Water in the gas!

sawinredneck

sawinredneck

Treehouser
Joined
Mar 24, 2006
Messages
8,527
Location
Kansas
I cannot stress this enough, the new gas SUCKS!!
I've got a job tomorrow, doing some welding and I needed the mini to load the welder. I dig a path to get it out, fire up the mini, first time in a few months, and back it out to move some other stuff. Drive it around back to take off the bucket and put on the forks, no problem, then it dies! Fires right up and keeps running. This went on for a while and just kept getting worse and worse! I got so mad I swapped out carbs, same issue!
I checked everything I could think of, fuel shut off solenoid, power to the solenoid, fuel to the carb, nothing out of the ordinary!
I managed to get the welder loaded, took two hours to do a ten min job, but got it done! I called my dad out of frustration and he and I got to talking. After going through what all I had done he finally piped off "You've got water in the tank and have filled both carbs with water now!" I drained the tank and damned if he wasn't right!
So this is notice to the rest of you, run a fuel additive or what ever you need to keep the gas as fresh as you can now days!
 
Andy, both my Ramrods (identical to your Thomas) got to where they would develop condensation REGULARLY after I got the Gehl and quit using them regularly. My solution was to keep the tanks EMPTY and always run the carb dry, adding only a little gas if/when I needed them.
 
Even a full tank will separate after a time. Water is homogenized into the gas now a days, so I'm told, and creates scads of problems.
 
An old mechanic used to tell me methyle hydrate would absorb the water and "burn it" in the engine, I don't think it does, another one was rubbing alcohol, I don't think it does as well. When gas line anti-freeze goes on sale I'll buy as much as I can and I "treat" my gas tanks with that.
 
We had a mad scientist type engine builder around here. He was always testing. He put a bunch of water in his tractor gas and added a locally made gas additive- K100. He then worked his tractor quite hard bush hogging his field. Ran it right to empty with nary a sputter.
 
....hate hate hate it ....the additives attract far more water than ever possibly can burn through , evil water comes with your purchase from dealers bulk tanks....thanks man ! :X
 
Isopropyl alcohol absorbs the highest amount of water if my brain remembers correctly.

Rubbing alcohol is Isopropyl alcohol most times, that is already saturated with water. So it doesn't work as a dryer.
 
Guess there must be a reasonwe are using diesel engines more and more in Europe, eh?
 
I wonder if I got some water in my diesel. If so, what is the remedy, aside from emptying the tank? I don't know how. Fuel can has been inside, caps have been on the machine.
 
Thinking about this for a couple of days - I do a lot of the stuff in early posts.

Water trap fuel filter is the right ticket for a lot of high value (or highly frustrating) applications.
 
Simple fix if there's excessive water. K100. Doesn't separate it. Makes it burn right through the system without a hiccup. Great stuff. Very effective.
 
BlackSmith said:
the epa is trying to kill diesels here Stig
Click to expand...

Where would we be without bureaucracy? The skies are full of planes, the streets/highways are full of cars, and all they can think of is banning saws like the 200T and regulating diesels to death. I daresay EVERY 200T on earth cranked and run for one hour would come nowhere near the emission produced in ONE major city in the same given hour.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #23
Yeah, but that's common sense, we can't have that here!
Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised to find out that big oil is behind the drive to get rid of them here in the US. Granted it's just a conspiracy theory, but how much money would they lose if everyone started driving compact diesel cars that got 60, or better MPG?
 
sawinredneck said:
I cannot stress this enough, the new gas SUCKS!!
I've got a job tomorrow, doing some welding and I needed the mini to load the welder. I dig a path to get it out, fire up the mini, first time in a few months, and back it out to move some other stuff. Drive it around back to take off the bucket and put on the forks, no problem, then it dies! Fires right up and keeps running. This went on for a while and just kept getting worse and worse! I got so mad I swapped out carbs, same issue!
I checked everything I could think of, fuel shut off solenoid, power to the solenoid, fuel to the carb, nothing out of the ordinary!
I managed to get the welder loaded, took two hours to do a ten min job, but got it done! I called my dad out of frustration and he and I got to talking. After going through what all I had done he finally piped off "You've got water in the tank and have filled both carbs with water now!" I drained the tank and damned if he wasn't right!
So this is notice to the rest of you, run a fuel additive or what ever you need to keep the gas as fresh as you can now days!
Click to expand...

I've had the same problem with my chipper a couple of winters ago when we had wildly fluctuating temperatures. Unless you happen to see a puff of white smoke from the exhaust, it's a bitch to find the problem.
I fitted a water trap after the second fuel filter and that's solved the problem.
 
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