Fuel Tank Blues. Gas dryer?

[Adam1986]

Are you serious? There is something very funny about putting a restrictor plate on a sailboat engine! Daytona anyone? lol


If there is a plate in there I'll probably just leave it alone though. If it can help with economy by creating a bit of extra turbulence I'm all for it. I don't imagine I will need more than 30HP to just go in and out of my slip either. The boat also has a martek on it so I'm wondering if anymore power going to it would do anything because from what I have heard the folding props do not have as much power as the standard ones.

[hellosailor]

Yup. Just this once, dead serious.

Something very similar is done with outboard engines. There is (or at least was) a huge import tariff break at 10hp, which is why there are so many 9.9's out there. So a lot of 9.9 engines are "9.9 upper units" with 15-20hp lower halves, in order to gain volume production on the parts. Presto-chango, and you've got a hybrid.

[CellNav]

Canadian A4 we're sold with restrictors to keep them below 17 Hp for some reason. I supect it was either tax related or to keep them from fleeing the winter weather...
I had the same trouble with my C-27 fuel tank. I bought a plastic ouboard tank and keep it in the aft cockpit locker. Ran the fuel line to the electric pump. It's vented by the blower and a static vent just to be safe. You can inspect the tank in the C-27 by pulling the fuel gage out. It gives you about a three inch hole to shove a pressure washer into. Do be very carefull with lights, drills and other sparky things while working around this tank!!

One note on the mechanical pump: If the rubber diaphram gets a hole in it the pump fills the crankcase with gas. Needless to say this is not an ideal situation unless you wish to meet your maker. Our A4 earned the name "Christine" for that little stunt. Replace it with an electric pump.

[Adam1986]

Originally Posted by CellNav

One note on the mechanical pump: If the rubber diaphram gets a hole in it the pump fills the crankcase with gas. Needless to say this is not an ideal situation unless you wish to meet your maker. Our A4 earned the name "Christine" for that little stunt. Replace it with an electric pump.

Reminds me of an old Chevy...

Electric fuel pump seems to be a wise investment.

[Adam1986]

Out of curiosity, has anyone tried this stuff?

MDR E-Zorb for Water Removal in E-10 Gasoline

[pdqaltair]

Originally Posted by Adam1986

Out of curiosity, has anyone tried this stuff?

MDR E-Zorb for Water Removal in E-10 Gasoline

Do you really want to burn the stuff they use to disolve the water?

Yes, I have tested it, in the lab and in a boat. It is thick, it takes a lot of mixing, it takes equal parts additive to water. So, if you have signifigant phase separation, you will need ~ 5% MDR, which is more than you would add 2-stroke oil, if it were a 2-stroke.

Much better, pump the water out or put in a good seporator with a drain.

No, I am not in the additive business. I am a chemist in the fuel business and I have tested many addivies.

[Adam1986]

I was just curious. Seems like some of the people who bought it had good luck with it. I believe all of the water is out of the tank but could putting a bit of this in there to finish off any possible residual water hurt anything?

[Adam1986]

This weekend I mad esome progress. Thank you all for your tips and wisdom.

I ended up purging the whole fuel system. I popped he fuel tank guage loose to peak inside the tank and was pleasantly suprised that it appears to be in good condition. I noticed only a few water bubbles in the reisidual fuel.

I filled the tank with 6gal of fuel and started purging the fuel lines. I disconnected the fuel lines near the A4 and attached a rubber hose to drain the waste fuel into another contained. All in all, I drained approx three tea spoons of water from the lines, fuel pump, and sediment bowl. There was an enormous amount of garbage in the sediment bowl too, despite the fuel filters. Incredible.

On the bright side, I can't see any additional water being caught in the Racor separator in between from the tank. This is great news. With the fuel lines purges, carb drained and refilled I have a silky smooth Atomic 4 that will not run above idle. It turns out that the jets appeared to be clogged from trash in the fuel. Cleaning the trashed jets didn't fix the issue either.

I broke the carb down to find an alarming amunt of debris, corrosion, etc in there. I have since ordered a rebuilt carburetor from Moyer and I hope that this will solve the problems with the engine. As an added precaution, I have also purchased the fuel pump rebuild kit as I am very afraid of the idea of the fuel pump allowing fuel to go into the crankcase. Being that a large portion of garbage fuel has passed through the system, I have lost faith in the diaphram of the fuel pump.

Once again, thank you to everyone who has given me advice. I really appreciate the thoughts and wisdom from more experienced sailors.