Sometimes it's the things you don't think about...

[Bamamav]

My 86 Corvette has been a love/hate relationship for the last two years. Had electrical gremlins for the longest, got that straightened out, then after driving it a bit, I took it to our first cruise night this year. Got ready to go home, and it wouldn't crank. Called up my roll back guy, he couldn't get to it until the next morning, so I caught a ride home and left it. Remember this.

Got to fooling with it after I got it home, no spark. Determined the module was bad in distributor, changed it out, everything was fine. Drove it down the road, came home and parked it. Friday that week cranked it, washed it, got it spiffy for a show on Sat. Sat morning, wouldn't crank again. Missed the show. After that, it was maybe it would crank, maybe it wouldn't. After a little while, it lost spark again. I let it sit all summer I was so pizzed at it.

Flash forward to today. After thinking about it, I decided the module was bad again. I had read that a lot of the parts store modules have a short life, so it seemed plausible that I got a bad one. It had a lifetime warranty, so I went and exchanged it for a new one. Put it in, hit the key, and she fired right off. Fixed, right? Wrong. Ran less than two minutes and died like it was out of fuel. Checked rail pressure, good. Sprayed starting fluid in, it would crank, then go dead. Fuel system problem. OK, I checked the rail pressure again, then I noticed something about the gas that leaked onto the flat top of the fuel rail just didn't look right. I disconnected the line and pumped some into a clear container, confirming my suspicions. The gas was full of water. I'm talking FULL. It didn't look like gas, it looked like dishwater. Nothing to do but drain the tank.

Spent half the day siphoning the tank dry, then wiping what I could reach inside with shop towels. It didn't hardly even smell like gas. It was vandalized. I'm thinking that night it sat overnight at the mall, somebody put a bunch of water in the tank. I've kept gas here in both open and closed containers for months and none of them got that much water in them. I even left one gallon jug with about a quart of gas in it out in the rain a week and it only got a little bit of water in it.

Got it all cleaned out, blew the fuel and return lines out, gave it a shot of starting fluid, and it cranked and went dead. Did that a few times until the bad stuff was out of the fuel rail and injectors, then it ran fine![cl Let it run about 30 mins, cut it off, it cranked right back up like it is supposed to. Hopefully it's fixed![cl

I would have never thought about it being full of water like that. It showed 3/4 tank of gas. I buy gas at the same store for the toys and yard equipment, 100% premium gas, no ethanol. Never had a minutes problem with their gas, and don't think I did this time, it was simply too much water. I can't remember how much gas was in it the night I had to leave it, but I know it wasn't full. I figure it was better than 50/50 water/gas when I drained it. Cap was on the tank, so if water got in, somebody had to take the cap off and pour it in.

Sorry for the long post, but felt like I needed to give a little history of what was happening, and to point out that sometimes things aren't what they seem to be. If I hadn't of noticed the bubbles in the spilled gas on the fuel rail, I'd still be chasing my tail on this one, or letting it sit a while longer....

 

[Tripper]

Can you say locking gas cap?!? My dad always ran one! Luckily it was only water!

BoB

 

[Bamamav]

If I don't get rid of it before long, it WILL have a locking cap! [cl

 

[smallfoot]

Although it pretty well sounds like somebody purposely did it, I wouldn't count out your gas station either. I've had a regular gas-up spot for years too. The guy had new tanks placed not long ago and sells enough where it doesn't sit long before getting more gas. One day a while back, I stopped and filled my truck, my generator, and a small gas tractor at the same time and went on with my trip. Not far out of the station, I started running bad on the truck but didn't have far to run from the station and made it. When I got to where I was going, I tried to crank the generator and it wouldn't start. Later that same day, I tried to unload the tractor and it wouldn't crank either. I started by draining some gas from the truck and in a clear quart jar to see what I got. About a cup per quart was what it looked like. Drained them all and replaced gas and all ran after that.
Seems like the store sold me some right out of their tanks that was contaminated. Now whether or not that is what he got delivered from his supplier or whether it got the water from all the rain we'd been having, I found that to be the source when questioning other customers at the same store.
I'd hate to catch somebody dousing my fuel....

 

[Bamamav]

If somebody else had of had the same problem I'd probably have heard about it Smallfoot. My parts store guy is a car guy like myself and has several restored vehicles that he only puts in the same gas as I do from the same store, I'm sure he would have let me know if the store had a problem. Even if they had gotten a fresh dump of fuel, I don't think I would have gotten so much water concentrated in the 8-10 gallons I put in the last time I bought gas there. It's possible I suppose, but I don't think that's what happened. I figure it was either a bunch of kids or young guys that were jealous they didn't have a Corvette, so they figured they'd screw mine up, thinking I was some rich a hole. You know what a few beers will do to some people.

I'll try and take a pic of the gas in the bottle after it sits overnight, it will amaze you.

 

[Bamamav]

Here's a pic of the gas that was in the car. Or should I say the gas flavored water!





Went out a few minutes ago and cranked it. Started and ran fine. Now, anybody want it while it's running?

 

[PA41]

I had a tractor that kept getting lots of water in the fuel. It turned out the filler neck was broken where it met the tank and the engine cover funneled rain water into the recessed filler area. Cost a bundle to figger it out. The water froze and broke the injector pump and some lines. I think it was a MF 275--maybe. There's always some People like to deal misery, but mother nature is by the worse. She's always doing stuff like that.