Water in fuel system Volvo 2003T

[James Plyler]

I got water in my system enough to shut the engine down while idiling
I cleaned tanks, lines , racor all the way to primary filter. I am not sure what to do next I do not want to ruin my injector pump with any remaining water
between the primary filter on the engine and the injectors themselves.
I am tempted to bleed out the system as described in manuals ie. open injectors and engage starting motor until fuel appears. Any thoughts?

Jim Plyler

[BOATDOCTOR]

Remove the lines going to the injectors. Place a rag across the out ports on the pressure pumps and get a pan (if you can) under the engine. Crank the engine until you've dumped about a quart of fuel into the pan. Clean out the lines with compressed air or carburetor cleaner. Reassemble and burp the injectors. As long as you don't continue to push compressed water through the injectors, the pumps will be fine as long as you get to flushing them out very soon (as in before you asked this question on the forum). The engine may stumble a little at first, if there's any small amount of water left in the injectors, but wait it out, it will be fine.

[model 10]

A little water is not going to hurt anything. Just bleed the system normally.

[James Plyler]

I followed your advice,removed and cleared lines etc. All set
runs great. Thanks

[BOATDOCTOR]

No problem. Besides working on a few hundred of em, have one of my own.

[BOATDOCTOR]

Originally Posted by Guy

A little water is not going to hurt anything. Just bleed the system normally.

There is a reason we have such things as factory procedures. Water under pressure is denser than oil or fuel under pressure, thus the reason an engine stops, as opposed to hydrolized fuel just blowing through the engine. Or when there's a sufficient quantity of water to cut off "fuel" supply all together.

We always treat for total fuel cutoff, as it's worse case scenario. Assuming "just a little water" can net in damage to pump seals or blown injectors. I have responded to far too many disabled craft where someone has followed the advice of someone else who said "a little bit of water never hurt anything", only to tell the poor fellow he's blown the tip off of an injector, or his pump seals are now blown out, and time to overhaul. This is reckless backyard procedure.

In the case of total fuel cutoff, there may be a sufficient concentration that the stress created by water compression exceeds internal limits. A gross over comparison would be the difference in compression density when compressing air, and then compressing oil. Note I said gross over comparison, and not like comparison, but you get my point, right?

Volvo pumps are very tough, within their intended environment. Yes, that includes the assumption water will get in the system quite often, and shut it down. SHUT IT DOWN, and not continue to try and run under compressed water. Following procedure to restore operation nets in no damage. Forcing the issue by not following procedures is not intended, and on new motors voids warranties.