Jetski water in fuel problems

Fishaholic

New member
Went fishing at Sodwana for a long weekend break. First day out, what a disaster! Heres the story, maybe someone can also learn a few things like I did!

Sea was a bit rough, after about 2 hours trolling, stopped to pack everything away to go out. Started my Kawasaki STX jetski to head back, only for it to die after a few seconds. OK, must be small problem, try to start again. After a while it started. Died again as soon as I power up. Now it doesn't want to start. OK now its not funny.

Decided to anchor, because the south wind is pushing me further away fast. First time I used the anchor, doesn't want to hold on bottom. Another thing I never thought about is where to tie the end of rope. So i'm sitting with it in hand. Tried to start again. Started. Pull in anchor, find cable ties broken. Tried to give more power slowly, died again. OK, got more cable ties, now anchor holds, but still slipping. Anchor too small for wind blowing. Seems that after standing for a while it starts again. Removed one spark plug to see if its dry. Looks OK. Waited a while, because now the battery low alarm also came on. Got it started, went back to launch very slowly, kept it just on 2000 rpm, as soon as I give more power it starts to run roughly. Just behind backline at launch tried to give more power again to see if I can make it through surf. Died again.

OK, got my wife (panic a lot by now) to get guys doing surf training to help me. A boat Siyafunda helped me. I had a nylon tow rope. On our way in it broke, lucky just before surf. Used their anchor rope. Had to jump in to get the rope around the tow clip in front. Safely in. Thanks again for the guys that helped me!!! Didn't got time to thank them properly, they went on with their training.

The next day I read my manual, pumped out some fuel, and got a LOT of water. The day before I went out I topped up the ski with about 20L fuel (or rather water), at the Sodwana campsite fuel pumps. I think the problem was that I was the first in the morning to get fuel, had to wait for them to open. But it could also be a leak on tank or fillup pipe.

Phoned Dustin the next morning for advice. (Thanks for helping Dustin) Drained all fuel, and filled up again, this time in town, checking it firstly in cut off coke bottle. Let it run for a while. Only way to test was to go out fishing the following day, which was also our last day. It ran OK all day.

Some lessons learned:

1. Check fuel before filling up in cup first. Not sure if one gets fuel water separator filters for jetskis? Another option is to use the Razor fuel filter funnel tipe thing. Will have to investigate. Anyone that have something like this on their jet ski?

2. Dual battery may be a good investment.

3. Make some small rope attached to front of ski to again attach anchor rope, (heavy enough to also attach tow rope as well), with some sort of trip line to retrieve.

4. A 1.5 kg anchor too small. What size do you normally use offshore?

5. Normal nylon tow rope the guys put in safety kit, too light. Will get something stronger.

Any suggestions will be appreciated.
 

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kb

New member
That fuel i the cup, looks very stale to me. In my opinion, and I am not a professional, the fuel looks like it has had water in it for a while. if it was "new water", it should be clearer. Regarding the anchor line, I have already made up a string line, that I loop into the bow eye, with a loop on the other end. This will go into the front hatch when not in use, and when the anchor gets put out, I will attach it to the loop. There is a smaller nylon line running to the spot where lines join, so I can pull it up towards me, to retrieve.
What size cable ties are you unsing, just for interest sake??
Glad all ended well.

kb
 

johanvd

New member
Hi Fishaholic,

Some nerve wrecking moments there!  Glad it all ended well.
First of all, that fuel looks seriously old and or badly contaminated.

I have a Yamaha VX and have a factory fitted water trap / separator (inside the hull on the fuel line, fixed below the glove compartment, going from the tank to the engine).  Perhaps you can order it from yamaha or fit a racor water separator in a similar fashion.

I "drain" mine every time I wash it after beaching and sometimes it is dry, not a drop, and other times water will come out (not much, maybe teaspoon on half a tank... but enough I suppose to cause problems like you experienced....) I was dumstrucked and started looking at sea conditions, filler cap not closed properly etc to see if I could not identify the problem... What I have found was when I fill up in the afternoon - no water.... When I fill up in the morning before I launch - water...  So now I try to fill every afternoon for the next day...

Now I appreciate my dual battery system... You never know when you might need it....

