Water in gas

Dont trust that "E" mark too much in the first place. You may still be out of gasoline.

Second, yes, water could be in the gas tank. A little water could be there by condensation. A lot of water can be there if you gasoline station had some wet gas. It happens.

Only wondering, but what if you poured about half a cup of it on a smooth concrete floor, would the gas evaporate before the water? If there is water in the gas? Sort of a 'test' cuhulin

Just fill a glass or bottle with it and look for (1) haziness or (2) separation of water from the gasoline...quick test.

If there is not much water present, say 3%, the alcohol in the gasoline might hold it in solution so these tests would be too crude to give a decent answer. Sometimes you can put a little salt in the glass and that will help the water separate.

"Tom Del Rosso" wrote in news:gP-dndehCqqjduDQnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:

You'd need to have several gallons of water in the tank for it to affect the gauge reading, which is /extremely/ unlikely. Unless one of the kids stuck the garden hose into your gas filler neck.

More likely the gauge sender unit (in the tank) is faulty.

At least it isn't an engine problem. It started when I added a couple of gallons.

After they started using ethanol I needed a new fuel pump, which is in the tank, and after that I had a silimar problem of running out when the guage was at 1/4, but it stopped doing that. Maybe they didn't secure the pump, but I'll never get them to open it and check.

I have two lawn mowers, both of them have Briggs & Stratton engines.One of them is 3.75 HP, the other one is 6.5 HP.That damn ethanol crap has messed up my lawn mower that has the 6.5 HP engine.A buddy of mine has a similar lawn mower with a 6.5 HP Briggs & Stratton engine.His lawn mower's engine has the same problem, ethanol.I have been driving since

Which is the result of the ethanol freeing up all of the varnish and gunk and cleaning the tank out.... and that varnish and gunk has to go somewhere and it gets caught in the pump.

Which is because when they removed the float and gauge sender assembly in the process of getting to the pump, they knocked it out of whack. Worst case they dropped it and bent the rod on the float.

It's time to replace the gauge sender mechanism.

--scott

Did you try putting a couple of gallons of gas in it? Check the fuel pump?

Just a thought... Ben

Japanese car runs on water. OK, a bad joke, I know. cuhulin

Yes and it started easily. Apparently 1/8 tank is the new E.

No but that seems ok. They must have messed up the sensor when replacing the pump a few years ago. I'll have that checked when it's on a lift next time.

Those Briggs motors with the fuel tank BELOW the carb that have that funky 'pump gasket' arrangement are not terribly reliable in my experience. That design coupled with incompatible fuel that eats the gaskets is enough to make one of those engines go limp in short order.

On mine....I wind up replacing the gaskets and the primer bulb just about annually now because of that ethanol crap. Fortunately the repair is relatively easy, and the parts are relatively cheap.....

Chris

Given that ethanol fuel is pretty much universal now, why haven't the fine people at B&S got with the program and changed their gasket materials yet?

Tecumseh and Honda did....

--scott

Because the gaskets B&S used in the last 70 years don't have any problem with ethanol. Where I live, ethanol has been used since the late 70's and there is no problem with the gaskets deteriorating due to ethanol. The main problem with old pulsa-jet systems is going to be the pickup screen plugging up due to ethanol dissolving crud in an old gas tank.

-jim

I will stay with Briggs & Stratton engines, Thank you very much.

On the B & S 6.5 HP engine, I reckon I should remove the carburetor and take it apart and clean out the crud? I have never replaced a primer bulb before.When I was trying to get that engine to start up and run, I removed the air filter (a new one I bought at the Lowe's store last year) and I squirted some carburetor cleaner in there.I pushed that primer bulb dozens of times, but I didn't see it squirting any gas at all into the carburetor. cuhulin