Carver Owners Forum

Could someone please tell me the signs of water in the fuel?

Boat won't run/start if bad enough. If you suspect it if you'll get a sample of your fuel and put in a glass jar you can let it sit and the water and gas will separate. Change water separator filter it may not be doing its job anymore.

Yes, overall poor power performance. Engine may lose RPM's without adjusting throttle during a cruise, sputtering. popping, etc. Real easy and cheap to just remove/replace fuel filter ( Water Separator ) and poor entire contents in a glass jar. Will see water pretty quickly. Are you using gas with ethanol? If so, does the gas sit in tank for any extended periods of time? er

Bill L wrote:Source of the post Could someone please tell me the signs of water in the fuel?

Like as has been said.....get a fuel sample and inspect it for water....that will be the only way to say for sure.

Just got back from the marina, the fuel filter’s, the gas did look dirty, there was a separation. I’m pretty sure water would be at the bottom, but whatever was in the tank was floating at the top of my glass jar. I re-started, and after a few minutes the engine quit. Tomorrow I’m going to try to run the starboard engine off of the port fuel tank to see if I have a bigger problem on my hands. Thank you all for the knowledge as I just bought my 1st boat a month ago.

When you drain a water separating filter, if there is water present, it will separate from the gas in seconds. Water is always heavier than gas and will settle to the bottom with gas floating on top. If you have something else floating on top, it is NOT water. I would have no idea what else it could be.
If you have old ethanol, most likely you will have what is known as phase separation. Instead of a distinct line that you would see separating gas from water, the gas will be very cloudy looking.

If you have water in your tank, you really have two options. Get a fuel polishing guy to polish your fuel where he will pull the water out of your tank or take lots of short trips and drain your filter after each one until all the water is gone.

Yikes! So, are you talking about some sediment ( specks, pepper like material ) on the top of the fuel? I would get that tank drained and see if you have some sort of contamination. Also, how clean are your flame arrestors? They can choke the air off if they are dirty enough, and also cause a fire instead of preventing one. Just take them off, soak in water with dawn detergent, and rub with an old tooth brush. They should be silver colored, not black. Easy job. er

Ouch.