Hi all!
We recently took delivery of a 2014 Ranger Tug 29 classic. During the sea trial a water in fuel warning came up. We requested the fuel system be polished as part of our closing and our broker witnessed them do this. We got it home and backed it down the ramp and got her running and after about 15 minutes of idling the engine cut out and the fuel in water warning popped up again. We pulled it back out and checked the fuel filters to find lots of water. So we began pumping the tank out (by hand) and removed over 5 gallons of water. We pulled the fuel line off of the incoming port of the final fuel filter so we could use the water separating filter to grab the water and keep good fuel, which we regularly tested by taking samples and letting them sit. We got to the point where we got about a cup of water in 10 gallons of pumping after a day and half of pumping. At this point we asked around and put in 3 bottles of a fuel stabilizer that a fellow boater recommended to deal with water in fuel. At this point, we just wanted to get good fuel in the engine so we put the boat back in started her up and motored around at 8 knots for a half hour or so to allow everything to get warm then pulled out again. On our way on to the trailer the water in fuel alarm came back up. I suspect that is the fuel treatment doing it's thing and moving the water through the fuel system in reasonable quantities. My question is, is there anything else we should be doing? Is there something I need to look at to figure out how so much water found its way into the tank? At this point, I have assumed someone put a water hose in the fuel tank at some point. Our tank is full, so I am hoping we can just go full speed ahead from here and just check our fuel water separator every 4 or 5 hours of operation. We are located very remote and normal marine services are not reasonably available, so with that said what would you do if you were us at this point?
We recently took delivery of a 2014 Ranger Tug 29 classic. During the sea trial a water in fuel warning came up. We requested the fuel system be polished as part of our closing and our broker witnessed them do this. We got it home and backed it down the ramp and got her running and after about 15 minutes of idling the engine cut out and the fuel in water warning popped up again. We pulled it back out and checked the fuel filters to find lots of water. So we began pumping the tank out (by hand) and removed over 5 gallons of water. We pulled the fuel line off of the incoming port of the final fuel filter so we could use the water separating filter to grab the water and keep good fuel, which we regularly tested by taking samples and letting them sit. We got to the point where we got about a cup of water in 10 gallons of pumping after a day and half of pumping. At this point we asked around and put in 3 bottles of a fuel stabilizer that a fellow boater recommended to deal with water in fuel. At this point, we just wanted to get good fuel in the engine so we put the boat back in started her up and motored around at 8 knots for a half hour or so to allow everything to get warm then pulled out again. On our way on to the trailer the water in fuel alarm came back up. I suspect that is the fuel treatment doing it's thing and moving the water through the fuel system in reasonable quantities. My question is, is there anything else we should be doing? Is there something I need to look at to figure out how so much water found its way into the tank? At this point, I have assumed someone put a water hose in the fuel tank at some point. Our tank is full, so I am hoping we can just go full speed ahead from here and just check our fuel water separator every 4 or 5 hours of operation. We are located very remote and normal marine services are not reasonably available, so with that said what would you do if you were us at this point?