Water in Fuel

[DaveTheAffable]

I made the mistake of using a portable gas can to add a gallon to my 2010 RT so that I wouldn’t run out of gas on a short trip. Guess what? Portable container had a significant amount of water in it. UGH! Stupid mistake. It did run for about 45 seconds before it quit, and no restart. 🙁

 

What else if anything do I need to do besides draining the tank before I attempt a restart and move forward?

[dirtrider]

12 hours ago, DaveTheAffable said:

I made the mistake of using a portable gas can to add a gallon to my 2010 RT so that I wouldn’t run out of gas on a short trip. Guess what? Portable container had a significant amount of water in it. UGH! Stupid mistake. It did run for about 45 seconds before it quit, and no restart. 🙁

 

What else if anything do I need to do besides draining the tank before I attempt a restart and move forward?

Morning Dave

 

Draining the fuel tank is not easy as there is no bottom drain, to get ALL the water out  you will probably have to remove the tank.

 

You now have water in your fuel filter (it's large, non-replaceable & on the bottom the fuel pump pump pass through assembly), water in the  fuel pressure regulator, fuel lines, & fuel injectors. So once you reinstall the fuel tank & put some new fuel in it  leave the fuel return hose disconnected, then point into a container, then cycle the key on & off a couple of times to purge the old water containing fuel out of the lines & regulator.

 

You will still have some water in the fuel injectors but probably not enough to stop it from eventually firing off.

 

If it still won't re-start after the above then you might have to  remove the spark plugs then dry the electrode area. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[DaveTheAffable]

Thanks D.R. This is really helpful!  I’ll be working on it this weekend and report back.  

[Skywagon]

Dave....When I had my oil head I got a load of water from a major gas station.  It ran for about 2 blocks and died.  I did have to remove the tank and do as DR suggested above to get rid of all that water.  I didn't have to pull the plugs.  Im not familiar with the 07's but on my oil head removing the tank wasn't a big deal.  I changed all the tank hoses while I had it off.  Good luck to you.

[Rougarou]

Well gee,.....I don't think that beats the time I put 20+ gallons of gas in a diesel F250,......ya, that was a $500 mistake.

[TEWKS]

Haha, BTDT but a little different. When growing up my dad had some equipment, now he was always looking to save a buck. He let us operate them on property attached to the homestead.
 

He figured teaching us young, we’d work for peanuts.  (Plowing snow mostly) Once you could operate it, you froze your ass off for the sheer joy of independence.

 

Anyway, I wanted to practice one summer day but the Nelson was out of fuel. (Diesel that is) Five gallon jug on my pedal bike down to the gas station I went. I dumped five gallons of gasoline into the diesel tank. Dad wasn’t actually that pissed as I remember.  
Just like this one pictured.

[Rougarou]

Ya, well, when I was pumping the wife's superduty full of gasoline, the truck was running.  We were leaving my hometown for a 10 hour trip back to Ga.  After I realize my mistake (muscle memory grabbing the right hand pump), I tell the wife that I put gas in the truck,....she's like ya,....I said no, I put gas in the diesel truck,.......luckily, we drove it the threeish miles to the ford dealership, they drained the tank and said it happens more often than I think.  Dealership was a block from my moms house and when we walked back through the door, surprise, surprise, surprise.

[TEWKS]

My mess up was a little easier, the machine wasn't running and there was a drain at the bottom of the tank. Funny though, BTFD (before the fire department) Trucks and heavy equipment was how I paid the bills. A lot of the newer guys coming on the department never had any truck (diesel) experience. So I would often have to correct them when they went to "gas" up their vehicle for the day. It's DIESEL!!!  Most of them knew but couldn't say the correct word.

[DaveTheAffable]

I am up and running again, but to be honest I cheated a little.

 

I used a 1/4 inch diameter piece of fuel line about 36 inches long with a weight tied to the end to siphon all of the fuel out of the tank(I used a pump). I pulled the hose out and dropped it back in again in several places until I felt fairly confident that all of the gas and water that the hose could reach was gone.

 

I then poured in two bottles (about 16 ounces) of HEET. I rocked the bike back-and-forth to slosh it around, cycled the fuel pump several times, and then siphoned and recovered virtually all that I had poured in. 

I then put in 1 gallon of fresh premium (I didn’t want to put more in just in case this didn’t work). It took four or five attempts at cranking before it started. And it was rough for the first 15 to 20 seconds. Then smoothed out.

Drove to the local gas station and filled the tank the rest of the way with fresh premium and added 4 ounces of Seafoam just for good measure. Then I went on a 20 minute ride. 

YMMV 😁