Fuel Capacity 1989 Mako 17'

[John Meeks]

Fuel Cell capacity for M171-S is 35 gallons. Unfortunately I can only get 20 gallons in the tank! Before I start tearing out the fuel tank, does anyone have any ideas about potential problems, ie... possibilities of blockage, air locks, ect, ect.?

[SeaReel]

Are you John Meeks of Meeks Marine in Kema, Texas?

Sea Reel

[John Meeks]

quote:

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Originally posted by SeaReel


Are you John Meeks of Meeks Marine in Kema, Texas?

Sea Reel

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[John Meeks]

quote:

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Originally posted by SeaReel


Are you John Meeks of Meeks Marine in Kema, Texas?

Sea Reel

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[John Meeks]

No. I'm in Florida. Got any experience with the ful tank in a 17' Mako?

[SeaReel]

I am familiar with the 17 angler. I do not think there are many differences between the two. In our boat the fill line was in the gunwale on the port side. The fill line travels to the tank by way of a sharp 90 degree turn in the corner where the deck and gunwale met and then another 90 to enter the tank. When we used this as our fill line it was very slow and if we went to fast, gas overflowed (I think this is a problem for boats in general). We found a hole in our fill line and had to stop using it. To fill the boat now, we have a flexible gas hose attached to one of the openings on the top of the tank that sticks through the hatch under the console.

I would suggest trying to fill your tank using a more direct route similar to what we have done. Maybe you have already tried this though, in which case you might want to remove the hatch, maybe the the console will have to go too if there is not a smaller hatch under the console, if can't remember. This should give you access to the tank through one of the openings so you can see for yourself if the tank is indeed full of gas or not. Hope this helps!

Cliff

[Reel Raider]

Cliff (my brother),

I may be wrong, but wasn't the hole in the line was due to a screw that I believe went through the teak base for the console, the deck and into the line. That made a big mess for us when we pulled the take out...water and gas soaked foam always a fun mess to clean up.

Martin

[Sailor]

When you are adding fuel can you feel air coming out of the vent hole? I wouldn't be surprised if it was clogged up and this could prevent you from adding enough fuel, although you should be able to add more fuel slowly after the fuel settled for a few minutes.