Mostly for Shawn:
I shared your pain...
We have a small runabout with an historically reliable Honda outboard. Last year, it really began to act up. Really act up!
This spring, Don suggested we take a look at what was in the bottom of the fuel tank (80 gallon capacity). He gerry-rigged up a siphon can, using one of those vacuum systems meant to extract used oil, and we went at it. By the time we were done, we had pulled 8 gallons of water out of the tank. Since the water had made its way past the Racor separator into the engine, some work had to be done on the engine itself as well.
Among the several things we learned:
- Water in copious quantities can overwhelm the Racor. We didn't see a phase separation line in the transparent lower portion of the Racor because it was totally full of water. After pumping out 2-3 gallons, we still didn't see a phase separation line in a sample we poured from the siphon can. "It must be 100% gasoline by now!", we said. We deliberately added a bit of water to the sample, expecting now to see a phase line. Nada! It was still 100% water. Yikes!
- Gasoline engines prefer gasoline to water. Boats with no Racor are just begging for trouble.
- Fuel from sleepy little marinas is not to be trusted, as a matter of principle. Now, I get my fuel from a busy Royal Farms station that I know moves a lot of fuel, and I never keep more than a quarter to a half-tank of fuel in the boat at a time.
- Next spring, we'll likely repeat the process and see what we find.
FWIW.
Bill