Jollup

[Rogue Wave]

Water in fuel has caused me a lot of problems last year ( about 6000 kwids worth) and I am determined never to have the problem again.

so I am going to install twin filters on each of my fuel lines, keep my tanks topped up. filter the fuel before it goes in the boat etc.

on top of this I want to use something like fuel set/Soltron/wynns fuel additive. does anybody else use thes and if so which one. I need a solution for diesel and petrol

cheers
Stuart

[tim griffin]

re the water in the fuel
is it from the source or tanks left half empty and condesation forming
if the former where do you buy from so we can avoid it .
regards tim
www.griffmarineservices.co.uk

[Rogue Wave]

Originally Posted by tim griffin

re the water in the fuel
is it from the source or tanks left half empty and condesation forming
if the former where do you buy from so we can avoid it .
regards tim
www.griffmarineservices.co.uk

Tim'

To be honest it's probably a bit of everything. Leaving the tanks half empty (but usually only overnight) and we bought about 6k's worth of fuel from Shell Northam last year and won't be doing it again this year.

Unfortunately when the Opti failed the water sensor had become detached from the filter so the engine didn't switch to guardian mode when it had a problem or give me any warning.

To be fair I split the tank at sea on the Avon 8.4 so I cant blame that on the fuel supplier

[Richard B]

Originally Posted by Rogue Wave

we bought about 6k's worth of fuel from Shell Northam

Stuart, we've put hundreds (actually, probably thousands?!? ) of litres from the same petrol station into both boat and car, and, touch wood, all OK for us.

[Rogue Wave]

well I gotta blame somebody Rich! We are pretty certain that the fuel had some some water in it. I go to the BP station up the road now

[Louise]

Originally Posted by Rogue Wave

6k's worth of fuel from Shell Northam

Did this fuel go straight into the boat(s) or did you store it in a container of some sort?

[Rogue Wave]

Originally Posted by Louise

Did this fuel go straight into the boat(s) or did you store it in a container of some sort?

It generally goes straight in

[Louise]

Originally Posted by Rogue Wave

It generally goes straight in

So up til recently you were generallyOK?

[Rogue Wave]

Originally Posted by Louise

So up til recently you were generallyOK?

I'm always OK but the boats were having problems all season.

[ashbypower]

Rogue, I know that filling station fuel pump fitters have some sort of paste that you can wipe on a dip stick and place in the fuel. If water is present it turns blue. May be worth trying to track some down.

Turning blue is probably better than you turning red after the water has done it's damage.

Be safe

Brian

[Daniel]

I think it's quite an oversight on Mercury's part how poor a connection the water sensor in the filter is...and more importantly how it's not failsafe in some way (ie engine tells you the wire might be disconnected).

Tappy and I have also had water in the fuel... and were warned about it by the smartcraft system. We now know where this got into the tank since following a £200 bill before the scilies trip it was pouring out of the fuel tank sender flange (if petrol can get out, water can get in). We now carry a spare filter for the engine and boat as part of the tool kit, aswell as an oil filter type strap to change them.

PS: Stu you missed a start weekend, you owe me £18 for your round of drinks Hope you got enough work done to justify staying at home...

[Daniel TD5]

water in your fuel never from my garage sir i owned a disco series two for a year and that had a water in fuel waring light it came on two times after filling up from shell garages had to drain the fillter off pain in the arse. use bp now my mates a top AA patrol he was called out to a car with deisel in the tank after filling up when he got out to it broke down with ten other cars
the garaged had filled the unleaded tank with deisel the brand new merc
500sl cost loads to fixs

how would you know whats gong in your tank

[Mark Halliday]

This has had me worried for some time now. There is a spin on-filter in my fuel line, which which is supposed to remove water as well. However there is no drain on the bottom, so no way of telling if it has collected any water. I know you should change them every 6 months or so. But what if you are collecting a lot of water and exceed the capacity before then?
Does anyone use glass bowl type separators, where you can see if any water is trapped, or are there any filter type things which which have a test point?

Nick Yoward - if you read this, how about some profesional input?

