Yeah I'll check that out. I'm really curious if I remembered to tighten the filler next on the tank, cuz that would describe what propulsion is saying too..We'll see when I get out there later today or tomorrow. If water did get in the fuel system, I should be able to see it if I siphon the rest out, right? In my experience though, cant you see water in the bottom of the fuel filter as well?
Ski runs like crap when the tank is full, but it runs better when empty?
- Thread starter Roseand
- Start date
I do fuel samples at work, take a sample from the entire bottom of the tank, siphon a little off the bottom on this side and that side, the middle and put it a clear plastic bottle and let it sit and separate.
How much fuel you got in the tank, I think I'd just pull the tank and poor it all out into a bucket and let sit and check the tubes and such while it's apart.
Edit: should mention safety. Fuel molecules are heavier than air and will collect along the floor, most oftener ignited by the water heater pilot so be careful
How much fuel you got in the tank, I think I'd just pull the tank and poor it all out into a bucket and let sit and check the tubes and such while it's apart.
Edit: should mention safety. Fuel molecules are heavier than air and will collect along the floor, most oftener ignited by the water heater pilot so be careful
Yeah I know Whatcha mean. I've got a siphon at the lake that I can get everything out of the tank without pulling it so I will definitely do that. I probably only have a gallon or so left in it. Don't like pulling the tank if I don't have to 
I swear, when building a ski a cart tank would be a nice thing to have when working out kinks lol. My tanks a pita to get out.
I swear, when building a ski a cart tank would be a nice thing to have when working out kinks lol. My tanks a pita to get out.
Drained all gas, no water in it at all. There were a couple spots on my hoodliner that I knew leaked, so I gorilla taped those seams(it's always leaked a little, but never caused an issue, and were near the hoodhooks/nowhere near the carbs). Started with a little over a gallon, after I let it idle/rode around at a low speed for a minute or so it was a little sluggish, but a little more pegging it and it was all cleared out and ripping perfectly. I'd do a stab, no issue. Filled it up more, didn't feel as snappy but still very good. Filled it all the way up, and rode it around, finally a boat making a decent wake showed up(it's like 50 degrees here, not many people are out), and I did some nice stabs and went deep like always. I'd recover and there was no delay, no clearing up. Just ripped like normal even with a full tank. It did feel a little snappier with one gallon in it but that might be my imagination, or Cuz it was a little lighter. But it has been running pretty damn good. Soooooooo weird.. Running like normal now and I didn't really change anything. But it had those same crazy symptoms for two tank fulls.
Rosand no anger dude,and not being a d*ck .its just these aren't super highly complex machines with quirky minds of their own there actually relatively simple system machines ,im just trying to figure out if you just like to post to the community as a pass time or you are genuinely trying to fix your issue ,is all .not mad dude i would like to hear that your stuff is good .but if your not willing to follow a process and you just want out smart your problem "on line" with out actually trying some of the suggested fixes iit could be a long road .my 02 cents don't hate on me as we head on page 5 with no progress
so your saying its running better after you changed the fuel ? maybe it helped .did you try to pressure test your tank ,also how do your pulse lines look .if nothing more it will get you looking at areas that may need attention anyways on the way to a completed repair ,at least thats what i find .a lot of times when i have an issue it gets me looking at things that i might have not given any attention to in a minute .don't mean to come off brash .
Sometimes you can get confusing problems though, even though they are fairly simple machines. I've been trying to fix my issue..not just trying to pass time. No worries man, but I think you're misunderstanding my processes. And there's progress..I checked a few things out today and now it's running normal. I didn't do anything drastic, which makes no sense.
Yeah, but it's wierd! Because for two tankfuls it had this issue, and each tank was from a different station.. Today I got my fuel at the place where I mix 4 gals of 93 with 1 gal of 110.. I didn't pressure test my tank, but I did have the fuel pickup system completely out, checked all my fuel lines, took off and drained my fuel filter, etc. Fuel lines still look really good. I didn't see anything abnormal, so it's so so so so wierd..
And no worries, you're all good man
Cool man .sometimes something as simple as a cracked fuel filter can cause issues,this season i had air get in my fuel lines due to the fact that the fuel line i was running lost some of its elasticity ,caused poor performance some simple zip ties and was good .so no question is bad question its just nice to know when headway is being made .
