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Draining old fuel

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Skibo

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I just bought a 2005 Utopia 205 with the Mercury Optimax 250. It has 1/2 a tank of last year's gas in it, and I don't know if it was stabilized, so I'd like to get it out. I wasn't able to siphon it from the filler. I'm wondering if it has an in-tank fuel pump that I can use by disconnecting the fuel line at the filter and running an extension hose to a container.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.
 
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No tank pump in this case I'm aware of but must admit I haven't looked into the detail of sportjet Islandia specifically and have maybe seen the Islandia as close as 15ft but I've emptied probably thousands of gallons of fuel from cruisers for this reason. Sportjet has it's pump on the engine external of the tank as far as I know, like most outboards and other real boats (including EFI) traditionally have had.

Mostly I just connect a hose from the spin-on fuel/water separator outlet and siphon over the gunnel into 50Gal barrels. Sometimes I have to use an 12V electric pump to make life easier, autoparts stores have small simple ones if you really need or the marinas @ $300 for basically the same simple marine version electric fuel pump. Mostly In the case it's necessary to pump the fuel all uphill from the tank from below deck or filter/polish a disgusting system to get rid of the crud, some kind of electric pump (and large filters) is necessary.

Then replace/check the old spin on for water/junk and go from there. Maybe if there's a bunch of trash and water this stale fuel goes straight back into the tank for a few cycles through to help polish the tank clean and not expand into a larger environmental hazard.

You also might be able to use the pump that's on the sportjet if you want, good way to test it for flow.

And yep, stale fuel can mean trouble so get 'er cleaned out best you can.
 
Yep... what he said.

On the Merc boats... the pumps are on the engine. Nothing in the tank. SO... either a long hose down the fill neck... or pull the hose off the engine, and suck it out from there.
 
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