Yesterday, I had my mind on other things, so my reply was incorrect. If you are submerged in water that deep, you should shut down the engine and wait to be towed. Why?
The fuel system is a closed system that prevents any hydrocarbons from escaping to the atmosphere, causing global warming, and peeing off Al Gore.
Technically, as the fuel system is running, a normally open vent solenoid allows fresh air to be drawn into the closed system to equalize the pressure, but the vent prevents vapors from escaping. Since vapors are being drawn out of the fuel tank and carbon canister via the purge line, and fuel is being pumped to the engine via the fuel line, if there was no air being sucked into the fuel tank via the vent, the tank would start to collapse. In other words, equalizing the system.
So, there is NO exit vent on the top of the tank, but there is an intake vent that is open while the engine is running. The vent solenoid, being normally open will allow some water to flow into the fuel tank if the engine is off and it is submerged; however, if the engine is off, this will not be a large amount of water. But if the engine is running, the vacuum inside the tank will suck in large amounts of water. This water will mix with the fuel, be pumped to the engine, causing problems all the way, until the engine can no longer run.
A unique problem that happens in areas with those small red spiders that are known to clog BBQ jets. They will build a web across the air intake vent, and air cannot be drawn into the fuel tank, while vapors are being purged into the engine. This creates a vacuum, and the fuel tank will shrink. Customer will see him fuel remain the same since as the tank starts to collapse, the fuel level goes up, but the customer eventually runs out of fuel, but gauge says the system has fuel.
Tech raises vehicle and finds a very strange looking fuel tank.
Sorry for the incorrect answer yesterday.
06-08-2007, 08:55 PM
Re: H3 - Water in Fuel Tank
Posting Rules
Linear Mode
