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How to siphon gas tank?

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benjilafouine

benjilafouine

Well-Known Member
Hi,

Since my engine rebuilt (2003 GTI LE), I really wanted to siphon the gas out of the tank but the siphon pump I purchased will not go inside the tank (seems like some check in the pipe is preventing that). Is there any way to siphon the gas from the top? I do not want to touch fuel cables as I am not good enough at that. What tube size will go in? The aquarium kind or nothing at all?

And to add to my misery, I added too much of "burn-in" 2-stroke oil in the tank by mistake (so now the ski is smoking too much). 20 US gallons is a long way to burn with too much oil and the spark plugs are becoming dirty after 30 minutes. I already burned 1/3 of the tank but I am tired of changing the plugs every 30 minutes...

Thanks.

Benji.
 
Tough to suction gas out with a flexible hose down the fill tube.
IDK much about your ski but can open your glove box (if you have one) then view the tank filler connection. if so then pull that off and stick a stiffer tube down and suck it out. ....
,,,,Since it's smoking just keep adding gas to dilute the oil that's in there....a lot easier.
 
I can ride, but the high speed jet seems to be clogged in the carb so the ski stays on low speed (15 mph). I need to burn another 4-6 US gallons before I will reach an acceptable ratio.

I will buy new spark plugs tomorrow (like six of them) and I will burn the gas unless someone tells me that this is risky for the engine (it is full of oil, it will never run out of it for a while!!!). Or I will ask a local mechanics to drain my tank (he already told me a few weeks ago that he knew how... he worked for BRP for 20 years...).

Shame on me but the French manual was hard to interpret (even for a French speaking guy). It was much clearer in the English manual (but too late for me...). In both books, they could have simply given the ratio. I would have understood faster.

Can I shoot some stuff in the card filter to help? My ski has one carb (GTI LE with one card and no DI).

Thanks.

Benji.
 
Get one of those cheap red pumps at harbor freight. The hook some garden hose up to it and pump away. That's what worked for me when I had to siphon out 15 gallons of 7 year old gas from my boat.
 
STOP riding the ski. If you are having carb issues and the high speed circuit is plugged and it will only go 15 mph you will destroy the engine. Do not run it with any carb problems like this.
 
Don't know if you can get to it (or even if you have one) but if you disconnect either end of the 2 1/2" or so black hose that runs from the filler neck in the hull to the tank, you'd have pretty good access.
 
i've used the $7 HF siphon pumps with no issues (time consuming but effective)

288.jpg


when they go on sale I just buy a couple, because if you transfer fuel with them, they tend to stop working after may 1 or 2 uses.

I do this through the tank itself by removing the filler tube, (only takes about 45 seconds to get that off usually) but I guess with a flexible enough hose maybe you could go through the hull/gas cap.

otherwise, i don't see any harm in just adding fresh gas now that your 1/3 empty, make your best guess at the ratio, i'd rather you have too much oil than too little.

I also second the fact that if your not able to get past 15mph, your issues with the carb/fuel delivery is more important than the oil/gas ratio at the moment. They should take precedence.
 
I have had good luck in connecting a long piece of clear vinyl line to either the reserve fuel tank pickup or even back as far as the carb and select reserve. Then suck on the tube (this is why you use clear stuff) until it is almost full, pinch it off, put the end into a container under the ski and watch it work. If you can, wiggle the ski around a bit to stir up some of that crap in the bottom of the tank while the siphon is working.

Was kinda a standard piece of equipment to have a length of garden hose in the trunk of the car of a teenager growing up in the 60s; once you got the hang of using the pump action of push/pull on the hose with your thumb alternately on/off the end of the hose you did not even need to deal with the taste of the gas.
 
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The red one is the one to use if you trying to siphon out throw the fill hose. If you are taking the glove box off then you can use the one with the brass end. The reason why is you need to shake the brass one and you will drive yourself crazy.
 
OK, here is an update. This ski has some kind of anti-siphon net or check so it is not possible to siphon it from the top. The local mechanics says that he removes the tank on my model when he needs to empty tanks.

As for the carbs, I found out that the high speed jet doesn't want to kick in when the ski is hot (well, after 5 minutes...). When cold, the ski jumps like a rocket. And if I cold start it and stay above 20 mph, the jet will work just nicely for a long period (actually, I usually get tired of going at that speed after 30 minutes). The spark plugs have only little influence on it.