[Daniel]

Good point, i have seen the glass bowl style filters fitted to RIBs and thought it a good idea. I have a standard Mercury one fitted under the console which is like a car oil filter - and when i did have the problem it was FULL of water. I am, of course, blessed with a 2nd filter on the engine with a built-in sensor.

Anyone think of a reason NOT to use the glass types, apart from the possiable breakage problem? I beleive they are designed for diesel?

[Mark Halliday]

Originally Posted by Daniel

Anyone think of a reason NOT to use the glass types, apart from the possiable breakage problem? I beleive they are designed for diesel?

Petrol should not be problem. Many pre-80s cars had them as standard. Older cars had them built into the fuel pump.

The broken glass bit may be a problem, Plastic "glass" bowl perhaps?

Sensors - lucky s*d. No wait, I have 4 - they are called carb. float chambers.

[Searider]

Originally Posted by Mark Halliday

Does anyone use glass bowl type separators, where you can see if any water is trapped, or are there any filter type things which which have a test point?

I have a clear bowl filter fitted on the inside of my transom. Have never noticed any water in it. Has a drain in the bottom of the bowl and so would be easy to drain down if needed. Most of my fuel comes from Tescos and have not had any problems.

Sometimes work on a Fairline 55 Squadron. On a delivery from London to Hamble (without me that time) the crew managed to pick up 200 litres of water amongst 1500 litres of diesel from the Ramsgate fuel barge. Caused loads of trouble all of the following season. Volvo Penta D12-700s do not like water!

Separ and Racor both produce pre-filters with electrodes in the bottom that will detect the presence of water and sound an alarm at the helm. Might be worth investigating.


Duncan

[Jelly]

The problem I seem to remember with the glass bowls is that they are not allowed under one of the boat schemes - I think its the inland but not sure.
The reason was that some one's bowl broke and deisel went all over the engine room resulting in a fire and the bowls being banned - or so the story goes!
I know a few fleets changed from the cartridge type to the glass bowls and got a cage made up in stainless to protect the bowl.
At least you can see the muck and water it the fuel and do something about it.
I bought some S/H Separ filters that needed a refurb as some one had put some very-nasty fuel additive in it and disolved the plastic bits and caused the perspex bowl to crack up and leak.
It looks like the cartridge type are single stage, racor's are 3 stage and Separ are 5 stage - don't prices reflect it!!!

Some one else I know put a tap in the bottom of the cartrige type and that works
Rgds
James

[Pete7]

Never had a problem with petrol going through a glass bowl type diesel filter and fit them to all my ribs. Volvo charge £80 and Panda my local diesel specialist £36 for the same thing. The cartridges are a couple of quid each and you can see the fuel. Depsite being pyrex they didn't use to be allowed for inland use as part of the Boat Safety scheme but there have been alot of changes to the BSS recently.

Pete

[Andy Gee]

The Rib that I used to use for diving charter did npot have an inboard tank so I use to use the 22Ltr plastic type, every weekend I would get a large syringe and suck out about 15-20ml of water from each tank. The tanks were never left outside and sheltered from the rain while in the boat therefore I can only assume that I was getting the water from our local BP station I did ask them about it once and they gave ne a big long speel about writing to this guy and the next and then said that I should not be filling such a large amount in plastic tanks at one time (110ltr). To save me from a further 5 mile drive I did not pursue it and instead changed the standard Mariner Fuel Filters more often and syringed out the tanks.
At work we use the paste to check Heavy Oil for water, but I dont know if it will work in petrol
Andy G

[Andy]

We have a transparent blue plastic base to our finline filter/seperator and yes you can see water .... but i have issues with it.

Its easy to see the interface between petrol and water if it lies in the blue plastic collector. If there is lots of water the interface is high inside the filter, and can not been seen. As the plastic collector is coloured blue water looks very similar to petrol, so its hard visually to make the call. The best thing about this sort of filter is the tap at the base, as it's easy to drain and little onto you hand and lets you take a look.

Until recently we never had water in the fuel, and so never really checked for it until one day the engine collected too much in its own filter/seperator and went into safe mode. Now we check all the time. The engine sensor and internal filter saved the day, and I think the main inline filter/collector really just delayed us finding the problem.