MS coast

Headed out Fri after work, had to work around a couple pop up tstorms, but found some trout right at tide change/slack tide. Fished until 8p and picked up a red and flounder with the falling tide. Ended up with 12 specks (only 3 keepers).

Got home at 10p, cleaned fish, showered, and went to bed. Got back up at 330a and drove back down to fish Sat morn. Caught another 15 specks (only 2 kerpers), but lost fuel to the motor and bulb wouldn't prime. About 8 miles from the launch, called a buddy who was fishing with his GF and told him to be on standby. Unhooked the fuel line from motor, couldn't get any pressure to build in the bulb. Checked the bowl of the fuel/water separator and looked like clean gas. Depressed the ball valve in the priming bulb and worked the bulb some more and got a little fuel into the bulb. Hooked it back up to the motor and got it started, but missing due to lack of fuel. Gave it full throttle, and motor ran fine (I'm assuming from fuel pump running fast enough to pull enough fuel at rpms). Ran most of the way back to the launch and hit another spot, motor did smae thing... wouldn't idle without dying from lack of fuel, but was able to pump bulb enough to get a bit of fuel to motor and get back on plane. Headed to dock, died again, and pulled the boat onto the trailer and headed home.

Back at the house, I always flush the motor in a 35g tub of freshwater with salt- away. Didn't expect to be able to start it, but bulb primed up just fine, held pressure, started the motor in the tub, and it ran perfectly. Unhooked the fuel line to run the motor dry (another step I always do to prevent vanishing in the carbs) and left it for Sun.

After church, I drained the tank... fuel looks perfect. Pulled the fuel/water separator, just a tiny bit of debris in the bowl, and a few drops of water, but nothing bad. Hooked everything back up and restored the motor, and ran and idled perfect. I'm assuming I must have gotten a bit of debris in the priming bulb that left the check valve open that cleared itself???

Regardless, next rrip down I'm taking a small portable tank and fuel line with me just in case!

Fish tacos Sun were awesome!

Glad you made it back ok.
Sounds / looks like a heck of a trip.

Glad you were able to limp back to the ramp. I also have a buddy that we are on standby for each other if something happens while out on the water. Problem is, were together most of the time out there.

Engine could have possibly been vapor locking. Was it exceptionally hot that day?

SEC said:

Engine could have possibly been vapor locking. Was it exceptionally hot that day?

Click to expand...

Nope... but its always hot here... around 90 deg.that day.

I thought I had a pinhole in the fuel line sucking air causing me to lose prime, but after I got home, the bulb pumped up rock solid tight when fuel line unhooked from motor.

This boat sat for 5 years before I bought it.... the fuel was NASTY when I drained the tank last Dec. Rinsed it several times, have run it 10x since I refurbished the boat w/o problems... but I suspect there is still a tad of old debris in the fuel system that lodged on the priming bulb which caused me to lose prime.

This is the stuff in the bowl of the fuel-water separator I got out when I cleaned it. Granted, this is greatly zoomed in, and most of this stuff is smaller than pepper grains.

The fuel.line is original (2013). I've heard stories of the inner lining of fuel hoses separating from the other rubber causing collapse and obstruction of the line... hope that isn't the case... no way to replace the line from the built in ta k to the bilge area without pulling the entire cap off the boat. If it comes to that, I'll just install a portable tank with new lines to the motor instead.

SEC said:

Engine could have possibly been vapor locking. Was it exceptionally hot that day?

Click to expand...

Now you have me wondering.... if there was vapor lock causing the fuel starvation issue, would the plugs be fouled? I didn't pull them to check... new plugs installed last Dec with restoration of the motor, so it may be worth checking them!

Do you have one of the glass fuel filters on your line right before you get to the engine? If not, they aren't that expensive, and do a pretty good job of filtering out debris.

If the previous boat owner ran ethanol gas through that 2013 line, there may be gas line issues. If you can get to the tank at all, you may be able to take off the old line, put a new line on it with connector and clamps, and use the old line to pull it through.

scn said:

Do you have one of the glass fuel filters on your line right before you get to the engine? If not, they aren't that expensive, and do a pretty good job of filtering out debris.

If the previous boat owner ran ethanol gas through that 2013 line, there may be gas line issues. If you can get to the tank at all, you may be able to take off the old line, put a new line on it with connector and clamps, and use the old line to pull it through.

Click to expand...

There is an in line fuel water separator in the bilge area. If any water gets in the fuel, it collects at the bottom of the clear plastic bowl and can be drained out via the nipple on the bottom. Above the bowl is a filter supplying clean fuel to the priming bulb and motor. There is a small in line fuel filter in the motor as well.

I replaced both fuel filters during my refurbishment of the boat. I drained the bowl of the fuel water separator after the first time I ran the boat in case I didn't get all the water out of the fuel tank right after I bought the boat, but haven't drained the bowl since. I probably got about 7 or 8 drops of water plus a bit of tiny debris out of the bowl when I disassembled the fuel water separator Sunday.

First pic is from during the original build, second is a closeup of the bowl of the fuel water separator

Doesn't sound like vapor lock to me. Sounds like the fuel line is collapsing. Probably from ethanol fuel.

Pilchard said:

Doesn't sound like vapor lock to me. Sounds like the fuel line is collapsing. Probably from ethanol fuel.

