1980 Sea Ray 207 srv mercruiser 260 fuel pick up

[Biggbjc]

Hello,
From what I've read on here is my engine is having the typical water in the fuel problem, it runs fine for a short period of time and then bogs and stutters under power, but will sometimes idle fine after that. The boat sat for a couple to possibly several years before I bought it, I filled the tank with premium and added some heat and ran the boat on muffs and everything was fine, but then when put in the water is when the problems occurred. My question really is.... If anybody has a boat similar to this year and make if they know where the fuel pickup tube is located on the tank, I can not access it through any access holes and was going to pump fuel out from just before water separator. The boat is on the trailer with the bow raised, so I figure if the pickup is at the rear of the tank I would only have to pump out a few gallons vs. the entire mostly full 40 gallon tank since the water would be settled to the rear? Any input would be great!!

Thank You,
Biggbjc

 

[Scott Danforth]

welcome aboard

isopropyl alcohol such as heat wont turn stale fuel back to fuel

pull the access hatch, pull the gauge sender and use a manual siphon pump to clean out the tank. then mop up the moisture

after sitting for a few years, the fuel system should have been cleaned as the fuel was no longer fuel.

 

[alldodge]

40 gallon tank

How many gallons of gas did the 40 gallon tank take to fill?

 

[Biggbjc]

Thank you for the response's, I may have to do that, but my problem is that there is not an access panel to access the sender unit, so I was trying to avoid cutting the floor for this if possible.
I put about 15 - 17 gallons in the first time to full and then another 12 -13 after that

 

[alldodge]

You have about 20 some gallons of old gas in it, so about half. You ran it a while and then filled it up again and it took 12 - 13 more.

This is getting better, but would have to get it very low to get past all the bad gas, need to it out

Now if the premium was E0 gas and not E10 or so, you might be able to pump the lower out. If it was E10 the water just started mixing with the new so its thinning it out, but not good.

 

[wellcraft-classic210]

The fuel pickup and sender are almost always on the TOP of the tank -- follow the fuel gauge sender wires and fuel line if needed


-- most boats have an access hole via a removable round port in the floor.


Wondering if your deck was replaced and that was omitted

-- you can always cut a hole and add an access port -- just be sure you cut to the proper size and DON"T cut into the tank you can siphon


Pumping from the fuel line to the engine is possible -- but siphoning is not due to the chack valve on top of the tank --you can siphon from the fuel filling port if your hose will go in without binding.

 

[Biggbjc]

OK, it turns out the entire center section of the floor directly over the fuel tank lifts out, it is just friction fitted and not very obvious. The fuel pickup is at the rear of the tank, but I did not drain it that way, I went through the sending unit access in the front of the tank. Drained the gas, it seemed only the first couple gallons of the fuel were contaminated, all the rest of the gas looked good after draining it all. The inside of the tank was clean, changed the fuel line, that was in rough shape also the water seperator, Fired it up on the muffs with clean gas and runs beautiful, the real test will be under load on the water tomorrow afternoon to chase some great Lakes Salmon