Water in fuel tank?

[HEMA]

Spilled some fuel on the tank while filling up and the wife :love: thought she was helpful by immediately rinsing it off with the watercan, except the fuel cap wasn't on yet, so some water got into the tank.

:facepalm:

advice please!

[bogan]

There are a number of solutions for curing wife / motorcycle maintenance issues. Perhaps the most common is to ensure the bike lives in a man cave, with plenty of pin-up wife deterrents. However if she has a bike as well, you may have to shell out for a training course.

Your second problem is more easily solved, apparently there are chemicals that are combustion safe and absorb the water, or you could drain the tank, I haven't had personal experience with these techniques though, no wife you see :whistle:

[scumdog]

Drain it and let it dry properly.

You'll be miles ahead compared to adding meths (it don't work) or some other idea.

[Juzz976]

Drain it and let it dry properly.

You'll be miles ahead compared to adding meths (it don't work) or some other idea.

+1 dont want fuel pump to slurp up some water and inject into cylinder.

dont risk using emulsifiers if more than a few drops got in there.

[rwh]

adding meths (it don't work)

Really? I've done it successfully in the past - though not an injected engine; it was an old mini.

Richard

[FJRider]

Really? I've done it successfully in the past - though not an injected engine; it was an old mini.

Richard

well I had an old mini .... it was hard to tell if there was water in the tank or not ... I often knew there was. But nothing much changed in how it ran ...

[rwh]

well I had an old mini .... it was hard to tell if there was water in the tank or not ... I often knew there was. But nothing much changed in how it ran ...

LOL. Actually, mine (well, I'd sold it to my dad who'd lent it to my sister by that time) ran pretty well most of the time. The water in the tank was a theory we considered confirmed by how well the meths cured it.

Richard

[scumdog]

Really? I've done it successfully in the past - though not an injected engine; it was an old mini.

Richard

OK, did an experiment.

I got a 2-litre coke bottle, half filled it with petrol then added about 1/2 an egg-cup full of water to it.

Then poured in about 200ml of meths.

I shook the whole lot up and it emulsified into a grey mass.


10 minutes later it separated into three distinct layers with the water on the bottom.

No matter how much shaking etc it was the same result.

[rwh]

OK, did an experiment.

Can't fault that, cheers.

Must have been some other problem I had.

Richard

[rwh]

Thinking some more, though.

Meths is essentially ethanol, with a few additives.

Alcoholic spirits, suitable for drinking are pretty much water and ethanol, with a few additives.

Why does my vodka not separate out? Is the difference in the additives?

Any chemists around?

Richard

[p.dath]

OK, did an experiment.

I got a 2-litre coke bottle, half filled it with petrol then added about 1/2 an egg-cup full of water to it.

Then poured in about 200ml of meths.

I shook the whole lot up and it emulsified into a grey mass.


10 minutes later it separated into three distinct layers with the water on the bottom.

No matter how much shaking etc it was the same result.

I don't know anything about it, but that sounds like a great test.

Perhaps it needed time. Was the result different after 24 hours?

Although the meths appeared to separate out, did perhaps the amount of water in fact reduce (meaning a lot more meths was required)?

[scumdog]

I don't know anything about it, but that sounds like a great test.

Perhaps it needed time. Was the result different after 24 hours?

Although the meths appeared to separate out, did perhaps the amount of water in fact reduce (meaning a lot more meths was required)?

I left it for a 4 or 5 days and gave it a shake at the end of each day - still no better.

And as I did not accurately measure the quantities involved I guess the meths COULD had absorbed some water - but if it did it wasn't much at all.

[dogsnbikes]

Spilled some fuel on the tank while filling up and the wife :love: thought she was helpful by immediately rinsing it off with the watercan, except the fuel cap wasn't on yet, so some water got into the tank.

:facepalm:

advice please!

Scummy is right meths is a waste of time.......Water will always sink too the bottom being the heavier component If you feel you need too put something in the tank use kero once you have emptied tank as kero beads the water

But your best bet is too empty tank and let it dry out and get a wind sorce passing through the tank ie leaf blower,compressed airline or using the old hoover if it has a blow attachment hell dude even a airbed pump,and let it dry out properly over a couple of days

[Flip]

Petrol has about 150 ppm (parts per million) water in it normally or 0.015%. At this level it is saturated with water. If you add 5% methanol or ethanol you can disolve a little more water, but its really fuck all. Probably only 500 ppm.

I have the lab gear to test for water in diesel, but its a bugger to set up for petrol because it is a heated process, petrol has such a low boiling point and I do not want to flood the lab out with petrol vapour.

I tip some waste methanol in the landy from time to time mostly because I have it and would otherwise have to pay for it to be disposed of. Seems to keep the fuel system clear of water.

Methanol Ethanol Aceatone MEK are all partially polar solvents. What this means is they can disolve in water and oil. Petrol is mostly a non-polar solvent it can not disolve in water (but a very little water can disolve in it.)

[ellipsis]

...IPA is miscible with water...they'll think you are making 'oil' if you try to buy it, tho...

[rwh]

...IPA is miscible with water...they'll think you are making 'oil' if you try to buy it, tho...

India Pale Ale?

Richard

[ellipsis]

India Pale Ale?

...haven't found one that doesn't taste a little like water...dont know if adding isopropyl alcohol would improve it any...

[notme]

scumdog and rwh are both correct by saying it does and doesn't work, and p.dath has hit the reason for the difference square on the head (nice common sense analysis there dude!), but Flip provides the science.

Meths in fuel is a valid solution for removing water. I've had to tell many people over the years that just because something doesn't work for them, doesn't mean that it doesn't work period. The trick with meths+fuel solubilizing water, is that it only works for reasonable amounts of water - which is why it seems to work better in cars - there tends to be much more fuel to water compared to a small bike tank. Bigger fuel lines injectors and all that will also help.

The commercial solutions you can buy for removing water are generally isopropyl so will remove more water, but in the end if you have given the fuel a good splash of water you're going to have to drain it.

At least a bike tank has a big advantage in being easier to remove and dry manually so if meths doesn't work in your situation it's not a huge deal....and a quick way to dry it if you don't want it to be off the bike long is to get it off the bike, tip the fuel out, throw a bottle of meths in there and swish it around then tip it out. Well ventilated work area of course!

[slofox]

...get it off the bike, tip the fuel out, throw a bottle of meths in there and swish it around then tip it out. Well ventilated work area of course!

Exactly. BTDT.

[notme]

Exactly. BTDT.

Dang, must be coffee time. Took me 5 mins to figure that one out!

[slofox]

Dang, must be coffee time. Took me 5 mins to figure that one out!

In the days of my very first aged British bike, it was common enough for water to get into the tank - after all, the oil got OUT easily enough, why should the water not be able to get IN? (Filler cap was fukt actually).

Regular thing to remove tank, pour out gas, tip in bottle of meths, shake it all about (no no not your right foot dammit!) drain, dry. All go right after.

[sil3nt]

Waters at the bottom. Just don't hit reserve :whistle: :shutup: