BF 225 and contaminated fuel.

Hi Gents,I have a 6.5m centre-cab Spearfish i have just recently repowered with a BF 225 what a beautiful engine. Had a fishing trip planned for yesterday to run wide to the shelf distance of 30 nautical miles from port. Pumped 300 litres of fuel at local service station then we launched the boat. We traveled about 1.5 miles to the heads got neary across the bar when i suddenly lost power and alarm sounded then engine cut out. We were not in a good position to be without power so i had to drop anchor. As we waited for a tow and started trouble shooting i bed the Racor and was concerned to see i had just pumped a tank full of dirty fuel.Took the boat straight to the local honda dealer. The engine to this point of time has done 50 hrs. We got about 5 litres of water out of the tank before we started getting good fuel. The mechanic drained the fuel lines and out drained straight water. He has the injectors out and we could see the water has reached them. He will reasemble everything on Monday Can someone who has had a similar experience or with mechanical knowledge give me some advice regarding this matter as i am really concerned about any long term damage this may have caused if any? What steps need to be taken to rectify and could the injectors be damaged and is there a way to check. The other thing i learned that fuel filters are not a fool proof way to stop water getting to the engine. The sensor alarm is in the second filter on engine so by the time the alarm goes off fuel has already reached the injectors and its to late. So unless you are monitoring the Racor water seperating filter constanty there is no protection. Thanks in advance for any advice given. David.

David,

First, only purchase fuel from a fuel dock that pumps lots of volume. If they drained all the fuel and water from the system and changed the filters and cleaned the pre-filters on the injectors then everything should be OK. If the injectors are questionable, replace them, they are like $45.00 each. Then send the old ones out to be cleaned,about $16.00 each. I hope they have gotten this engine fired again. If you passed water through your injectors there is a possibility of water sitting in the cylinders.

You will need to clean the fuel tank thoroughly, You will also need to check the fuel cap and the tank vent to make sure water is not getting in.

After all this is done, You can never go wrong with a good water separating fuel filter system with a sight glass. A nice Racor. It should be checked before every use.

If I'm not mistaken, fuel goes through the engine mounted water separator before the L.P. fuel filter. That little separator won't hold much water by itself if you have a problem like yours. Dittos on what Chris said.

Thanks for the advice given it has put my mind at ease. Chris, i have a Racor glass bottom filter fitted already which is checked before trip. Im guessing i got to where i did with clean fuel that was remaining in fuel lines and filter from previous trip 4 days earier. The tank is GRP built into bottom of hull 300 litre so water cannot enter as the fuel cap was done up. The fuel line pick up is at the rear bottom of tank which then runs through the kill tank to engine. As i was traveling with nose of boat up any water would have been pushed through the pick up hose first filling up the Racor with water which once is full then continues pushing water along the rest of the fuel lines. When it hits the sensor alarm on engine filter it still continues on regardless, so i have learned something from the experience as i previously assumed that the filters were there to prevent this happening. Is there any way the water can effect the electronic fuel pump this would be my only other concern? My mechanic told me the water cant be pushed through the injectors is that true? The engine was not fired as he run out of time to reassemble on the day so if water has passed the injectors can it cause problems internally over a 3 day period before firing engine? David.

I just serviced a 225 that had passed water through the injectors. The customer had the same scenario as you. Except instead of calling me right away, he continually tried to start the engine over about a week. Thankfully it was fresh water in the fuel. I disassembled the whole fuel system and gave it a good cleaning.

Pull the coils and then the plugs and take a look.