Also in a boat with a portable tank you can easily dump the water out if it’s in there. First to comment! What do I win?

My aluminum bass boat I installed a fuel water separator. Since 2016 I change it once a year I've never had a drop of water in the filter this year. I had a couple table spoons of water in it which I'm glad it didn't make it to my fuel system. Pressure tested the tank with 10 PSI and it held for 2 days, so I doubt there's a leak. I wrote it off as junk gas.

WHAT A EXCELLENT DISCUSSION OF PROP CHOICES!!!!

Outboards used to have sheer pins and some early stern drives also. Volvo stern drives have a sacrificial spline coupler between the upper and lower drive shafts.

My fiberglass 25 footer didn’t come with one either. The dealer had to install it.

I have had three aluminum boats and all three had them. 18ft, 23ft, and 22ft.

Yeah thats me I get every bolt off except there's always that one bolt that breaks or the screw that strips out that takes me another hour or two to get out after I have my hissy fit and find the wrench I just threw😊

I was about to say I had a 18' lund Tyee that had a built in fuel tank and fue waterl separator. Your explanation makes sense. Portable tanks. I'm dreading having to take my seating deck section out of my CC to get to the fuel tank. I'm using a 5 gallon portable tank. Yeah on a old gas guzzling Black Max 150 😂 I get to the dock from the ramp and need to change the tank 😂. I haven't had a chance yet to clean out the tank and I doubt the last owner ever did. I always clean out a used boats fuel tank before I use it. Im putting new fuel hose on it and new filter canister for my separator and new wires to the guages heat shrunk. I have an old Bayliner trophy and Bayliner didn't heat shrink a lot of their connections. I don't know if I'm an idiot but on a limited budget I decided to go with the boat in the best shape I could find that suits my needs. I quickly found that I had a choice. Go for a really good brand name boat that is beat up and needs almost as much money to fix it as it did to buy it. Or I could buy a cheaper brand that for reasons only god would know were in better shape. After hundreds of miles of travel to see boats that didn't look anything like the pictures and searching. I finally decided to go with a Bayliner Trophy 19' CC that was in awesome shape but needed some TLC . I didn't care if the motor was an old two stroke as long as the compression was good and it ran. My biggest concern was the boat itself. I fell in love with this stupid thing and I actually enjoy restoring it. I don't feel like it's work it's more like an expensive art project to me 😂. My theory is the boat is what you spend your time in and it can last forever if you just show it some love. The engine is going to die sooner or later no matter what. Age catches up to everything mechanical so your going to have to replace it anyway. Might as well take care the engine you have but spend the bulk of your labor for the boat itself.

if you use a fuel check valves on a merc and if they know it if your powerhead blows they will not cover it.

I’d never thought of that response…GOOD JOB.

My 17ft aluminum boat had a 40 gallon permanent tank. With a Honda 90, no water separator.

19' aluminum boat didn't have it. Now 23' aluminum boat, doesn't have it. Both have permanent tanks. I think it's a cost savings measure. Maybe they want you to add one on your own. Could it also have anything to do with the outboards having the ability to detect water in the fuel and giving you that warning message on your display?

The motor manufacturer decides which ones get the separator. I had ac18 foot tracker 24 gallon fuel tank with no separator but my new boat same lenght but has an 18 gallon tank does have one. Yamaha wants a separator

My aluminum boat has a fuel water separator but I also have built in gas tank

So when just in idle forward and you do tap sand bottom not moving fast and already trimmed up. I wouldn't think that does much damage not something I should do often but I'm new to boat ownership of learning depths at the sand bar

What else is a little strange is these new sealed fuel tanks. I guess they started in 2016? But i hear people smelling fumes because the amount of pressure the tank builds?

good call , what do you think of fuel check valves?

You can put epoxy on poly or vinyl but u can’t put vinyl or poly on epoxy once you go epoxy you can’t go back. You can also put vinyl over poly but no poly over vinyl.

I feel like rebuilding older lower units or IO lower units is a craft now a days , any tips on getting into that I’m a newer tech graduating from school three years ago and wanna learn how to get good at shimming gear cases ?