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Outboard Water Separator


captpierre

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Just got back from the Sportsman Show.

 

Noticed the larger G3 boats (Yamaha) including pontoon boats, have a water separator factory installed near the outboards.

 

I asked the rep and he said all outboards should have one due to the high risk of having water in the fuel.

 

What does everybody think?

 

What would it cost to have one installed?

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installation is simple. Change the filter in the fall each year - if there's water in it you don't want it freezing over the winter. And the nice thing about the unit I purchased it has a couple of outlets - so I was able to tie in my 4 stroke kicker to the main tank fuel supply (vs carrying another fuel tank).

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And that's another connection in your fuel line to go wrong? We've never needed them before but now the rep said we should have them? I guess ethanol is the bad guy here eh? Anyway, rep said we should buy one, he must be right. Y'all buy one and let me know in a coupla years if it's necessary for me to have one too. Thanks guys.

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40+ years of boating and 23 years of flying.. and I've never found a DROP of water in my fuel. If you don't have a fuel tank that you leave floating in the bottom of your tinny.. or a loose filler cap... absolutely no need for a water seperator if you're buying good fuel to begin with.

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40+ years of boating and 23 years of flying.. and I've never found a DROP of water in my fuel. If you don't have a fuel tank that you leave floating in the bottom of your tinny.. or a loose filler cap... absolutely no need for a water seperator if you're buying good fuel to begin with.

 

it wasn't that long ago, it was in the news, that a relatively new, brand name gas station in Toronto had significant amounts of water get into their underground gas tanks after a heavy rain. many customers had major problems with their engines and needed them to be repaired. the station/oil co. ended up paying for the repairs. not sure how common this is.

Edited by captpierre
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If you wanna spend the money.. go for it, it can't hurt anything but your wallet. Any correctly installed fuel suction pipe shouldn't be sucking any water off the bottom of the tank anyhow unless they have GALLONS of water in the bottom of the tank. But I guess in todays market.. if they can sell water at $1.28/litre.. why the hell not. Anyone dipping storage tanks for quantity should be able to detect H2O on the stick!

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I think it may be a good thing to have "IF" you dock you boat and only fuel from marina's all year long where water "can" be a problem.....but 27 years of not having one in my Fishing Machine has proven to me that "I" don't need one.

 

Gone Fishing,

Bob

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Anyone running carbureted motors, I also do not see the need for a water separator.

But with injected engines especially a direct injected engines, where internal tolerances of the injectors are very close; I would have a separator installed. With the temperatures the direct injected injectors are exposed to it wouldn’t take much moister to etch the injector pintail causing it to stick or leak.

 

Dan.

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If I am not mistaken my 175 EFI MERC has one. It's in the area of the starter. When I service my motor in the fall I spin it off and dump it out. It seems like there is nothing but gas in it though. Not sure if this does anything but it only takes a minute of extra time.

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Most carburetted freshwater boats can get by without a water separator if you're careful with 2 things; your fuel source, and your fuel filler cap gasket/o-ring. If you also avoid e-10 fuel, you're even better off.

 

If you decide you want to install a spin-on Racor as was linked to earlier, beware that for gas boats (as opposed to diesel) you want the model with the metal separator bowl. The plastic bowl is not rated for gas (petrol) mounted inside a boat's hull.

 

As an aside, I have a Yamaha 25 2-stroke on a RIB. Its fuel can looks like this:

outboard_motor_spare_parts_Fuel_tank.jpg

These caps allow rainwater into the tank if you leave them exposed to weather with the vent unscrewed (open). I'll bet others do too.

Edited by whiskywizard
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Most carburetted freshwater boats can get by without a water separator if you're careful with 2 things; your fuel source, and your fuel filler cap gasket/o-ring. If you also avoid e-10 fuel, you're even better off.

 

If you decide you want to install a spin-on Racor as was linked to earlier, beware that for gas boats (as opposed to diesel) you want the model with the metal separator bowl. The plastic bowl is not rated for gas (petrol) mounted inside a boat's hull.

 

As an aside, I have a Yamaha 25 2-stroke on a RIB. Its fuel can looks like this:

outboard_motor_spare_parts_Fuel_tank.jpg

These caps allow rainwater into the tank if you leave them exposed to weather with the vent unscrewed (open). I'll bet others do too.

Use an inverted plastic beer cup, keeps the rain out.

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Most carburetted freshwater boats can get by without a water separator if you're careful with 2 things; your fuel source, and your fuel filler cap gasket/o-ring. If you also avoid e-10 fuel, you're even better off.

 

If you decide you want to install a spin-on Racor as was linked to earlier, beware that for gas boats (as opposed to diesel) you want the model with the metal separator bowl. The plastic bowl is not rated for gas (petrol) mounted inside a boat's hull.

 

As an aside, I have a Yamaha 25 2-stroke on a RIB. Its fuel can looks like this:

outboard_motor_spare_parts_Fuel_tank.jpg

These caps allow rainwater into the tank if you leave them exposed to weather with the vent unscrewed (open). I'll bet others do too.

 

Actually the plastic bowls are gasoline rated.

The model I posted is for gasoline engines.

The metal bowl is rated for inboard motors while the plastic bowl is rated for outboards.

The reason being is the inboard model is mounted inside the hull and per regulation needs to be fire rated.

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my ranger has a separator/fuel filter in it, but also when my tanks are full a big wave or bump in the road some fuel will spill out of the vent/overflows i would guess that if fuel can get out water could get in, either way the spin on filter is 10 bux a year

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As DanD pointed out for injected engines.. could be an issue if you get water, but I guess that's why all the Verados have a seperator built in on the motors. No need for a second one on the boat itself... and I haven't found a drop of water in my motors seperator since it went into operation in 2007.

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