www.iFourWinns.com

Everyone has had a bad day at the lake, mine was once again classic. Last year I almost sank to the bottom of Lake Michigan while changing a prop in 30 feet of water after taking off without pulling up my anchor. I didn't realize props were so heavy to swim with !!

This year, we are up at Torch Lake, ( go if you have never been !!!! ) and I started my day be deciding to top off the gas tank at a Marathon station before putting the boat in. I pushed the button for Premium, but accidentally grabbed the handle for DIESEL. Put 8 gallons in ( tank holds 65 ) and noticed when I put handle back it said diesel.
My stomach wrenched as I went inside the station to find my wife. She took one look at my face and wondered what happened as just a few minutes ago I was so happy. Needless to say the attendant was clueless on vehicles and just said you'll have to pump your tank.

I called DeWitt Marina on Torch and told them what I did, it was Sunday so repair shop was closed but one of the guys was there and he said to dump a couple of pints of Seafoam in as well as a couple of bottles of octane boost.
I did 2 Seafoam and 4 octane boost since they were good for 18 gallons each pint. Started boat BEFORE putting into water, and it fired right up. Took it slow to start with and ran fine. Decided best thing to do was burn up gas and since I am having problem at full throttle ( see thread in engine problems ) we would go around Torch lake at 3/4 throttle to work through the diesel / gas mix. Torch is over 18 miles long and 2 1/2 wide so ended up burning about 20 gallons.

I'm assuming a new fuel filter would be a good thing at this point as well as topping off with good gas.

At the end of the day, we were waiting for the launch to open and were at a pier close by that happened to be a cottage we have put a purchase offer on. I hopped off the boat to go get our vehicle to get in line with trailer, my wife was going to circle around and wait until it was our turn. She pulls away from the dock and the motor quits. She yells for me to come back and I'm thinking the diesel bomb has just gone off. She starts the motor again, sounds fine, puts it in gear and it shuts off. After 2 more times of this, I'm thinking seaweed or something is wrapped around the prop.

I hop in the water, wade out in knee deep muck to where she is and reach down to the prop and am stunned to find the prop is completely tangled in a chain link fence !!! WTF, who the hell has a chain link fence underwater feet from shore ?? Water is so stirred up from boat traffic I can't see 3". Thank heavens I had some very heavy duty wire cutters that were able to cut through the links. It took almost an hour since I couldn't see what I was doing and had to cut twisted link after twisted link all by feel. The boat finally came free and I walked it over to the launch fully expecting more of the fence to be wrapped around the prop. Pulled boat out and fence was gone....

What next ........

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1994 235 Sundowner w/351 Ford

Bummer Mark, glad you made it through your vacation and can still talk about it. We missed you buy about a week at Torch. We will be up there all next week in a cottage on the river. I had hoped we could meet up, so our dogs' could have some play time and we could have some boat time. Maybe next year. Tell your Westie........ "Missy" says hello !!

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One of 4 Previous (Sold) Boats:
2000 Four Winns 268 Vista

Current Boat: 2004 Chaparral 235 ssi cuddy

wow sorry to hear about your trip. man that sucks

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"Changes In Latitudes, Changes In Attitudes "

1996 238 Vista dlx "Casper's Toy Too"
2006 5.0GXI w/closed cooling, DP-sm 1.95 drive
Previous boat:
1998 Sundowner 205

Sorry to hear of your vacation misfortunes. When my neighbor bought his brand new center console fishing boat he put 50 gallons of gas into his rod holder!! I did what any good neighbor would do. I
Lmfao!

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2011 Bennington 2075 GLi
2012 Key West 211 DC
2005 Four winns 180 Horizon LE
1997 Horizon QXsold
2000 248 Vistasold
2002 Key West 2020WA sold

You'll be much better off if you don't ask...

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Mike
2005 Four Winns 230/240
VP 5.7GXi/DP
1998 F-150 XLT
Boat Pic

They told you to run it, after putting 8 gallons of Diesel in it? I can't imagine giving someone that "advice".
Chain link fence? Thats a first, but its common here to run over lobster pot buoy lines if you aren't careful. One time I had trouble pulling up my anchor, when I finally got it up, it was hooked ON a lobster pot! No lobsters though.
I think with the issues you've been having its time to clean out that gas tank, take a good look inside and look at the pick up as well. Put on a new anti siphon valve while you're at it. Change all filters. I don't know the other consequences of running diesel through a gas FI system but you can ask around.

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88 Four Winns 200 Horizon
4.3 OMC Cobra-4bbl
2002 Walker Bay 10/2012 Suzuki 2.5
2008 Walker Bay 8

1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.0/Selectrac
2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.7 Hemi/Quadradrive II