel by up to 3 points if there's enough water to suck up all the ethanol! If you put in 87 octane ethanol fuel, it could drop as low as 84 octane with phase separation, and that can kill a motor pretty quick! When I got home and started using ethanol fuel again, I put in 92 octane, so I could afford to lose 3 points of octane and still meet the 87 octane requirement of the motor! Denny

Re: Gas Tank Crud...Anybody?
 

Denny,

The funny thing is when I drain just the gas out of the filter there is no water.

Gilly,
I bought some Startron Enzyme tank cleaner. Hopefully with a few fuel filter changes it will do the job. If not then I will have to do the tank polisher thing.

Actually this was a bump by nail, can anyone help him out :D

Re: Gas Tank Crud...Anybody?
 

You might try a Racor, which has a sediment bowl with a drain on it, with a 30 micron filter, along with a finer 10 micron filter on engine, downstream of the Racor. The Racor bowl can be drained, removed and cleaned without disturbing the filter element. I recently read an article on the subject by Steve D'Antonio in Passagemaker Magazine that recomended the course + fine serial filter set up for diesel trawlers that have very large fuel tanks. Theory is that the first filter will not clog as quickly, since it doesn't have to stop the really small stuff, and the fine filter will work better because it's not getting clogged with the bigger chunks.

Another option would be to just pull the tank and clean it, as it's not that hard to pull the tank on a Seafari. Might be worth doing if you've never inspected it. I was glad I did that when I got my boat, even though it was only 3 years old at the time . . . I found a brass nut on the support board underneath the tank that evidently fell in there at the factory before tank was installed! Galvanic action was eating through the aluminum where the nut was contacting it! :eek: Would have gone all the way through in another couple of years if I had not caught it! I ground out corrosion with Dremel tool, repaired with Marine-Tex and painted entire tank with zinc-chromate epoxy primer. I pulled it 34 years later when I repowered to clean it and replace all the hoses, and the original tank is still in good shape!