Water in gas tank.

Long story short I have a car which was difficult to fix and the car sat for two years where I couldn't get it running. The gas tank was about 3/4 full which I siphoned as much of the old gas as I could out and put 5 gallons of fresh premium gas back in the tank. The gas that was removed was a little discolored but didn't have the bad gas smell. It does seem to have water in the gas. The car won't always start and sometimes it will start and run and then sputter and die. Are the products like Heet or Water Zorb any good for removing water in the gas? I would like to make sure that is the problem before I assume the fuel filter is plugged.

Most water additives are alcohol that combine with water helping it to combust. If the 5 gallons just added has ethanol,the water has likely already been absorbed but it doesn't hurt to add heet or something.

I have fixed a few gassers and diesels that had water in fuel, from stations with water in their tanks. Water sits on the bottom of fuel so it will get pumped out first, even if it's mixed in fuel the heavier water concentration will still be on the bottom. I simply disconnected the fuel line and turned the fuel pump on until clear fuel started coming out. After clear fuel is pumping out, top off the tank with good fuel a bottle or two of heat.

Get a clear glass jar and put a sample of the contaminated fuel in the jar. Cloudy fuel indicates water and the water might separate and settle to the bottom. Heat (alcohol) does not get rid of water, it allows the water to mix with the fuel and be ingested through the engine.

What are you working on? Injected or carb?

What was wrong 2 years ago that it was parked? Has that been resolved?

If there was water in it, the filter needs to be at least removed and dumped. Usually you can blow it out backward and reuse it. A good test is to blow through it by mouth, it should blow easily.

If it is carburated, might want to dump the carb, or ease the top off and swab/blow it out, have a look at the condition. Check the fuel pump. The old pumps and lines don't handle ethanol well, especially sitting. The lines will degrade internally, releasing chunks of rubber.

If injected, check the pressure before doing anything. If there is contamination, the injectors may need to come out and be rinsed out with carb cleaner, blown backward, and the lines flushed.

The car is a 1987 Oldsmobile Delta 88 with fuel injection. The car was parked because it wasn't getting any fire at the plugs. Over the years the car had been to two different dealers and more than a half dozen different mechanics and nobody could find the problem. It would run for a while and just suddenly stop running. For most of the last two years I was convinced the problem was in the wiring so when I had time to work on it I was tracing wire by wire looking for a short. Finally giving up on the wiring I ended up replacing the ignition switch and the cars computer. Then someone suggested the crankshaft position sensor was bad so the last three weekends I've been trying to get the harmonic balancer off and gave up. Then I started taking a lot of other parts off the car to access the sensor and replaced it. I had had a mechanic change that sensor three years ago and it didn't solve the problem and didn't solve the problem this time either. While I was in there I noticed another sensor about 4" away hidden up behind the harmonic balancer so I pulled it out and discovered it was physically broken. It was the camshaft position sensor which was the problem all these years that nobody could diagnose.

I knew there would be fuel problems from the car sitting so long. I just hope at this point it's just water. At first I was going to remove the gas tank and flush it out with a solvent before putting gas in it but they made it so difficult to remove I gave up. Anyway the car is running like I have some water in the gas tank. It will either run fine or not at all. Even when it's not running the spark plugs are firing so it isn't still the original problem.

OK, here in my area you can't buy any gas that isn't E10. It's pretty much to a point where I need to put another five gallons of gas in it. Maybe I will do like 4play suggested taking the fuel line loose and blow what is left of the gas in it out and just put some more premium gas back in.

The other can of gas I put in I did put some Lucas fuel injector cleaner in.

(quoted from post at 05:29:16 06/06/18) OK, here in my area you can't buy any gas that isn't E10. It's pretty much to a point where I need to put another five gallons of gas in it. Maybe I will do like 4play suggested taking the fuel line loose and blow what is left of the gas in it out and just put some more premium gas back in.

The other can of gas I put in I did put some Lucas fuel injector cleaner in.

Click to expand...

Unless someone intentionally dumped water into the fuel tank the E10 you put in first has absorbed all the water. You might try running it with a propane supplement (let a little propane into the intake while it's running) to make sure it is getting fuel and maybe get it warmed up that way. It may just need to be run a little to smooth out. After cleaning the fuel lines and filters, of course.

Unless the five of gas I bought had water in it nobody has put water in the gas. It's just after sitting for two years I figure it got more than it's share of condensation. Since the old gas that was in it hadn't completely gone bad I think the problem is water. I ran the car this morning for about 15 minutes and then suddenly it started sputtering and then died. Last night I was unable to get it running. This weekend I plan to replace the fuel filter and see what that does for it. I was hoping to flush a few tanks of gas through it first before doing that though.

I'd put in 5 or 10gal of e85 and drain it back out. Then I'd run the e85 thru a flex fuel vehicle to dispose of it. This should absorb most or all of any water and drain it out with the alky fuel. My 2011 Silverado will burn the e85 just fine.

This is a 1987 vehicle, probably before they started putting ethanol in the gas. I would be afraid of anything over E15 in it. In any case I don't have a good way to drain the tank or I would just drain the water out. I tried to take the gas tank off and couldn't.

When we had our 1987 Buick Regal, 3800 engine, I was under the impression
that premium gas was what we should use. Car started sputtering, stopping,
generally running bad. I called the Buick dealer and the first thing he asked me
was whether we had been buying premium gasoline. Yes; he said the driver?s manual
specifies regular gasoline. We immediately switched to regular, problems went away,
never had another problem.

Maybe that is the problem. My thought was to raise the octane of the old gas that I couldn't get out of the tank.

Could be the fuel filter is full of water/rust and not letting enough gas pass. Any one in the Northeast knows that "dry gas" (Heet, etc) is good at removing a little water/ice. A LOT of water requires a tank draining.