Water in fuel PROBLEM with Trailcraft Profish

[mjc85]

I have owned the Trailcraft Profish 4.85m for about 6 months now.

We recently had a problem where on our Mercury smartcraft gauges came up with a warning "Water in Fuel", I took it back to the dealer (Cunningham's Marine) and $600 later after they pulled up the carpet and panel in the sealed floor and removed the tank we are told that we either bought contaminated fuel or some jackass put water in our fuel tank while the boat was moored on our float dock at our jetty.

So we brought it home almost 3 weeks ago and today my brother (half owner of the boat) went to use it and got 10minutes from our jetty and the same warning comes up "Water in Fuel"

I am seriously about to have kittens as I don't believe it has happened again. After the last time the dealer gave us a funnel that separates water from fuel and I used this when i Filled the tank and no water was left over in the funnel.

I believe there is a fault somewhere or a leak allowing water to enter the tank as we had really heavy rain and hail here Wednesday and more rain Thursday and this is the first heavy rain we have had since we have had the boat back home.

What do you suggest i do ? What should i look at first to try and diagnose the problem, I am not prepared to pay another $600 when i believe it is a manufacturing fault or problem.

Here is a sample of what they removed from the fuel tank last time



Mitch

[Poseidon]

I can remember a similar problem mentioned on here a while ago and after some back and forth the problem (if my memory is correct) was found to be that there was carpet cut flush around the fuel inlet which stopped the fuel cap from making a good seal against the inlet. Water found its way into the fuel via this gap.

They cut the carpet away from around the fuel inlet and all became well.

Not sure if this helps.

Regards Cameron.

[ribbit]

also see which way the fuel breathe ris facing incase picking up water whilst travelling. know off a couple motors rebulit and paid by boat companies when setup wrong

[Spaniard_King]

Looks to me like shit you get from a bad dose of fuel! If it was rain water or sea water it would be clearer, that looks like shit out of the bottom of a very dirty fuel storage tank

Have you got a quality water seperating filter in line to your engine... not on the engine but on your boat, something like a racor???

One of these could be your savior, you can check it regularly for water (they have glass bowls to view the water). If water is present they have a drain bung to drain off the water. Having one of these will save you $$ . Mechanics love pulling fuel systems down to clean.. expensive and time consuming.

A Racor will set you back around $170 including fittings

Garry

[steveg1100]

Not familiar with this particular boat configuration in relation to fuel tank.

It would probably help us to diagnose if we had some picks of the tank and pickup points for your boat.

Thats a lot of water in the photo.

[Roughasguts]

The colour, of the water is one thing but the colour of the fuel worries me also, whats going on there.
But I think you got a does of the dirtiest fuel in Aus.

Anyway to see if your tank filler cap is leaking or any other part.
Un plug the fuel line from your motor, put a plug in your breather line.
And rock the boat around for a minute. The fuel will build up air pressure in the tank and try to escape out of any holes.

So get a spray bottle with some detergent in there and spray around filler cap hose conectors and such, and look for bubbles.

But think it's your fuel supply unless your premix, the fuel should be clearer than that water.

[mjc85]

No its an Optimax so no need for pre-mix, i don't believe it could be a bad batch of fuel because after the first time they gave us a Fuel/water separating funnel which i used to fill the boat back up and there was no sign of water left over and we now have the problem again.

Where would i find this fuel breather? There is two hoses connected to the fuel cap, one is a large black obviously for the fuel to go down and the other is smaller diameter clearish hose musr be to left air out as you put fuel in. There looks to be a small hairline crack around where the tank breather joins onto the floor.

[wayneoro]

bad fuel i had the same from a on the water fuel supply on the goldcoast or someone is tipping it into your tank

[Reef_fisher]

Apart from any cracks or defects in fuel system, clean out tank, yes costly and time consuming to do, but, it looks like it has already cost you for nil result. Did you buy the boat second hand? If so I would replace all fuel hoses as well. Racor water seperator/fuel filters are fantastic, I have one and although I haven't had any water come out I know that it will protect engine.
At the end of the day you need to be confident that your boat is reliable, I would hate to be on the Reef and have that problem occur.

[Roughasguts]

Small crack is not good, like i said seal the clear hose off, that be the breather, and just disconect the fuel line from the motor, That should not leak.

Then shake the boat around on the trailer, and spray around that crack, see if air bubbles come out. If it is geez must be sucking a lot of water in.

Still don't like the colour of that fuel, the colour should be almost clearer than water, without the rust.

If that crack is only hair like, stag sealer would seal that.
Or permatex ??? this stuff stays soft and petrol won't disolve it.
Then again ethanol might, who knows what damage that stuff can do.

[Spaniard_King]

Minumise the damage.. get a Racor and be vigalent until you solve the problem

Garry

[Grand_Marlin]

Minumise the damage.. get a Racor and be vigalent until you solve the problem

Garry

This is the most sensible thing you can do, or it is going to end in tears

There was a thread on here a while back which in a long winded way, ended up giving a great checklist of do's and dont's re: water, wher it can come from, and how to stop it.

http://www.ausfish.com.au/forum/YaBB...1139021238/150

Cheers

Pete

[mjc85]

Well the boat is 6months old bought brand new, the water looks rusty and I would've thought it must've come from a steel container of some sort, apparently last time there was about 20 litres of water and 30 litres of fuel in the tank, so I don't imagine the fuel from a servo would be that bad. Someone could've tipped it in there, thats very possible but to happen again straight after heavy rain, also we know about 30 other people in the same estate with boats and never heard of them with problems of water in their fuel. So I am convinced its a crack somewhere, but that doesn't explain the rusty water and it can't be bad fuel again because I used the water/fuel separating funnel when i filled the boat after the first time it happened and there was no water left over in the funnel.

The Mercury Optimax has a water/fuel separating filter under the cowling, which has to be drained once it fills up. I'm not sure what happens once it fills up.

How do i know the dealer hasn't done a swifty on me and told me that we got bad fuel and just made up a fake sample? Do you think when i take the boat back next time i should hang around while they take the tank out etc and see for myself? Because i would love for it to be a fault so i can get my $600 back from last time.

[Spaniard_King]

Do you keep the tank full of fuel?? could be a good starting point. Hard to get too much water in it if it's full of fuel??

if you had a racor you could drain it yourself

Oh and change your fuel supplier...cant be too carefull

Garry

[wayne_cook]

The second time sounds sus.A few things don't add up.Rusty water??
???Why not drain the tank by manually pumping it out through ur fuel pump.Instead of paying $600
Has there been any fuel in the hull, suggesting a crack?? If not then the water is coming in from up high eg. breather,fuel filler cap hose connection. I tend to doubt a cracked tank the whole area would have to be full of water to get to the top of the tank,
basicly it's a process of ilimination work your way through the list.
One more possibility was all water removed the first time?
Has the sealed area smealt of fuel?
So many posabilities!!![img][/img][img][/img]