I will also now get myself a towstrap and store in the hatch / capsize bottle - thanks.
 

kb

New member
Johan. Interesting that you say water in the tank when you fill up in the morning. ONE WORD - condensation.
When you have air in the tank (half tank), the air inside cools, and condensation forms on the inside. The hot humid air gets trapped inside. Think of your ice cold beer in the daytime. This is happening in reverse. therefore, by filling in the afternoon, you redice the amount of air trapped inside, and therefore the amount of air that condense. This is not necessarily a function of temprature extremes (min?max), but rather the humidity level. High humidity, small temp change required.
Take a plastic bottle, and "fill it with air" during the day time. Seal it, and watch what happens at night, or shen it sits in the sun - water cannot evaporate.

Best idea, inline fuel filter, but make sure it can hande the amount of fuel that the engine is drawing at max RPM. you dont want to starve it of fuel.
If only the tank had a sort of drain at the lowest point - like a aircraft. Then we could all shake the jetski in the morning, let the fuel wash the water from the tank walls, let it settle, and drain it out.

Anyone else with a different explanation??
 

Fishaholic

New member
Thanks for the reply guys, I don't think that amount of water can come from condensattion inside the tank, in my case. Maybe a little bit, like in Johan's case. In my case I think it is the same theory, except its condensation inside the feul tanks of the garage. A guy on the beach also complained about water in their feul tanks. I only topped up with 20L in my 60L tank, And I got at least 5L of the bad feul (or fuel/water mix). Not sure how the underground tanks are layed out. Maybe the water settled down to the bottom over night when pumps not in use.

I also couldn't understand how I could troll for 2 hours, then after stopping for 5 min, got the problem. Maybe the water had a good mixture in fuel, the sea was rough mixing it all the time, but when I stopped it settled down more. In the pic, its also not clear clean water, but some sort of mixed water/fuel, like mentioned.

But its a valid point, will keep my tank full so no condensation can form, and also check feul from garage, and I will never again fill up in morning.

Thanks Johan, will follow up on the Yamaha water seperator/filter. Do you perhaps have pics of your dual batt installation. On my ski, i'm not sure where to put 2nd battery, and how to strap it.

I'm using the 150mm cable ties I think, but it was a cheap soft type.

KB, does the short line from the bow eye, that goes inside the front hatch, not cause it to not seal properly, and water gets in front hatch, with rough sea? Was thinking to use strap, which will bw more flat for seal to work better. Another option is to maybe put a clip on and clip it somewhere on ski?
 

johanvd

New member
Hi FA,

Here is a pic of the dual battery system.  It is the maintenance free sealed gel type batteries.

Racetech did mine for me and they replaced the normal battery bracket with a double bracket with longer straps.

They also change the connections to a shared negative and the positive use "wingnut" connections that is easy to swop over.

Johan
 

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Guest

Guest
Hi Johan,

What did Racetech charge you for this instal?

How do you keep the second battery charged? No point in having two if the second is only going to be flat when needed?

If you need to change over to another battery, would you manually have to change the terminals around?
 

Tiger1

New member
Hi,I had a similar dual battery setup to the one in the photo but had it modified by Sante Racing.Main reason for this was that if you have to change over batteries you physically have to unscrew a terminal and connect it to the second battery....Murphy's Law,this always happens a few miles offshore with a large swell and strong wind.Try putting your head into a rear compartment and changing terminals..not fun!!Sante's option is very neat.Both batteries are permantly connected and charged all the time.A selector switch is fitted in the rear compartment so you just remove the seat and switch over.Switch settings are simple...battery 1,battery 2 and OFF when you get back to shore or are not using the ski for extended periods.Not a cheap modification at about 3.5K but small money when the s@#t hits the fan!
 

About Time

New member
Reading the above give my goose bumps $%#%& !!!.

 

I ‘m in busy looking to buy a jetski and if my wife had to read this I can kiss my Jetski goodbye !!

 

Did any of you guys had any basic training for your jetski’s if something mechanical could go wrong ???.

 

Must say, I like the duel battery option…..especially to run the fish finder/gps.
 

zahir.rawat

New member
hi there Fishaholic..this would be a nightmare for anybody out at sea!! ^^..  (pray) it doesnt ever happen to anyone..Scary buddie, just glad u made it back to shore safely..your unfortunate experience has also showed us sum valuable pointers.. *heavier anchor, maybe a 4kg??

attached is a pic of the water separator Johan is talking about..i always open it & iv never seen water come out from it..but then again, i always keep my tank full (no condensation) & fill up the nite b4 aswell..just A question,if a Yummie ski has this feature, would that mean that alittle water, or as much as Fishaholic's in the fuel WONT become a problem like the one occurred??
 

