Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

I am bad, I haven't been to this forum in a while.

I need some help. I can't seem to figure out how to drain the ethanol gas out of my 21' Sun Tracker pontoon boat. I guess I would make a terrible thief.

I tried to siphon the gas out but I am not having any luck with that. Also I have a water/fuel separator inline between the tank and the motor.

Do I need to buy a hand/electric pump to empty the gas out, and if so, how do I hook everything up?

I really want to get the ethanol gas out of the tank (this gas has been in my tank for about 3 or 4 months). I have located a gas station where I can get pure gas. I want to put pure gas in the tank over the fall/winter.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Brad

Do you have an extra fuel line with a bulb. If you do stick an end down the fill nozzle and the other end in a gas tank either on the ground or at least lower than your gas tank. Then pump the bulb till gas runs out the other end. Make sure you have the direction of the line the right way. Gas should freely flow out the gas line till the tank is empty. So make sure you have enough space in your tank you are transferring to or enough tasks to hold the old gas.

Thank you for replying. I have tried to siphon but my tank has a deflector in the bottom of the fuel nozzle. It is hard to squeeze a hose between the deflector and the open space. When the hose goes in the tank it gets pushed off to the side. And I can't seem to get a siphon started.

Dump in a can or two sea foam and fill your tank to what you want to add, at one oz per gallon it will stabilize the fuel for a year, at two ounces per gallon its good for 2 years and you will be fine in the spring.

uumm...

consider the old fashioned way....

drive it until it's empty.... then, add the gas you want?

MH Hawker wrote:Dump in a can or two sea foam and fill your tank to what you want to add, at one oz per gallon it will stabilize the fuel for a year, at two ounces per gallon its good for 2 years and you will be fine in the spring.

Just in case you did not know while Sea~Foam is a really good fuel additive it does have alcohol in it and there has been trouble with over use of it in the motorcycle forums and causing damage to some rubber parts in the carbartors... I myself really prefer to use Stabil fuel stabilizer when it comes to extending the life of fuel....

bradcox100 wrote:I am bad, I haven't been to this forum in a while.

I need some help. I can't seem to figure out how to drain the ethanol gas out of my 21' Sun Tracker pontoon boat. I guess I would make a terrible thief.

I tried to siphon the gas out but I am not having any luck with that. Also I have a water/fuel separator inline between the tank and the motor.

Disconnect your fuel lines as needed to install a primer bulb directly to the tank itself and use the primer bulb to start the siphon flow but you don't want anything else in your way such as filters or separator....

You have an EFI 4 stroke, leave the gas in there, it will be fine. Been using e10 for 20+ years now and it has NEVER given me problems in a 4 stroke EFI engine. A few minor issues in older carbed engines before I installed ethonal friendly carb kits though. My wheelers sit all winter with gas in them, my boat all winter, my 4 stroke snowmobile all summer, and my plow truck all summer and never had/seen ethonal "go bad" or "seperate". The only thing I use pure gas in is my 2 stroke saws and an old two stroke 6hp evinrude.

Okay, I guess I won't worry with it too much. I use the Mercury fuel treatment for stabilizing the fuel and to keep the ethanol from separating from the gasoline.

I keep hearing good things about Sea Foam. I have used it in my lawn mower when it wants to stall or is running erratic.

I just thought it was something that I should do to keep from having water separating from the gasoline over the winter.

Thanks.

bradcox100 wrote:Okay, I guess I won't worry with it too much. I use the Mercury fuel treatment for stabilizing the fuel and to keep the ethanol from separating from the gasoline.

I keep hearing good things about Sea Foam. I have used it in my lawn mower when it wants to stall or is running erratic.

I just thought it was something that I should do to keep from having water separating from the gasoline over the winter.

Thanks.

All in moderation my friend.... All in moderation... Sea Foam is a good fuel additive but one needs to read the directions on the can and not overdose as it can and will cause problems if the concentration is too high... I'll say it again that I'm a fan for Marine Grade Stabil as it is a true fuel stabilizer and has no alcohol in its make up which is about 95 % light hydrocarbon oil and 5 proprietary ingredients. It's the light oil that helps stabilize the fuel and make it last longer; this is why for so many years people all but swore and some still do by the use of Marvel Mystery Oil as a fuel additive. MMO has been around since WWII and is likely one of the oldest on the market today. Myself I find that I'm like rancherlee in that I take very few precautions about the use of pump gas with corn juice in it other than some Stabil here and there and have suffered very little from it. Living in MI before TN there is long time span between the use of snow blowers and such but I never had issue at all...

bradcox100 wrote:Okay, I guess I won't worry with it too much. I use the Mercury fuel treatment for stabilizing the fuel and to keep the ethanol from separating from the gasoline.

I keep hearing good things about Sea Foam. I have used it in my lawn mower when it wants to stall or is running erratic.

I just thought it was something that I should do to keep from having water separating from the gasoline over the winter.

Thanks.

I know you hear all the horror stories of ethanol, but the new 4-strokes are made to take it. You don't worry about it in your car do you? As long as you stabilize it, things will be fine. Stabilizer keeps the fuel from phase separation (water separation). I don't run stabilizer during the boating season, I just add it to the last tank of the season, never had any issues. I use the murcury stuff or stabil for ethanol.

Run the snot out of it for an afternoon..that will get the corn liquor out of it and you will have some last blast of fun in the process.... Whatever method you choose, get that shit out of there.

Being as your adding a stabilizer your good to go it will be fine in the spring.

Stabil makes an ethanol treatment that works great. Its sold at WalMarts, AutoZones ect...

Brad... if you don't figure out how to drain it, just take her out on the lake and run your fuel down and then refill your tank with ethanol free tank. there are a lot of good stabilizers out there to add to the fuel like stabil among others... I personally use a product called Pri-G...... it's worked well for me.