adding alcohol to tank to get rid of water?

[Sir Chad]

Hello, I'm fairly sure I've got water in my fuel tank, when I recently did some work on the fuel system to try and sort the rough running I drained some fuel out and could see the petrol floating on top of another clear fluid. I reckon the water came in with a batch of petrol.
Apparently draining the tank is a real pig, so i've done a bit of searching and found that if you add meths or IPA (no not bitter)to your fuel it will mix with the water and can sort the problem. Has anyone done this and if so how much can I safely put in? I also discovered that in parts of the world you buy something call 'Heet' for this exact purpose.

[Mocki]

i wouldnt, its all got to go through your engine to get out, it will cause more problems.
draining the tank isnt that big a thing, drain it through the return inlet, not the out let.
when no more is running out, jack the front right up, and the rest will come out, almost.

when i did mine for the same reason, years ago, i then connected the airline to the outlet, and blew through and it seemed to get the last of it out.
i guess some will remain, but filling the tank with new petrol (Spit) at this stage will leave a ratio you can live with by changing the inline filter a few times.

[Mr Bean]

i wouldnt, its all got to go through your engine to get out, it will cause more problems.
draining the tank isnt that big a thing, drain it through the return inlet, not the out let.
when no more is running out, jack the front right up, and the rest will come out, almost.

when i did mine for the same reason, years ago, i then connected the airline to the outlet, and blew through and it seemed to get the last of it out.
i guess some will remain, but filling the tank with new petrol (Spit) at this stage will leave a ratio you can live with by changing the inline filter a few times.

I agree. Although IPA does mix with water and is comparitively inert I do not know if the resulting solution would mix with petrol. I would suggest that something like a mobile phone which had fallen into water could be dried quicker and more thoroughly by submerging it in IPA before drying it in a warm place. Although the screens seem to be very suscepable to water damage. Trouble is nobody has IPA nowadays although I understand it can be bought on the internet! I tried to get some in order to clean the inkjets on my Damned Epson printer! I suppose it could be used to dry out a drained tank but frankly a second or third flush with settled petrol (spit?) would be easier and more available solution.
Cheers
Wolfi

[kit]

Can you not syphon out the water? as the petrol will float you should be able to drain the water from the bottom, I used to do it all the time on my old TR7

[dubmeup]

You can get a tank additive from Halfrauds that's designed to soak up the water too. Haven't had cause to use it though so i can't give a recommendation.

[dink]

take the tank off, it's really not so difficult, i've had mine off this morning, because mine had water in it
lift the front of the van as high up in the air as you can, stand it on axle stands
support the tank with a trolly jack with a soft pad on top of the jack
remove and plug the return fuel line
remove the main fuel line, and drain from there into gerry cans, it'll take a while, so you can start undoing the filler neck
3 screws hold the outer ring though to the inner ring, there a jubalee clip on the rubber gaitor on the filler neck
it should be time to check to see if the gerry can is full by now
the filler neck should pull straight out of the side of the tank, there's a breather pipe from that to the top of the tank, it'll pull out easy enough
once the fuel has stopped draining undo the two tank straps, pull them out of the way
slowly lower the tank, first you'll need to remove the fuel tank sender cables, as they are the shortest
next the tank breather pipes, there are two plugs in the top of the tank, they should pull out easy enough
that should be it, you should be able to lower the tank down to the floor by now
at best it'll have a gallon or so in it, os it's easily managable


check along the top sides of the tank, you'll see the breather pipes, this is a very common place for the tank to rust though, letting water into the tank
while you have the tank off, i'd recomend replacing ALL the rubber seals, you should still be able to get genuine bits from VW, as i don't think gsf or the others sell patter parts for the job
for mine i replaced everything when i changed the tank, i also replaced the fuel tank sender
if you don't complete the job in the same day, don't follow too closely the diagram of how the filler neck goes back together, i followed the drawing and put it back together wrongly thus having water in the tank, and my reason for taking the tank off today

give it a go, it's really not such a bad job

[steve8090]

There is a product that we have used inthe past called DRYFUEL it is made by Winns and is designed for exactly this job, it is derived from the marine industry and mixes seawater with fuel petrol or diesel to make it combustable, believe me this stuff is good and it works, although the tank is not a massive job to remove and drain it will save you a lot of time and hassle if you are trying to do it on your back.

[Sir Chad]

I've had a chat with some of the chemists at work and it should work fine. I've read that In colder countries they have summer fuel and winter fuel and that the winter fuel is gasoline with alcohol added purely to stop water condensing in the tank and freezing in the fuel lines. I've found MSDS' for some of the products available and they are all basically IPA (Isopropanol). I'm going to drain as much water as I can out of the tank then drop in 1/4 litre of IPA (we have gallons of it at work) on top of a full tank of petrol. I will post the results.
If anyone's interested here's where I got the idea...
http://cr4.globalspec.com/thread/2942/W ... ted-Petrol" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[R0B]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dry_gas

[lloyd]

Have used similar products all my life until moving here to remove water... especially in winter to keep water from freezing. Great side effect was it keep tanks water free so tanks didn't rust. Brand I used was Heet http://automotive.hardwarestore.com/89- ... 10914.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Google found nothing for it here.

[mrted]

We use a similar product here called Lasol (or similar) which is designed th make the water mixable and thus able to be burnt.

There are several versions one for diesel and one for petrol.

As you can imagine you get more steam from the exhaust.


John

[clartsonly]

buy some wynns dry fuel from halfords it is 5.95, I know it works as I have been adding it to the bandit to stop carb icing.

[Sir Chad]

I've done it, did a quick 5 mile trip and no side effects, exhaust looked steamy for a while whilst idling but then cleared. I guess I'll have to do a weeks driving before I can tell if it's been completely succesful.

[R0B]

you would still be better off dropping the tank.as theres a good chance the top might of rotted allowing water to get in.(a common fault with these vans)