STOP riding the ski. If you are having carb issues and the high speed circuit is plugged and it will only go 15 mph you will destroy the engine. Do not run it with any carb problems like this.

mikidymac
Click to expand...

So about this issue, I phoned the dealer today and explained the issue very precisely. They came to one conclusion: the oil that I used for burn-in directly in the tank could be causing this issue (even if I followed the manual specifications). They told me to keep the plugs clean and ride the ski to empty that one tank and then add fresh gasoline. They tell me that the BRP Synthetic 2-stroke oil is very dense and that it may be having a hard time mixing in the tank therefore clogging the jet intermittently. When I try to resume speed and it won't go, I just cruise at 10 mph to the shore, wait 15 minutes and then high jet is at work again.

A second explanation could be that the high-low adjustment in the carburetor is not quite OK. They suspect that the low (idle) is set a bit too high (they even told me that when I picked up the ski yesterday).

In conclusion, they told me to burn completely the gas in the tank (I am halfway there already and other than this small bug, it runs just fine) and that if the issue doesn't go away to bring the ski back for a free adjustment. Motor being on warranty for one year and me following their advice, I am going to stop worrying and just do what they say. The level of oil in tank is already much lower because yesterday, I used up 8 gallons and replaced it with fresh gas already.

Hopefully everything will be OK.

Benji.
 
If you have an air compressor just make a siphon hose. Way to do it is get a piece of hose long enough [I prefer 3/8"]. About 2-3" from one end make a small slit. Barely insert a 3/16 piece of brake line in the slit angled toward the fuel can your syphoning into. Then take an air nozzle and apply air to the other end of the brake line. The air comming out of the brake line will start a siphon. No more burping up gas for a few hours.
 
By the way, we should put this thread to rest: I still have 90 minutes of lousiness to run a sea-doo at 75% speed :rolleyes: and then my tank will be empty and filled up with new gas. Hopefully it will fix my issue or else, I will bring it back to the dealer.

I can hardly understand how a little too much oil could destroy a new engine. Even if the new oil pump would be defective, the engine would still have more than plenty to work with! Manual specifically mentioned that procedure (adding extra oil in the tank for protection). I played on the safe side by adding some more but with a smell of burnt oil...

However, if I was the person who wrote that owner manual, I would have wrote it much more clearer. Like giving the gasoline/oil ratio and to mention to mix it is a separate gas tank (in case of a mistake). Even the dealer told me that the procedure was fishy because the BRP oil does not mix so well directly in gasoline. My problem was that when I brought my ski to the dealer, the tank was full. I wish they emptied it (I suggested it while it was there).

Benji.
 
One should always keep in mind that oil displaces fuel,... and the carb is metering a given amount of the mixture,...so essentially by adding extra oil to your premix you are starving your engine of fuel.
 
[MENTION=74567]Shaw520[/MENTION]

Meaning it should get better with correct ratio? Break-in is not an easy task if you want to play it safe.

Benji.
 
There is a little bit of false information going on here but if you are following the dealer's instructions and they will stand by it if something goes wrong then run it and hope for the best.

For any carbed ski you should run some premix when breaking in a new engine. Mix it at 50:1 or 40:1 at the most with the oil injection working too. The BRP oil mixes very well with fuel and it will run fine with stock jetting. You should not have any starting or running issues at all and you should never have to stop and let it cool to run correctly at high rpm's.

How much oil did you add to the tank?

Your ski has a 15 gal tank so at 50:1 you should have added 38oz which is a little more than a quart at 32oz. At 40:1 you should have added 48oz of oil.

If you have stopped using the oil injection and disabled the system correctly you should run the premix at 40:1 to 32:1 at the most and you should not have to touch the jetting.

The 2003 GTI does not have any anti siphon device as I have the exact same ski and siphoned through the filler a few times with a standard 1/2" clear tube.
 
If you don't have a Harbor freight close you can get siphons from pet stores. I used one once that they use to siphon fish tanks with. Kinda slow but effective. Good luck
 
We can close that thread: I burned all the gas and added new fresh gas and there still seems to be some carb adjustment issue, unless the fuel line got clogged (which I doubt very much because the issue would be constant, not intermittent). And no, my 1/2 inch siphon just wouldn't go down the hole. It would get stuck 6 inches down. Maybe I just don't have the touch... And the fuel injection system was always active at all times. Please follow me on this thread:

http://www.seadooforum.com/showthread.php?80029-I-am-out-of-ideas-(Sea-Doo-not-working)

Thanks.

Benji.
 
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