Click to expand...

If that is the case, I'll have to install a 6g portable tank in the forward storage area and run a new line back to the motor. There is no way to access the built in fuel tank without removing the entire cap of the boat.

Or another option would be to put a portable tank in the bilge area and relocate the trolling battery forward for weight distribution.

Here are some pics taken during the original build of the fuel tank location

do you tow your boat back home when you do short trips your welcome to park it at my house i'm about 2 miles east of bay st. louis bridge when you do fast turn around fish trips

shrimphead said:

do you tow your boat back home when you do short trips your welcome to park it at my house i'm about 2 miles east of bay st. louis bridge when you do fast turn around fish trips

Click to expand...

wow, ty for offer! the boat is so light it's a piece of cake to pull. Even when I tow it with the 2001 4 runner, you don't even know it's back there. Still get 16mpg pulling the boat in the 4runner! Plus I usually flush the motor and charge the trolling battery overnight between trips. AND, the weather is so unpredictable (or the weather forecasters are so unpredictable), I don't make the call to drive back down until the following morning.

I'm pretty anal about preventative maintenance, so bearings will be repacked annually since I'm running an 80-85mile one way trip.

Pilchard said:

Doesn't sound like vapor lock to me. Sounds like the fuel line is collapsing. Probably from ethanol fuel.

Click to expand...

that residue looks like dried ethanol "varnish" to me.

WTM said:

that residue looks like dried ethanol "varnish" to me.

Click to expand...

Agreed. Except for the black specs that are likely from the line itself.

Mega- I'm confused. You said you drained and rinsed the tank… did you do this through the fuel fill?

There is always a way… if you know the location of the tank, you can cut a hole and reglass or turn it into an access hatch.

Before doin this I would of course have a mechanic check out the rest of the fuel system.

Was the ball collapsed when the motor ran out of gas?

Pilchard said:

Agreed. Except for the black specs that are likely from the line itself.

Mega- I'm confused. You said you drained and rinsed the tank… did you do this through the fuel fill?

There is always a way… if you know the location of the tank, you can cut a hole and reglass or turn it into an access hatch.

Before doin this I would of course have a mechanic check out the rest of the fuel system.

Was the ball collapsed when the motor ran out of gas?

Click to expand...

When I bought the boat, I siphoned out the old gas from the tank. there was a lot of water and sludge in that 5 year old gas.

I then put a couple gallons fresh gas back in, agitated the gas, and siphoned it out. Came out clean.

flushed out the fuel lines with ethanol free gas, replaced the fuel filter in the fuel water separator and ran the boat. drained the fuel from the fuel water separator, very minute debris and a drop or two of water was all that was in it.

Ran the boat multiple times since then, always running perfectly... until this past trip when I lost prime. Bulb was fully inflated, when you pumped it, it was just sucking air and returned to fully inflated but would not build pressure. was able to very slowly squeeze the bulb, and very slowly let the bulb expand to draw enough fuel into the bulb to then force it into the motor to get the motor restarted, but bulb would not build pressure/ become tense with pumping. got motor started, acted like it was going to die, but when I revved it up, it bogged for a second, then got on plane, then ran perfectly, giving me identical top end speed at WOT as before the incident.

Got home, pumped the bulb to restart the motor in a tub to rinse the motor and run the carbs dry and the bulb pumped right up building full pressure. Started the motor in neutral/ idle speed and ran perfectly. Unhooked the fuel line and let the motor run for about 10 minutes until it ran dry of all gas (the way I store the boat... empty carbs completely)

Drained all the gas out of the tank by siphoning it out the fill cap. Let it sit for 20 minutes, then decanted most of the gas into my 4 wheeler. Left the last 10oz or so in the gas can and poured it into a glass jar... crystal clear, no water or debris in the residual gas. Poured it into the 4 wheeler.

Drained the fuel in the fuel/water separator and got a tiny bit of debris in the glass jar (picture in original thread) as well as probably the equivalent of 8-10 drops of water. Rinsed out the fuel filter and replaced it. Poured 2 gallons of fresh EtOH free gas back into the main tank. Hooked the fuel line back up to the motor. Forgot to prefill the fuel water separator with fuel, so had to prime by pumping the bulb a lot more than normal to fill all the lines, the fuel/water separator, then finally fill the carbs. bulb primed up and got firm. restarted the motor at idle, fired up first crank, idled perfectly in the bucket of water, revved perfectly in the bucket of water. Unhooked the fuel line from the motor and ran the motor until it ran dry of fuel. Stored the boat and called it good

But I will definetly bring a small portable tank, extra fuel line/ bulb/ connector with me on my next trip (or maybe my next several trips!!!) sure don't want to get caught out again with a fuel issue. Considering buying a membership to sea tow as well, just in case!

Hmm. That's a head-scratcher…. And I've done enough head scratching from boat issues that I have a bald spot.

Consider switching your insurance to progressive, my policies always came with a on the water tow service and they had competitive rates.

Being intermittent and going away when on plane, it might be something as simple as a bad primer bulb. High pressure of the fuel pump might be keeping your line open as you mentioned and it could be collapsing when pressure drops. Might replace it for cheap just to be safe.

I'm thinking of had a bit of trash in the priming bulb causing it to malfunction, then the trash cleared. Could be the bulb itself, but I replaced it in December during my refurbishment