What if the gas tank overflow breather gets submerged?

Thinking there might be a possibility I'm sinking my gas tank overflow breather... Should I be concerned???

I know that when I'm surfing, that I've got the water flowing at the rub rail when underway. Now, it's possiblethat I could be sinking my gas tank overflow vent at times.

But Maybe not, as the water when underway could be diverted and not ever get to the overflow. It likely could go under though when we stop and the wake catches the back of the boat... I honestly haven't looked specifically at the overflow (and I will next time I surf).

Anyway, thoughts on this?

Here is a pic of the back corner of my boat for reference:

Just a matter of time b4 you have to get towed in.. Relocate the vent forward.. Water will enter the tank a bit at a time.. Put a cap on the inside of that thru hull fitting and drill a new one up near the windshield point..

Back in the day when wake surfing was just kinda a new thing, we were playing around on my buddy's Malibu Response trying to get a wave that we could surf. We loaded the rear compartment (its a direct drive) with a fat sac and then had 4 big guys sit back there and lean to one side. We almost sank the back end of that poor boat.

I was sitting on the back corner and noticed that the gas overflow breather was under water. I asked the boat owner if those breathers have one way valves on them. He said "I don't know but we are probably gonna find out".

About 5 minutes later the motor sputtered and died. Sure enough....water in the gas tank.

We pulled off the fuel water separator and cut open a gatorade bottle and sat there cycling the key to activate the fuel pump for probably an hour and we dumped several gallons of water back into the Sacramento river. Once we started getting good gas again we started it and it ran....a little rough. We limped back to the dock and someone ran to the auto parts store and bought a couple bottles of HEAT and dumped that into the tank to evaporate the water. We went out and cruised the boat for about an hour without towing anyone...just cruising. We stopped about every 10 minutes and emptied the fuel water separator. After about an hour it was running really good. We decided not to try surfing again and wakeboarded instead. Never did have any residual effects from that.

But to answer your question.....yes water will go in that fuel overflow tube. If you suspect it may have already done so....check your fuel water separator and dump some HEAT in the tank.

Well, my boat has sat for 2 weeks and yesterday it died on my 3 times when I was pulling it off the trailer. However, that was before we surfed and I'm pretty sure I was running on a new tank of gas.

I would have to give it gas to get it started and when I put the boat in gear, I would actually have to go further on the throttle to keep it from lugging...

Could be a coincidence and could certainly be other things (fuel filter, plugs, etc). But it's worth checking like you said above.


Of course, I have no idea what a fuel/water separator looks like, but I guess I'll find out.

The water is going to go to the bottom of your tank and get sucked into the fuel system first. It will cause it to not run well. The first symptoms will be difficulty starting and poor idling without giving it a lot of throttle. Just like you are experiencing yesterday.

The fuel water separator looks like an oil filter.

Like this picture. Only it could be any color... http://www.boatbandit.com/fuel-filte...cury-2213.aspx

Just unscrew it and dump it into a clear container like a mason jar. Let it settle for a minute. If there is water you will see the water on the bottom and fuel floating on the top. If there is any water in the bottom of the jar then you have issues that need to be corrected.

If the contents of the bottle all looks uniform smell it to make sure it is all gas and not all water. It could be all water.

Start with several bottles of heat. And then check that separator often until you get all the water out.

Good luck

Cool, thanks for the insight!

First off, no water was found in the water/fuel separator. That's good.

Second, I watched the breather and depending on how we're steering, it definitely has a little risk of splashes. For sure risk if we swamped the rear with an abrupt stop.

So, since I really don't have the time right now to re-route the breather line elsewhere, I went to the auto parts store and bought a 90 degree hose and have it zip-tied onto the breather outlet with the cap at the top. Basically, it's my "Surf Snorkel".







The hose is attached to the outlet with black zip ties. The cap is likewise attached with black zip ties and the hood on the cap is kept at the right level by a few rounds of gorilla tape on the hose.

A little ghetto engineering, but this will totally do until I find a more asthetically pleasing solution.

I tried to buy some threaded 90 degree elbows and such, but the thread on this fitting was SAE and all the plumbing stuff I could find didn't match up. Actually the hose looks cleaner than a bunch of pipe fittings would have anyway--AND it's flexible, so if someone bonks it, there's some forgiveness and play.

Looking good!

Originally Posted by simook

Looking good!

Thanks. It's a lot better than stressing about water getting in the fuel system.

Great having you out on the boat today.

Haha... Redneck Engineering at it's best but it'll work great ill y'all can reroute the line..

Time limit: 2 weeks.... lol

that's pretty ingenious actually. I applaud you, sir, on the world's first "surf snorkle"

Idk the ins n outs of where you're from but round here we call that red neck ingenuity. I love it.