Fishaholic

New member
Hi zahir, thanks for the pic. Will definately get one of those water seperators. With that amount of bad fuel I had, I think your water trap can also be to small and water will eventually get through. But then you can just check it if out at sea, drain filter, and you should be able to run again for some time, depending on how much water you have in.
 

johanvd

New member
Hi All,

Sorry for being absent.... I was fishing down at Glenmore (or should I say riding jetski...) The fishing was BAD!!! But the holiday and spending some time with the family was GREAT!

Anyway.....

@ Xtiaan, they charged me R2500, that was for two sealed gel type batteries, bracket and installation...

@ Tiger 1, I looked into the switch over switch that you are talking about and found them to be about between R300 - R500.  It is the same switch that automotive electricians use, not sure if you get switches specifically for marine use, but these ones I am talking about you can install yourself.  Will definitely look into it this year....  I agree, such a switch will make life much easier on a choppy sea...
 

johanvd

New member
Hi All,

Sorry for being absent.... I was fishing down at Glenmore (or should I say riding jetski...) The fishing was BAD!!! But the holiday and spending some time with the family was GREAT!

Anyway.....

@ Xtiaan, they charged me R2500, that was for two sealed gel type batteries, bracket and installation...

@ Tiger 1, I looked into the switch over switch that you are talking about and found them to be about between R300 - R500.  It is the same switch that automotive electricians use, not sure if you get switches specifically for marine use, but these ones I am talking about you can install yourself.  Will definitely look into it this year....  I agree, such a switch will make life much easier on a choppy sea...
 

Rory

Sealiner
racor has a water separator funnel that you can buy i use it to fill my tanks when in doubt of petrol quality
 

Pajero mad

New member
Hi All

Complements of the season to everyone, I would like to add my 2cents, I was at Vidal in November last year with a couple of mates all with JS's and one of them was a Kawa, a very similar phenomenon occurred with my mates ski(Jonno's gone fishing) on the site.

His ski had a bad misfire under load and also had a starting problem, this turned out to be a cracked filler pipe, just above the tank itself where the filler joined the tank it cracked and lost pressure causing the misfire. I am not sure they are related but worth a look.

To add onto a post earlier, Dustin made a fantastic job on his ski and had it professionally repaired.

Regards

 
 

yosarrin

New member
Fishaholic not sure how much storage space you have but another suggestion is to carry a drogue onboard as well-it would slow you substantially in a strong wind plus keep the hull perpendicular to the waves-well that is the theory at least!
 

tdovale

Member
Hi - guys

I hyad a similar experience at sea in Ponta recently - I only had 1 battery - I finally managed to get started - it was a bad battery connection - fortunatel - simple to fix...

But lesson is CLEAR - get a Racetech Dual battery system!!!

Your life, sanity and peace of mind are totally worth it...

I was out a Port Edward last week - quite deep and on my own - Had a difficult start once... and the anxiety was huge!!! Make sure you have all the right equipment and have a plan to get through the breakers, if you get help...
Radio, Cell phone, Water, etc... its vital to be PREPARED for any eventuality.

We should setup a SAFETY first document -0 details actions and best practice for different kinds of situations. I feel it vital that we learn from each others experiences - good and no so good :)

Be safe...prep for the worst and hope for the best.



Tony Dovale
 

wipeout

New member
Nothing like being stuck out at sea, hairy stuff.

I keep NSRI number on my phone, as well as the local boat shops number, just in case.

I have had a battery alarm go off some way out at sea (crap yourself, so I can imagine what you guys went through), plus a few months back, my boet and I almost sank his VX out at sea (water came in through the water intake seal), teh water would just not get out of the ski, was a close shave.

I suppose there is then some merit in the safety equipment you are supposed to keep on your ski..........if only I had the space for it all!!!?!
 

wipeout

New member
Maybe we should put our heads together on what are the essentials for a trip out to sea;

1. Ensure ski is serviced or has had its services.
2. Spare battery
3. Anchor (weight?)
4. First aid kit
5. Tools
6. Cell phone
7. Strong tow rope
8. Life jacket(s)
9. Fire extinguisher

List is getting long...space becomes an issue with all the fishing gear (if you dont have bottles)
 
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