k2keith

96 XJ 4.0 Auto ~ 270k well used, but well loved

Have you ever heard of getting LOTS of water in your gas tank, perhaps 4-5 gallons or more? Here is my issue...

My XJ is well used and quite rough right now, I have NO dash gauges at all. I took my XJ on the first decent road trip in a while (~2 hours from home) yesterday. I have had LOTS of problems recently and it has sat more than it ran the last year. It still is not 100% but seemed okay.

Last night I got about 2 hrs from home and it started missing and running rough. Quit on me at an intersection, but I was able to restart within 2-3 minutes and it ran fine for another 10minutes or so. Then it quit.

I spent 45minutes looking at everything I could think of that might cause the problem, was finally left with the conclusion it was not getting gas. As stated earlier my gas guage does not work, but by my calcuations I should not have been out of gas yet. Just to check the easiest option first, I relied on the kindness of a stranger, thummed a ride to the nearest station and got a couple of gallons of gas. When I poured it in, the Jeep started right up and ran fine.

I thought - well it it still running rough, must be burning gas faster than usual. But when I stopped to fill up at the next station it only took 10 gallons of gas. I tried to force more in, but it was full. That 10 gallons, plus the couple gallons I spashed in from the cans makes only 12-13 gallons, in an 18+ gallon tank.

It tells me one of two things -

(1) I have a LOT of water in my tank 5+ gallons or
(2) It was not out of gas to begin with, and somehow leaving it sitting for so long while I was getting gas allowed something to 'reset' and it would have started even if I had not splashed a couple of gallons in.

Any thoughts?

Sorry this post is so rambling, I'm a little tired since I got home rather LATE last night for some reason.

Keith

Diesel

Dry gas

96_xj

yup nailed it!


this is why lawn mowers and stuff now come with little "gas cap drops" to keep your gas fresh as it sits. once it runs thru, change your fuel filter and then i would fill it up and run seafoam thru the system

TrekkerJmm

Hi Keith, do you have any dents in the tank from wheeling? If you had water in the gas it would run crappy and sputter. You can try putting in some dry gas to absorb up the water...Tj

CAEMI

I'd siphon everything out of that tank and even consider dropping it and turning it upside down to drain it. A gallon of water is not something you're going to get rid of without some drama. Five gallons....that's an ocean.

k2keith

It is running rough, but I have been fighting it thinking I am having sensor issues. The tank is pretty solid, with no serious dents or scrapes.

The fuel filter is new (less than 200 miles) the fuel pump is a 4-5yrs old.

I have run some fuel additive with Regane in it that seems to help for a while, I have also tried a fuel additive to help it burn any water in the tank.

On the Seafoam suggestion, I have never tried this yet, I understand that there is lots of ways to run this stuff through the system, are you suggest I just add it to a tank of gas and run it out?

Any wisdom to just dropping the tank, SAFELY disposing of the contents and starting over with a new tank of gas? It's a bit of hassle, but so it getting home late when I have to work the next day, so it's all relative.

Thanks for the input so far.
Keith

k2keith

Caemi, you hit on just what I was thinking while I was typing.

Thanks
Keith