- Location
- Ontario, Canada
That's awesome that things cleared up bro. It makes me think that since it cleared up and is back to normal then there had to be something partially plugging the fuel system...one thought in particular that came to mind just a little while ago is that if your ski did take a drink from a stab or something that would get the flame arrestor in a position to snort some water, it could sit in the base and mix with the oil. I have seen it happen a lot, with the different blends of oil from the different oil manufacturers some blends will mix more easily with water and froth up into a thick and tacky blue foam. It fills the trenches of the cases and also gets slung into the pulse port on the cases. Just the loss of case volume from the blue foam will reduce pulse signal until it finally washes away with the repeated clean fuel throughput. I know that my Lucas semi synthetic likes to froth up and after seeing how it reacts when water is introduced, next year when I clear out my supply of Lucas I will be going back to the Castrol Super 2-Stroke Marine. I never had an issue on that stuff and found that it even helped clean carbon deposits when doing tear-downs. Plus it is very affordable compared to the Lucas. Glad to hear it's working out for you dude.
The first time this happened it was when I was out of klotz and ran some cheap Walmart quicksilver oil that was 20$ a gallon. I read on here that people had good luck with quicksilver, so I didn't think it would have that issue. I ran 5 gallons of that at like a 32/1 mix(Just cuz it wasn't a nice synthetic like klotz, so I richened it a little bit) on the flat lake, and then another tankful of it on the big lake when I had those symptoms.
Even with a full tank of klotz mix, it still took over an hour of riding for it to finally get better(It felt like the same symptoms I had while using quicksilver).
If the froth was the issue, then it took over an hour of running with good oil to clear it up.
I'm running a one way valve off of my tank with some hose and then that plastic bulb/tube contraption. I believe that tube moves up and down to prevent water from getting in, and maybe it was stuck ina position that wouldn't allow air to get in? I moved it around today just for the heck of it.. Maybe that's it. IDK lol.
Even with a full tank of klotz mix, it still took over an hour of riding for it to finally get better(It felt like the same symptoms I had while using quicksilver).
If the froth was the issue, then it took over an hour of running with good oil to clear it up.
I'm running a one way valve off of my tank with some hose and then that plastic bulb/tube contraption. I believe that tube moves up and down to prevent water from getting in, and maybe it was stuck ina position that wouldn't allow air to get in? I moved it around today just for the heck of it.. Maybe that's it. IDK lol.
Pretty sure that's my problem. http://www.yamahapartshouse.com/oemparts/a/yam/5003a3a0f870021f60a12b2a/fuel-tank
#33, it's called a ventilation pipe. I have mine sitting on top of the tank, so when putting on my hood, I must have bumped it and it got closed and blocked air from entering the tank-causing what propulsion described earlier.
#33, it's called a ventilation pipe. I have mine sitting on top of the tank, so when putting on my hood, I must have bumped it and it got closed and blocked air from entering the tank-causing what propulsion described earlier.
- Location
- Ontario, Canada
That could very well be what happened. My ski has the same tube but mine doesn't have a ball inside, it just has a small hole drilled through both sides at the end of it to limit the amount of water that could get in there. If yours has a little ball in there, and mine doesn't, then that would seem to me that they had issues with your ski's style and changed up to the version I have. I just keep mine tucked in with my fuel tank strap on the exhaust side, never had any water issues in the fuel and without the ball inside, never had an issue with that either lol.
Yeah mines a tube with another tube through the middle that you can slide in and out, and I must have had it slid so the holes were sealed off..
- Location
- Ontario, Canada
Hehe, nothing like the simplest thing to become the worst issue. I was going to say earlier that what you should try is just walking away from it for a few days, go play with the gf or something and get your mind off of it. Then when you come back to it you will have a cleared mind and different view of what to think or look at. I find that this is the best thing for me to do when I get to a point of frustration and seemingly endless variables to try. Take a good break and come back later in the week, seems to work more often than not =)
No way mine could ever seal off those holes. Its just a shroud to deflect water I don't think it has that function.
Ugh...That's not good news. Maybe that's not my problem then
OCD Solutions
Original, Clean and Dependable Solutions
- Location
- Rentz, GA
What about the fuel pickups touching the bottom of the tank and sealing off? They may be sitting higher after you reassembled it this time.