Full or empty fuel tank for leaving the boat in the water over winter?

[honeybee]

This is my 1st season leaving a boat in the water over the winter. I will be draining the water out the engine to prevent internal freezing etc but should I run the boat down on the fuel or not ? What are the pros & cons ? Do I need to add anything to the fuel left ?

Chris

 

[hlb]

Leave it full.

But wheres the boat???

A couple of greenhouse heaters and some shore power, will do the rest. Or are you in the frozen north.

 

[omega2]

What boat?engine? where are you leaving it, will you not be looking at it through till next year,give us a clue.

 

[honeybee]

The boat is a bayliner 192 with 3.0 mercruiser inboard. Boat is moored in Cameron House in Loch Lomond. I sill probably go to see the boat about once a month (at least) and keep in nice and clean all winter.

 

[Alrob]

I am probably wrong but I did not think you could drain water whilst afloat !!

 

[honeybee]

You might be right, we are only going with what the dealer has told us. We need to have a good look at this, but apparantly you just need to pull a pipe out to drain the water held in the engine? You must be ableto tell I am new to this lol

 

[B175Chris]

I leave my tank full all year, as you can probably see from my avatar.

 

[hlb]

Leave the tank full, so theres no space for water to condence in the tank.

If your leaving it in the water, why not use it all year. If not, take it out.

 

[alant]

Leave the fuel tank as full as possible, to prevent condensation, as alraedy mentioned.

But, also add a good fuel biocide before filling, to stop bugs growing in the tank.

 

[JKay]

Its petrol

But still leave it full(i like Full)

Cheers Joe

 

[volvopaul]

You may not be able to drain the water off as the bottom drain plug, it may be blue in colour will be blow the waterline and if so could syphon through the sterndrive, you will also find a drain plug in the manifolds, an engineer could perform a better winter layup by removing the inlet hose, blanking it off then carrying out a drain down.

As for the tank petrol will evaporate so it will never be full, also petrol goes stale after a time, pointless as its costly on the pocket and you may get erratic running and idling problems next season with the poor octane petrol.

 

[Major Catastrophe]

Re: Full or empty fuel tank for leaving the boat in the water over win

[ QUOTE ]
also petrol goes stale after a time,

[/ QUOTE ] Been discussed on here many times before and jury is still out on that.

It was discussed recently. To re-cap, I leave whatever is in the tank over the winter and it still starts first thing next spring.

 

[JKay]

Re: Full or empty fuel tank for leaving the boat in the water over win

I do also chuck a few bottles of Quicksilver in for luck

Cheers Joe

 

[Sneds]

Re: Full or empty fuel tank for leaving the boat in the water over win

If you're leaving the boat in the water why not use her?
We get some lovely weather, high pressure and low winds over the winter months, can be a bit cold though!
We put on nearly as many hours over the winter as the summer, roll on Saturday.....lets go boating!!

 

[volvopaul]

Re: Full or empty fuel tank for leaving the boat in the water over win

Major, trust me it does dont suppose you cut your own grass with a petrol mower, well if you do after your last cut fill it will petrol, leave it till next april and tell me if it starts next time without draining it all off.

Seriously I have lost count how many boats I know that have had to have there tanks drained, especially those from the lakes that stand still and come down this way to be sold, service them up for new client, they still wont start till you run them off an auxilary tank straight to the carb.

 

[honeybee]

Re: Full or empty fuel tank for leaving the boat in the water over win

Thanks guy's am off out for a wee trip this afternoon on it.

Chris

 

[SeadogUSA]

Re: Full or empty fuel tank for leaving the boat in the water over win

I have always found the best policy is to keep the tank full to prevent condensate and to add Stabil when it will be out of service for more than a month.

 

[Boathook]

I 'drain' the fuel (petrol) from my outboard engine before leaving, even after a weekend. Been told that the new stuff leave a 'gum' that blocks jets etc. Has been ok for 7 plus years doing this. With regard to tanks mine are small and portable so I filter all the fuel and clean tanks at the start of the season.

 

[markdj]

So here's me, not being cynical or anything ;-)

Umm, ok. Let's fill a glass with fuel, let's put a bit of water in there too - so where does the water go? oh yeah, all the way to the bottom and in the case of fuel tanks, that why we all have "water seperators" - the name gives it away.

Now, if you are getting water in the fuel then your filler cap is leaking so it will make no difference whether you fill up or not. Change your O-rings and sleep better at night.

Now, in your case petrol goes stale after a few months so I'd recommend leaving as little in as possible and doing a serive in the spring, priming filters with fresh fuel. Check this out...

http://www.yachtsurvey.com/winter_lay_up.htm

 

[Kawasaki]

Re: Full or empty fuel tank for leaving the boat in the water over win

Just "Rescued" a R.I.B.
Stood for 12 Months.
115 four stroke Yam.
New in Sep 06.
20 hours.
Guy fills it and starts it, runs on tickover for abit then dies.
Fuel injectors all gunged up.
Luckily They cleaned up.
Ditched all the petrol and now She is ok.
Modern systems don't like crap fuel.
It's ok with carbs and old Seagulls etc but don't muck about leaving stale juice in a Modern piece of kit.