Hey gang. I've owned my 2002 298 Vista for about 5 years. The entire time I've been fighting water intermittently showing up in my starboard fuel tank. It seems everything would be great for 6 months to a year and then I would have starting and stalling problems. Checking the fuel filter on the starboard engine would reveal water. On two occasions there was so much water that the entire water separator was just about full of nothing but water and my injectors ended up fouled requiring replacement. Thankfully, that is as far as the damage got in my fuel system.
After ruling out bad gas at the pump, "ethanol problems", and water leaking in through the fill cap o-ring during heavy rainstorms... finally, I believe I figured out how the water is getting into the tank. The fuel tank vent hose routes straight down with no loop directly into the fuel tank. Sea water has been splashing into the vent and forcing it's way into the tank! To gain good access to the starboard side hoses, remove the storage locker on the starboard side in the mid berth. Too bad I didn't look behind there a loooooong time ago!
Here is a pic of the original black starboard fuel tank vent hose routing straight down.
Here is a pic of the new fuel tank hose I installed with a loop preventing water entry.
The existing tank vent fitting has a 90 degree barb pointing straight down. Here is a pic of the vent fitting:
Ultimately, I would rather have the 90 degree bend pointing straight up, or at least at an upward angle so the vent hose would form an arc instead of a loop. Unfortunately, this would expose the vent holes straight up. Anyway, this *HAS* to fix the problem once and for all. The only problem I foresee is a bit of back pressure from the water that will gather on the bottom side of the loop. Hopefully this info will be helpful to other forum members!
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