Do you have some useful boating tips that you would like to share with your Klinger Lake neighbors? Please send them to the e-mail address on the contact page . We will post them here.

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Water in your fuel tank

Have you had difficulty getting your engine started? Or maybe it just won't run at all? You may have water contamination in your fuel! I recently had this happen with my Johnson 3.3 HP outboard. I thought I would be in for an expensive repair, but it turns out that there was an easy "fix". First, I emptied the tank of as much liquid as possible into a spare fuel tank. I then discovered that there is a small nut on the bottom of the curburetor that can be removed to drain it. If you do this, use the right size hex driver (most likely a metric size on newer motors) and do it inside the boat. If the nut falls in the lake, you'll probably never see it again! Turn off the fuel shutoff valve and remove the nut. In my case, a small quantity of liquid-- almost entirely water-- came out. I then replaced the nut (do not overtighten it!), refilled the tank, and cranked the engine. It started almost immediately!

Why does this happen? Most gasoline today is mixed with Ethanol, which is very efficient at picking up moisture. When there is water in your tank, it will displace the fuel at the bottom and the engine will not run. Larger engines now often have a filter to remove water from the fuel. In any case, here are a few tips to keep in mind that will help prevent fuel problems:

• Buy fuel only from a reputable supplier
• Avoid switching suppliers if you can
• Buy straight gasoline if you can find it (with no Ethanol). Try a marina...
• Do not mix fuel containing Ethanol and MTBE, an older additive that is now being phased out due to ground water contamination problems.
• Do not buy fuel containing more than 10% Ethanol. Especially, do not use E-85 in a marine engine!
• Keep the air vent closed except when your engine is running
• Try to keep your fuel tank relatively full, and avoid running the level down to the point where the engine will be drawing fuel from the bottom
• If your engine is getting hard to start, runs lean, or stops when there is still fuel in the tank, suspect water contamination!

-- Edgar Reihl, Edgewater Beach