Root Beer in Water Seperating Filter

[John_S]

Was doing my pre-season prep and maintenance, and on inspection of the water seperating filter, found some dark, root beer colored liquid, that quickly sank to the bottom of the glass. I'd say about 1/8 of the total liquid from the filter.

I did change my winter prep procedure. Instead of filling the tank with gas, I opened the top access to the tank and syphoned off all the gas possible (used in cars), and then ran engine until out of gas. This was probably the 1st time since I've owned the boat that the tank has been empty.

I assume I just sucked up a small amount of gunk that has been there for quite awhile. The "root beer" liquid leaves a orangy, rusty colored stain on paper towels, but my tank is plastic. Any thoughts on or concerns I should have with finding this? Any laymans way to further id it?

The engine has been running fine, and don't think any of the root beer made it to the carb. Carb was also drained once during prep. I do plan to re-check the new filter after some more runtime. I also plan to try Startron fuel treatment this season.

 

[Don S]

Re: Root Beer in Water Seperating Filter

It's rusty water. The inside of the fuel filters aren't painted and are steel, so water sitting in the filter turns brown from the rust.

One other note. I would never run the engine out of fuel, or the tank out of gas.
The carb if run out of gas that may have a little bit of water in it, will be more prone to corrosion with it being almost empty.

Fuel tanks sit in the bilge. Typically the bottom of the tank has corrosion on it. When the inside is dry, the corrosion tends to go all the way through when setting dry for long periods. Then when you put fuel in it in the spring, you end up with a few pin hole leaks.

 

[John_S]

Re: Root Beer in Water Seperating Filter

It's rusty water. The inside of the fuel filters aren't painted and are steel, so water sitting in the filter turns brown from the rust.

One other note. I would never run the engine out of fuel, or the tank out of gas.
The carb if run out of gas that may have a little bit of water in it, will be more prone to corrosion with it being almost empty.

Fuel tanks sit in the bilge. Typically the bottom of the tank has corrosion on it. When the inside is dry, the corrosion tends to go all the way through when setting dry for long periods. Then when you put fuel in it in the spring, you end up with a few pin hole leaks.

Thanks Don. The fuel filter did show some discolaration at the bottom which could be rust. On all the prior years, only gas showed up in the filter inspection.

I will return to the full tank process next year. I drained it this last season after having water/alcohol suspension problems on one of my outboards. I had never drained it on the i/o over the years, and thought it would be good to do so.

The tank is plastic/poly, so it shouldn't have any rust through issues.

The carb was inverted to drain gas and any water out of it.

 

[45Auto]

Re: Root Beer in Water Seperating Filter

Sounds like another good opportunity for a thread on whether condensation in gas tanks is real or not!