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Fuel Line issues?

Grub Master

New member
I have a 2 Mercury 2002 90ho EFIs. One motor recently had the voltage regulator burn up. The boat has sat for 3 years up until I purchased it last month. It ran fine (probably 2 hours ) until the regulator issue. We had the regulator replaced and it still will not run. The tech took a fuel sample and showed me black specs in the bottom of the bottle. He said we need to replace all the gas lines and clean out the VST. I believe I do not have the latest and greatest Mercury gas lines. In addition he thinks we need to put a water separator/filter on the main gas line.
I have 2 questions:(1) Mercury advises not to put a separator/filter in because it will starve the system. Is this correct?
(2) Is the little black sandy looking particles from the fuel line and if so should it take him 3+- hours to rebuild the VTS and replace the lines?
Thanks
 
The boat sat for 3 years and who knows how it was treated before it was "left to rot".

The grit/crud could be from the fuel lines, or crap in the tank from fuel sitting for years. It has likely gummed everything up - you may yet have injector issues - one of the pitfalls of buying a motor that has been "sitting" - you have to count on major service (in many cases) to get it back in running condition.

Anytime you have a built in tank, a sep filter is always a good idea. I run one and have never had an issue.

As to the service - I suspect that 3 hours labour is just the start of your adventure with this pair of motors and sounds about right to have the work done on the pair of them.
 
Chris...question...what damage if any will running with a water filter do?....stress on pump?...i been running one on a 2011 60 merc efi since i bought it new...just curious
 
No harm, in my opinion, on using a filter. But, if you have water in your sep filter you have bigger problems if you are using an ethanol mixed fuel.

Once you get some water in your fuel tank it will stay suspended in the ethanol mixed fuel and pass through the water sep filter. If you have a lot of water in your tank the fuel will phase separate. Now it all has to be pumped out and disposed of.
 
The mechanic finally got around to clean out the VST, replace the low pressure fuel pump and all gas lines. Now the high pressure pump is not working.
Weird that this motor was running fine until the regulator went out. Now the complete fuel system is clogged up?????
 
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