Water in Gas Tank

[jirby]

I have a brand new 08 Z1 with 20 hours and the engine died on me the other day. I took it in to the dealer and they said I must have pumped bad gas with water into the tank from the Gas station. This is only my second time to put gas in the tank. Is this very common to get water in the gas?

[jbort]

does not happen very often. was it stored with little gas inside? might have lots of condensation inside if left low or empty for a long time. I now use Stabil marine in every fill just to safeguard on gas w ethanol although per haps overkill.

[Ewok]

I use the Stabil marine every time as well. I used to use Sea-Foam in every tank but found the Stabil marine formula does most of the same thing as Sea-Foam but much cheaper per tank. The ethanol in gas is definitly bad for boats, especially older boats that have not been upgraded to handle it.

Does anyone know if newer Tige boats had their fuel systems upgraded to act more like modern automobiles to handle the ethanol, including treating or using plastic or composite fuel tanks vs standard marine aluminium tnaks? If so, what model year did they start the upgrades?

[jirby]

Thanks for the feedback. I have been using stabil in the tank from day one and the dealer had also added stabil while on the showroom floor. The dealer seems confident that the water came from the Texaco station. I filled my car up at the same pump and it ran fine. It just doesn't seem to make sense that water would be present in gas tanks at the station.

[chpthril]

Gas can be present at any station, on or off the water, but if you topped the car off at the same station, then that rules out that station

If it's a large amount, like enough to fill the filter/separator and cause driveability issues, then stabilizer will probably not help. The tank will need to be drained and then refilled with fresh fuel and a new filter/separator installed.

[jirby]

Back in again for the same problem two months later. The dealer says that Texas is having a problem with water getting into gas tanks from the pumps at the station. This has happened to me twice in six months and I have friends with Malibu's and Mastercraft's that have never had this problem in five years. Having my tank drained, cleaned, and fuel filter changed every 3 months is going to be expensive. I'm switching to Marine Stabil but totally avoiding ethanaol is impossible. Could water be entering the tank while in the lake? I usually leave the tank full of gas with stabil and it has not set up for more than two weeks all summer.