Gas got me...

[toyotafreak]

I let my gas gaurd down a bit and now my S22 sounds like an old BU. October last year we spent a nice weekend in Havasu, then I parked the boat. For the first time in three years, we didn't use it during the winter. I try to always park the boat with a full tank, and although possibly not completely full this time, it was really close. I've never used Stabil because in the past it'd never sit more than two months.

Last weekend, I checked the impeller, warmed it up on the hose then sucked engine oil, tranny fluid and v-drive oil. Replaced oil filter and fuel/water separator. Filled engine, tranny & v-drive. Still idling less than perfect, so I finally ordered new Denso spark plugs (but haven't installed them yet).

This weekend at Lake Havasu, launch and idle-out seemed normal, but when I fed in throttle to get on plane, it lugged and lugged. It would go above 1200 rpm, and with a little patience, I could get it up near 40. Called Pete (THANKS DUDE!!!) and his recommendation was that it sounded like there was water in the fuel. Could also be aged fuel. Answer was to run the bad stuff through, replace the fuel filter and installing the new spark plugs wouldn't help or hurt until the fuel was squared away.

That day we drove the crap out of the S22 in the interest of purging the old fuel. After a half hour run at 35, she seemed to get to a steady place of just more like a slight lack of power and a slightly deeper sound to the engine/exhaust. A lot of times the speed would wander between 35 and 37 without throttle change. So Friday we went through about 3/4 of a tank. Friday night added 10 gallons of new Chevron super to get back to about 1/2 tank.

Saturday we drove north a long way and throughout the day, it just felt a little slow out of the hole, a bit rough, and just sounded like it was missing. As a measure of power, my WOT speed was at least 5 mph low. We may have been burning a bit more fuel than usual, and I had to get another 6 gallons to make it back to base with about 1/8 tank left.


Sounds like the fuel was bad (age w/o Stabil and/or water). As of right now, I plan on sucking the last bit of fuel from the tank, changing the fuel/water separator, refilling maybe 1/4 tank and then running for a bit prior to swapping out the plugs with a new set.

Would anyone recommend opening the fuel pumps to check/clean the "screens" or to check the operation of the fuel pumps, or to run Chevron Techron fuel injector cleaner in that first 1/4 tank?

Thanks for the help.

[toyotafreak]

Oh yeah, I haven't drained the fuel filter yet. Will drain into a jar to look for water.

Should I replace the filter or is draining good enough since it's all of a week old?

[masonlk]

Draining should be good enough as the water will be in the bottom and it doesn't take that much to screw things up. I'd also pour a bottle of STP water treatment in to dry up any water in the lines. Change the plugs and hope for the best. I had this happen to me some years ago (different boat) and I had to pull the plugs three or four times and wipe them off each time because the water sticks to the end of the plugs. I felt like I was working on a V32!

[toyotafreak]

Just seems a little hard for me to understand how the water would've gotten in. It rains every three years in SoCal, and there was next to zero airspace in there to allow condensation.

Funny about the V32. If Lexus made one, it'd surely be 128-valve.

Guess it'll be quickest to look-see what's in the fuel filter.

[Bitzco]

It may not be water. I've had this problem when I got gas from a Maverick and from Costco. Both times, I ran the tank pretty much dry just cruising around, filled it up with Chevron and all was well. The engines are great but they are conneiseours (sp) of gasoline.  Good luck.

[flyn2001]

I can't remember if I have ever asked this question before, but has anyone ever used fuel injector cleaner or octane boost in their boats?  I used to use these in my WRX STi and my wifes IS-300 about every 10 fill ups or so.  Any thoughts on this and/or bad experiences.  Thanks.

[epic_toy]

How old are your plugs? I had a missing problem a year or so ago, changed them, and cured all.

[toyotafreak]

IIRC, Jeff Dorge (west coast TOYOTA Marine guy) told me not to run fuel injector cleaners after I told him I do so (and still do) every 5K in the Sequoia. I use Chevron Techron there. There may even be a note about it in the owner's manual.

In this case, I might do it just because the fuel may have varnished out a bit after sitting seven months (doh, that hurts to even type that out).

Career change in October means I'm still working way too many hours during week, and kid's in travel baseball so weekends are a bit tough. Oh yeah, wife's been on the home maintenance kick this winter too. All in all, a perfect storm.

[westtx]

Any chance you put ethanol in it last year? Sounds like the descriptions I've been reading for phase separation where the alcohol and gas separate and the alcohol settles at the bottom of the tank. The alcohol soaks up water and is very low octane. The cpu may be adjusting for that resulting in the crappy performance. Once up and running, wave and boat action might mix some gas back in and cause it to run a little better. Adding some gas would have the same effect, but probably just best to drain and fill. If you had water in the tank and the separator was full, the engine wouldn't run...once the filter is full of water the engine gets only water.

[azsunn]

I don't know if it's possible to find gas that doesn't contain ethenol for me in Arizona.  I guess I should drain the gas tank when I'm done for the season.

[toyotafreak]

Wow, nice catch on the Ethanol, westtx. Prior fillup just may have been in AZ.

[toyotafreak]

Okay, I pulled the fuel filter and drained it into a vase - zero water in there. Next, I removed the fuel level sender and then pulled the resevoir tank from the fuel tank. I opened the resevoir tank and checked that the fuel pickup screen was clean, and cleaned a bit of debris from the bottom of the resevoir. Next, I pulled a half gallon of fuel from the very bottom of the tank and put it in a clear container - zero water there either.

At that point, I checked the engine oil level and found that it was above the full mark. I saw that on the water but didn't believe it because just one week ago I carefully filled to exactly halfway between full and add. Some sage on this site let us know that having too much oil can cause plugs to foul, and since reading that, I always make sure there's not too much Mobil 1 in there. I must not have waited long enough for the oil to settle (it had to have been five minutes or so) before adding the last quart. I'll such the excess out tomorrow.

Anyhoo, plan remains to finish sucking all fuel out (probably five gallons left) just to be for sure for sure. I had a really bad encounter with Chevron Super trying to siphon - all the way into the stomach. Each time I burp, there's a fire danger. Didn't know whether to barf or scream or what.

After that, use some Techron and ten gallons of Chevron Super. Maybe a trip down to the local lake to run it through? Only after that will the spark plugs get swapped out.

[toyotafreak]

Lifted the bow quite a bit (trailer jack was resting on three 4x6" and fully extended) and to get the fuel collected aft. Got all but the last inch or so and called it good. Gas sucks.

[blindside]

I had a the same issue years ago and it was a bad spark plug.  It didn't look bad but was.  The boat was using more gas at the time also.  After changing the plugs shut off the perko also to reset the computer.

[toyotafreak]

Brent, thanks. Hey, what prop are you running in your S, are you running the original transmission ratio (1.2:1), and what ballast do you like to run? If you've found something that works real well, I'd like to plug it into the Ballast Calculator and compare it to what I've run.