Old gas

Things that are of general interest.
seef158
Aluminum Star
Posts: 125
Joined: Sat Dec 20, 2014 3:49 pm

Re: Old gas

Post by seef158 »

I agree yooper, where I boat in MN and WI you can't even buy gas with ethanol anywhere on the water. so unless you are hauling gas cans down to the boat from land you won t get ethanol in your tanks. Maybe those in other parts of the country aren't so lucky as to have ethanol free gas available on the water? I'd be interested to know what folks have to say on that subject. I will say my M was stored for 3 years before I bought it with marine grade (non-ethanol) gas and sea foam in a full tank. I never so much as plugged a fuel filter or the separator when i put it back into service.
1972 28' express single 318, working on getting the bugs worked out.
forest lake, mn
Duluth, mn
Washburn, wi
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bcassedy
Royal Aluminum Star
Posts: 507
Joined: Sun Jul 13, 2014 10:05 am
Location: Aurora, In.

Re: Old gas

Post by bcassedy »

Update...
History - (saves major read thru... ;) ) Had previously filled the tanks in spring of 2017 anticipating launch May, 2017. That didn't happen due to Admiral accident (busted neck & lumbar vertabrae :o ). At top off of starboard tank, the cap was left off till late April, 2017. One or 2 good rainstorms put an anticipated fair amount of water in tank.

Story of removal.
Needed a way of safely removing water/gunk from starboard tank. Previous posts in this thread ran a gamut. Final result: fixed up a Rube Goldberg siphoning system.
- removed the starboard sending unit (happily :roll: it's on the inboard side of tank).
- removed the generator's exhaust hose from inside transom and routed tubing thru that and out to a waiting "collection tank (jug)".
- fitted up a collection apparatus -
1. 1/2" ID clear tubing w/ 3/4" ID brass nipple at end to weight it and ensure tube lays on bottom of tank.
Note - weight is "cinched" around tubing AND also ran thin wire thru the tube in close proximity so tubing wouldn't be blocked on interior but ensure
a solid anchor (ie. - brass nipple won't slip off! )
Note 2 - it's possible :oops: for nipple to go under the baffle inside tank. With (lots! of) patience it can be teased back out from under and freed!
2. tubing runs to a 3/8" ball valve outside of boat. This allows for flow control when collection jug is full -OR- when needing to adjust (aka - jiggle/move) tubing inside of tank.
3. Tubing then runs into straight tube that extends down to w/n 2" of bottom of jug.
--> A #10 Neoprene stopped obtained online. I took a 6 in 1/4"ID piece of brass water pipe nipple and ground one end's outer edge down to sharpen it. This was then mounted into a bench vise and used to cleanly cut 2 holes in the stopper for tube insertion.
4. A "U" shaped piece of glass tubing obtained from a glass blower provided an "overflow" option. This was never used, but would've been handy if needed to have overflow run out of collection jub and into a "catch" jug.

NOTE - the picture below is the contents of several "collecitons" that were dumped into a 5 gal gas can and then poured into the collection jug. After settling the "good gas" was siphoned off to be used in home lawn tractor.
--> The "at boat" collection results were allowed to settle and the "good gas" was siphoned off and poured back into the starboard tank. As more and more "collections" were made, the amount of water/gunk became less and less. Final collection had just a minor amount of sediment and no water.
Gas tank drain system - desc.jpg
Procedure:
- With weighted end of tubing in tank, tubing run thru generator's exhaust port in transom, and collection system in place, siphoning was started. With the cutoff valve in place it was easy to regulate what was pulled from tank. Initially, a lot of water and crud was recovered. As the collection jug was filled, the cutoff was closed, the accumulated content allowed to settle and then the "good" gas siphoned off for recycling back into boat's starboard tank**.
** 5 gallon was placed in my 2012 Ford Explorer which had about 5 gallon of gas in it at the time. It ran well.
Siphoning of the "good gas" was done down to about 1 1/2" from the crud line.
- Every so often the cutoff valve was closed and the positioning of the weighted end's placement was adjusted. This was done about 4 times per 5 gallon collected.
- When a new amount from tank was to be collected, it was just a matter of placing the stopper assembly back into the neck of the collection jug and opening the ball valve. Siphoning immediately began.
- Eventually the contents being removed turned "clear" (ie. just good gas). When this occurred, tube re-positioning was done to ensure no further deposits of water or crud were lurking in the tank (highly unscientific but figured I should catch any pockets of junk w/ continual movement of tube's end).
- After 3 full and clear collection's jugs were drawn off, deemed tank cleaned.
- Added 4.5 ozs PRI-G gas treatment. https://www.batterystuff.com/fuel-treat ... G32oz.html
- As a precaution, will add 5 gallon high test to tank, just to feel better. :shock:

Results - drained off (as shown in the picture) about 2 1/2gallon of water and crud.

Port tank - will probably do same process in fall of this year for preventative maintenance. Not easy as sending unit is mounted on outboard side of tank (and why did they do that!?!?!??).

Bill
Bill & Sharon Cassedy
"Sunset Seeker"
'88 32' Sedan Bridge to be sold (updtd 1-1-22)
"Sunset Seeker Too" (SS2)
'88 41' Marquis hardtop. (as of 1/1/22)
Located in Aurora, In.
Always fresh water.
jralbert
Site Admin
Posts: 885
Joined: Fri Jul 11, 2014 9:15 pm

Re: Old gas

Post by jralbert »

Plus good fuel filter system. (You are persistent and determined!)
-joel-
former owner 1988 '32 FB Sedan
Chesapeake Bay
twin 318 / 240 hp
Potomac MD
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