Outboards Don't Run On Water

Well, at least the water pumped into your gas tank. My partner and I went to Dale last week to fish. After launching the boat, it would only run for a short time and quit. We checked out everything we possibly could think of and nothing helped. We were puzzled because he just had the motor checked out for the trip and it was running fine. Who would have thought you could pump that much water from a gas station, but I guess anything is possible. Once I know which station it was I will let you know. Mayb this will help someone else to put this in the back of your mind, when your motor suddenly will not run after a tune up. A guy could really make some prophet at the current gas prices right now.

Was there so much that a water seperator would not have helped? Just curious.....

It could be very possible. Several years ago, a friend of mine pumped about 12 or 13 gallons of water from a station. His truck wouldn't even leave the pumps. Truck had to be carried to the dealership (it was a brand new truck). The store paid for the repairs and told him that he was the first person that day to get the fuel that had just been delivered and that the truck that had delivered it had pumped all water into their main holding tank.
So just about anything is possible...

i stopped by a station on my way to work back when we were getting the flooding rains and they were getting fuel,the driver had all the holes open and water was running through the parkinglot at least a 1/2 in deep and running in the tanks.I never fill up if i see a truck filling it mixes all the junk up.A friend of mine used to work at a bp and he said the drivers told him there was always water in them,and they only pump the bottom when there was too much,usually when someone complained.

This type of thing happened to me last year at Cumberland. I figured I would fill up down there rather than haul the boat with a full tank(less weight). Wrong! It was early so I was limited on where to get gas so I stopped at a random gas station. Boat ran like crap. But it did run. Sounded like I had fouled plugs at times and at other times it would run fine. Not knowing what was wrong I was concerned to take to get it serviced. Boat engine tested out fine but the gas didn't. There was "some" water in it. Now I get my gas where I always do for all of my vehicles. I know what I'm getting there and that's a good insurance policey for me.

I've telling people this for awhile but I think they have been stepping on the gas if you know what i mean adding water to it to make double out of out of a barrel!Just enough real fuel to run a motor outboards need better quallity gas to run versis cars or trucks

Hey Bone:
I worked for an Environmental Consulting firm for a few years and at that time the USEPA and IDEM were concentrating efforts to get Underground Gas tanks inspected and either replaced or repaired.

Many gas tanks that were installed years ago were made out of metal and over time they rusted and leaked. Gasoline leaked into the ground water and water entered these tanks as well.

Maybe that's why you got water in your gas? Many underground tank owners never told the Government that they had gas tanks.

I know of one old gas station that was closed down and purchased by a remodeling contractor. There are at least two or three big tanks still under his parking lot. No telling how much gas leaked out.

The ironic thing is that this guy purchased a home right across the street from this old gas station and uses it for his office. You should see the water that comes out of the faucets at that house. The house is on well water and evidently the gas has migrated underground and gotten into his well water. LOL Don't light a match when you turn on the water at that house. I can't imagine anyone drinking any of that water. Now it's situations like this that started the Bottle Water Drinking Rage.

I have tested a lot of different water from various wells in my life. This well water was full of iron and who knows what else. I've tested well water from wells that were dug around old landfills. As you may well guess old landfills contain a lot of nasty liquids that leach into the ground water. Any well that's downhill from the landfill is libel to have anything in the water.

I use to be a fireman and one time we got a call to fight a land fill that caught on fire. We were working for a week to put that fire out. It eventually burned itself out. We could not pour enough water into that hole in the ground ( it covered about 50 acres) to put that fire out. I remember manning a fire hose one night and protecting a nearby home. I watched the fire burning close buy and could hear the barrels exploding in the landfill as the barrels contents got hot. I assume they buried a lot of toxic waste in 55 gallon drums as later the USEPA got involved in this illegal landfill and made it a super-fund site.


[quote=Bonefish;308097]Well, at least the water pumped into your gas tank. My partner and I went to Dale last week to fish. After launching the boat, it would only run for a short time and quit. We checked out everything we possibly could think of and nothing helped. We were puzzled because he just had the motor checked out for the trip and it was running fine. Who would have thought you could pump that much water from a gas station, but I guess anything is possible. Once I know which station it was I will let you know. Maybe this will help someone else to put this in the back of your mind, when your motor suddenly will not run after a tune up. A guy could really make some prophet at the current gas prices right now.[/quote]

After draining the tank and replacing the gas, outboard is running perfect. It was not good to loose three good fishing days for something as unsuspectiong as that was. I know of a BP here in Lexington that it's parking lot floods each time it rains, and I had the same problem with my F-150 until it finally clicked as to what the problem was. Needless to say I will not do business with them any longer. Some of the old metal tanks gather humidity with temperature changes, and if they are not darined and/or treated regularly, water will build up.