Hello everyone. First, I want to thank everyone for your invaluable insights (and yes I owe Stu!). I went to the boat over the weekend and after warming up the engine for the oil and transmission fluid change, I drained the Racor. In short, no water, and about a teaspoon of gritty black stuff in the bottom of the bowl. I hooked up a 12 volt fuel pump (thanks Josh for the idea!), and pumped some straight out of the tank, and got a little more black stuff. I then hooked it up to the output side of the Racor, and pulled 5 gallons out of the tank. Overall, it looked pretty clean, and the Racor remained clear. At that point, I strained the 5 gallons back into the tank, and started the pump pulling from the output side of the Racor and ran it back into the fuel tank filler, and ran it for about 6 hours. At that point I drained the Racor, having noticed no reduction in the outgoing flow from the pump (I was using clear tubing). The Racor was nearly entirely clear - maybe a few bits of black in the bottom, and that's about it. I replaced the filter and have another 3 spares. I also added biocide and tank cleaner. Not once did I find evidence of water in the fuel.
Since then, I added 15 gallons of fuel to top off the tank (subject of another post momentarily) I leave tonight for business travel and get back late Thursday with an early Friday cast-off to take her from Marco Island to Tampa. I am pretty confident that the fuel is clean, but am wary about stuff stuck to the tank breaking loose as things get shaken up. That being said, I have little in the way of evidence to suggest a major problem, so we'll just carry filters and hope for the best (while relying on our primary form of propulsion (the sails). Thanks again everyone for your great advice - I would be fumbling in the dark without you. Bruce Whitmore (847) 404-5092 (mobile) bwhitm...@sbcglobal.net
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