Water in the gas tank

WILLYBIRD

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Oct 22, 2011
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Anyone have the best way to get water out of the gas tank of a 232 Cobalt that went downin fresh water. Unknown on how much is in the tank, thinking of just disconnecting the hose to the fuel filter and letting the low pressure pump circulate thru a water separator. Work?
 

Bondo

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Re: Water in the gas tank

Anyone have the best way to get water out of the gas tank of a 232 Cobalt that went downin fresh water. Unknown on how much is in the tank, thinking of just disconnecting the hose to the fuel filter and letting the low pressure pump circulate thru a water separator. Work?

Ayuh,.... Dependin' on how much water, ya could go through a Pile of filters...

Gas floats on water, so pump it from the bottom, til ya get a good clear flow of fuel....
 

oops!

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Oct 18, 2007
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12,932
Re: Water in the gas tank

to get to the very bottom of the tank.....you might have to pull the receiver and stick a tube down there.

the pick up isnt allways at the bottom of the tank.

stick a block under one wheel of the trailer and crank the bow way up high........then put your tube at the lowest point in the tank........and start suckin !
 

Don S

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Aug 31, 2004
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62,321
Re: Water in the gas tank

To get the water out of the tank, try this.
First, head to your favorite auto parts store, and get a cheap electric fuel pump, the cheaper the better. Make and model doesn't make any difference. Pickup some fittings for the pump so you can attach some 1/4" ID clear tubing to both ends of the pump. Then get you a couple of feet of copper tubing that will fit tight inside the clear tubing, and put it on the pickup side of the pump. Make the output hose long enough to go into a container for your junk gas.
Now, put some wires on the pump (a red and black will work..... red for positive and black for negative) put some clips on the end so you can hook to a battery.
NOW, since water always settles to the bottom of the tank, raise the bow of the boat so the back of the tank is lower than the front. The water will also head to the back.
Then remove the fuel pickup tube from the tank (make sure the fuel level is low enough when you start that it doesn't run out of the fitting when you pull it out).
Start your electric fuel pump and stick the copper tube all the way to the bottom, move it around and you will get all the water and leave the gas.
 

zopperman

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Joined
Jun 22, 2011
Messages
1,551
Re: Water in the gas tank

To get the water out of the tank, try this.
First, head to your favorite auto parts store, and get a cheap electric fuel pump, the cheaper the better. Make and model doesn't make any difference. Pickup some fittings for the pump so you can attach some 1/4" ID clear tubing to both ends of the pump. Then get you a couple of feet of copper tubing that will fit tight inside the clear tubing, and put it on the pickup side of the pump. Make the output hose long enough to go into a container for your junk gas.
Now, put some wires on the pump (a red and black will work..... red for positive and black for negative) put some clips on the end so you can hook to a battery.
NOW, since water always settles to the bottom of the tank, raise the bow of the boat so the back of the tank is lower than the front. The water will also head to the back.
Then remove the fuel pickup tube from the tank (make sure the fuel level is low enough when you start that it doesn't run out of the fitting when you pull it out).
Start your electric fuel pump and stick the copper tube all the way to the bottom, move it around and you will get all the water and leave the gas.

This might be specific to my tank -- but my outgoing barb is actually welded to the tank, so with that idea you would need some really tiny copper tubing and probably have to go down one size at a time like a pyramid... Cool idea though... or in my case I could just lower the bow and use the fill port..

I did something like that, when I first got the boat there were ~15 gals of gas in there and I used a hand transfer pump and tilted the bow down. The gas was bad so I god rid of everything. If the boat sank... I would probably be getting rid of all that gas... just my 2 cents..
 

dingbat

Supreme Mariner
Joined
Nov 20, 2001
Messages
15,417
Re: Water in the gas tank

I made a rig to remove water. I took a 36" long piece of 3/8" flexible copper tubing, a 3/8" primer bulb, a 24" piece of clear tubing and a 6' long piece of 3/8" fuel line.

Copper tubing, clear tubing, primer bulb then fuel line. Tilt the front of the boat up as high as you can to get all the water to lie in the back corner of the tank. Remove the sender from the fuel tank and run the fuel hose from the fuel vac out of the boat at the lowest point you can get and stick it in a container. I use a 5 gallon bucket so I can see to separate the water from the fuel when I?m done.

Stick the copper tubing in the fuel tank and start the siphoning action using the primer bulb and start vacuuming the corners of the tanks. You can see the condition of the fuel thru the clear tubing at the end of the copper tubing. As soon as it runs clear, you?re done.
 

Home Cookin'

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May 26, 2009
Messages
9,715
Re: Water in the gas tank

good idea about the copper tubing; I tried syphoning out of my generator tank and the floppy plastic tube was a pain!

Zopper, instead of the outgoing barb, look for the sending unit, a round 2" plate usually.

Be sure all power is disconnected at the battery.

For some tank emptying operations, just use the existing fuel line
 

zopperman

Lieutenant Commander
Joined
Jun 22, 2011
Messages
1,551
Re: Water in the gas tank

good idea about the copper tubing; I tried syphoning out of my generator tank and the floppy plastic tube was a pain!

Zopper, instead of the outgoing barb, look for the sending unit, a round 2" plate usually.

Be sure all power is disconnected at the battery.

For some tank emptying operations, just use the existing fuel line

Don't mean to hi jack so feel free to ignore this: but when I put my new floor in, I made sure that all 4 points of entry/exit to the gas tank could be serviced...

I found the fill very easy to use.
 
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