False water in fuel alarm?

[Aerobaticflyer]

I've read the threads on wif but haven't seen my symptons. About 15 running hours ago I got inermittent then constant water in fuel #418 alarms on my smartcraft unit on both engines (Cummins QSb 5.9's). This was after about 70 hours on the engines since the previous Racor service. When I drained the Racors I got very litle black "sludge" (maybe 1/2 inch in a 20 oz. water bottle) but had them serviced (I'm a diesel newbie and thought best to let a pro do it) and that cleared the alarms. Now it's 15 hours later and I got the same alarm code but just on the port engine. So I drained both Racors and again got little black sludge; about 1" in the water bottles. This just doesn't seem like a lot......am I wrong on this? Are these units that sensitive? Also the alarm would not clear or reset until I ran the boat about an hour, then the alarm cleared itself and didn't come back on for the last 3 hours running back home.

So my questions.......

Have any of you heard of the alarms being self clearing?
Does it sound like maybe a faulty sensor / connection?
Not likely bad fuel since only one side alarmed and same fuel in both tanks.
Would fuel polishing be in order to clean my tanks? I don't know how well they were treated by the previous owner.

I'm really stumped and don't want to get in the habit of ignoring these alarms.......don't want to be changing Racor filters every 10 or 20 hours either!

Thanks for any comments / sugestions any of you might have... :thumbsup:

 

[sbmar.com]

Multi-Stage Fueltration

Read thru this a few times and then make your decision on how to solve your fuel issues once and for all...


http://sbmar.com/Articles/MarineFuel-Filtration_Introduction.php
(Multi-Stage Fueltration™Systems)



Multi-Stage Fueltration was designed for the new common rail engines in the very nasty marine enviroment and will keep your WIF sensor doing what it is suppose to do.. Detect water, not some sludge from your tanks..Plus, you will be feeding your engine the cleanest possible fuel and close to eliminate ever having to service your on-engine fuel filter..Another pain in the butt..



Once you upgrage, you will be able to enjoy your vessel for 100's of hours, or even multiple seasons without having to service your fuel filters........


Enjoy,


Tony