Bad Fuel?
Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2020 11:31 am
I have been chasing an issue with my boat since just after the regatta at TRL. The last day I was there I got about 35 gallons of fuel from a place that had run out the night before. They had just gotten a fresh shipment when I filled up.
When I got home I took the boat to one of our local lakes and it wouldn't get out of it's own way. This was after it took forever to get it started on the trailer. It felt like it was down a cylinder, but it would occasionally run fine for a few seconds. I was able to "clear it out" prior to taking off, and the boat would do ok. I felt like it was probably just time for new plugs.
We changed the plugs out, but I started getting worried while we were changing them because the old ones looked really good. We took it to the lake and again it did not want to start. Once it did I could barely get on plane. I put it back on the trailer and went home.
This was where I started asking myself what had changed. My theory about the bad gas came into my brain about this point. I had about 20 gallons left in the tank so I bought enough HEET and Seafoam to treat twice that much, dumped it in, and then drove back to the lake (theoretically stirring it all up on the way). We backed in, hit the starter and BAM, she started up immediately. I backed it off the trailer and went whipping around the lake for an hour trying to burn all the fuel left in it.
We had another trip to TRL scheduled about a week later so I decided to dump more HEET and Seafoam in the almost empty tank, drive to within 25-30 miles of TRL and fill up with ethanol-free fuel. I found a station and got 91 E-free fuel (71 gallons) and dropped her in TRL. She started rather quickly, but immediately I could tell she was missing, backfiring and just didn't want to go. I nursed her around for 20-30 minutes and the condition went completely away. The boat was back to jumping on plane, and she would run all the way up to 4500-4600 rpm with 5-6 people on board. We covered a TON of miles on this 3.5 day trip. Most days were 80-100 each. I only fueled at reputable marinas with 91 or 92 E-Free fuel. When I put the boat on the trailer to come home it fired up immediately, and she ran great. There was maybe 15-20 gallons left in the tank.
We towed home (250 miles), and then put the boat in storage. This past weekend we decided to get her out for a birthday party for my nephew that they were having on a big sand pit. Same thing happened. She started fine, but she wouldn't run well at all at first. It got a little better as the day went on, and once I was on plane it was fine, it just wasn't as powerful or sound as good as normal. I decided to pull the boat out and run fuel up to see if that would help, and because I was about out of fuel. I put 40 gallons of 91 e-free, 2 cans of HEET and 2 cans of Seafoam in again. As soon as I dropped it back in the boat was a completely different animal.
So I've said all that to ask this: Are you convinced after reading this that it is a bad fuel issue? Water in the fuel would tend to drop to the bottom, and every time we have had our issue it was on a close to empty tank. The only exception to that was after I fueled up on the way to TRL, but that situation went away on its own after a few minutes of driving.
If it is a fuel issue, do I just keep burning through it, adding HEET and hoping that will emulsify the water enough to burn it, or do I need to pump the tank out?
Is there something else I'm completely overlooking that would act like this? I appreciate any ideas or advice.
When I got home I took the boat to one of our local lakes and it wouldn't get out of it's own way. This was after it took forever to get it started on the trailer. It felt like it was down a cylinder, but it would occasionally run fine for a few seconds. I was able to "clear it out" prior to taking off, and the boat would do ok. I felt like it was probably just time for new plugs.
We changed the plugs out, but I started getting worried while we were changing them because the old ones looked really good. We took it to the lake and again it did not want to start. Once it did I could barely get on plane. I put it back on the trailer and went home.
This was where I started asking myself what had changed. My theory about the bad gas came into my brain about this point. I had about 20 gallons left in the tank so I bought enough HEET and Seafoam to treat twice that much, dumped it in, and then drove back to the lake (theoretically stirring it all up on the way). We backed in, hit the starter and BAM, she started up immediately. I backed it off the trailer and went whipping around the lake for an hour trying to burn all the fuel left in it.
We had another trip to TRL scheduled about a week later so I decided to dump more HEET and Seafoam in the almost empty tank, drive to within 25-30 miles of TRL and fill up with ethanol-free fuel. I found a station and got 91 E-free fuel (71 gallons) and dropped her in TRL. She started rather quickly, but immediately I could tell she was missing, backfiring and just didn't want to go. I nursed her around for 20-30 minutes and the condition went completely away. The boat was back to jumping on plane, and she would run all the way up to 4500-4600 rpm with 5-6 people on board. We covered a TON of miles on this 3.5 day trip. Most days were 80-100 each. I only fueled at reputable marinas with 91 or 92 E-Free fuel. When I put the boat on the trailer to come home it fired up immediately, and she ran great. There was maybe 15-20 gallons left in the tank.
We towed home (250 miles), and then put the boat in storage. This past weekend we decided to get her out for a birthday party for my nephew that they were having on a big sand pit. Same thing happened. She started fine, but she wouldn't run well at all at first. It got a little better as the day went on, and once I was on plane it was fine, it just wasn't as powerful or sound as good as normal. I decided to pull the boat out and run fuel up to see if that would help, and because I was about out of fuel. I put 40 gallons of 91 e-free, 2 cans of HEET and 2 cans of Seafoam in again. As soon as I dropped it back in the boat was a completely different animal.
So I've said all that to ask this: Are you convinced after reading this that it is a bad fuel issue? Water in the fuel would tend to drop to the bottom, and every time we have had our issue it was on a close to empty tank. The only exception to that was after I fueled up on the way to TRL, but that situation went away on its own after a few minutes of driving.
If it is a fuel issue, do I just keep burning through it, adding HEET and hoping that will emulsify the water enough to burn it, or do I need to pump the tank out?
Is there something else I'm completely overlooking that would act like this? I appreciate any ideas or advice.
