Can you Tell Me About This Boat?

[chackett]

Hi All,

I started contemplating getting this boat back in March of 2012 (even started a thread here about the internal gas tank back then). Well, this past spring break, I finally went down and picked up the boat and hauled it back to Atlanta (Alpharetta to be exact) from Bluffton, SC.

The HullID marked it as a "F20" .. if I can I'll post a pic. I had to do all sorts of work on it to get it operational. I rebuilt the carbs on the Suzuki DT200 that's on it, replaced most of the fuel lines under the cowling, new plugs, batteries, etc. But I think I have it mostly running now, with the possible exception that I think water might be getting into the internal gas tank.

I believe someone told me previously that this hull had a metal gas tank. If that's true, then a previous owner replaced the tank with a plastic one. There's a porthole in the floor that provides access to the sending unit, and the tank is clearly plastic (brownish plastic).

While I was working on the boat over the course of 4 or 5 weeks, I was working off a small external gas tank. One of the first things I did when I got the boat home was to siphon off as much gas from the internal tank as I could. There was a lot of water in the tank, but that wasn't too surprising to me since it has previously sat uncovered for at least a year.

Anyway, once things were running, I added 20 gallons of fresh fuel to the internal tank and headed to the lake. I should have tried siphoning the internal tank again first, because after I got towed back to the ramp, the following day I siphoned about 6 liters of water off the internal tank.

It's definitely possible that the first time I siphoned gas out of the internal tank, I didn't get all the water. Since that time, I have also cleaned and sealed the sending unit area with silicon.

Is water getting into the internal tanks a common issue with this hull? Any suggestions as to where to start with figuring this out? There is a large cutout area on the floor that I am assuming provides access to the tank, but getting to it will require removing the leaning post, and at least unbolting and moving the center console, which is a colossal PITA. So I thought I would ask for suggestions first.