Feels like water to me...

[MikeTangas]

what do y'all think?

Background, ran the Suburban nearly to empty and put almost 40 gallons of gas in, di this last Wednesday night. Thursday had a rough running condition, a little worse on Friday, no change for the worse since. Wifey calls me on Friday to say the Suburban was running bad and to bring tools.

Upon arrival I find everything appears intact and agree to drive it home. Once up to speed it runs OK as long as on level ground, once on a hill it sputters bad. Growing up just outside of Houston has me plenty familiar with water in the gas, and this feels the same as I remember. On the way home I did stop by the filling station to see if they have had any water/fuel complaints and to see when the last time they checked for water when dipping the tanks. Their reply was that the drivers dip the tanks and should check for water and they haven't had any complaints. When I pushed the issue a little, conveniently as customers were coming in, the clerk admitted that a "couple weeks ago" they had a leak, but it has been fixed.

Didn't have any time to tinker with the beast over my weekend, but plan on trying to siphon out some fuel from the bottom of the tank to confirm the presence of water.

I really hate the thought of draining $70 worth of fuel to get at a little water, I think I'll try to run it down a bit. I have added four bottles of Heet to try and absorb some of the water.

What else do y'all suggest?