Water in gascolator

Before each flight, in addition to checking the wing tanks, I have been siphoning out gas at the bottom of the header tank, at the location where it drains, to check for water. However, I have a 2ft aluminum tube I use for siphoning and it cant reach the forward part of the tank.

I had the MLG pads replaced during the annual and the ai did not remove the oleo discs. I gave him a copy of the stc and explained that they would need to be removed to fix the angle of attack with the new pads. Looking back, I do not think he understood what I was saying or he just forgot. Yesterday I removed the oleo disc and leveled the plane at the window by leaving one disc in. After I did this it dawned on me that the tanks were not draining towards the drains given the negative angle of attack the MLG height was causing. I then checked the header tank with the siphon and a small amount of water appeared. So the water was hiding at the front of the tank. Draining the tanks did not remove the water since the tank was angled forward. My borescope is low quality so I did not notice the water plus I was not able to get a good view of the front of the tank with my makeshift borescope stick. I also was focusing on the aft area where the fuel drains are in the tanks.

So the water could have been there for a while and all the effort of multiple tank drains and checking with a borescope(cheap $25...) was a useless effort.

Luckily this ended ok as the last take off the engine was stumbling and my instructor concluded it was water in the tank. A level plane is extremely important!

Are you checking the tank drain for water before each flight? Such out the gas in the header tank that were the water must be coming from. I myself like the bowl on the firewall with it drain thur the bottom cowl and a quick drain fitting there.

The fuel farm and trucks have filters to catch water and debris, but it is possible some may get thru. You do want the strainer to be the lowest part of the fuel system just so it can collect water. If you think it is coming from the plane, push the tail to the ground several times, then rock wings up and down and check the strainer again, make sure your fuel valve is open while you are doing this.

The plane is on a tie down. Though it has been in a hangar since I fully drained the system last week after finding water the second time.

The cap seals are good. I will be doing another full drain of all the tanks and borescoping them. I borescoped them last time I drained them which makes things even more baffling that this happened again.

Also, what should be mentioned is that the fuel supplier has been having issues finding a fuel source so the tanks were empty for a day or more. I'm not sure if this would be enough to introduce water into their system or if they sourced fuel from a different supplier that is less reputable. 

So many planes go down from water in the fuel that I am still leaning towards a second gascolator at a lower point. 

This is at KSDM in San Diego which has about 75% humidity in July.

It seems most likely that the the water is in the supplier tanks and that it is possibly getting trapped in the tubing between the two wing tanks or in the front of the header tank and I am not able to syphon it with the syringe(it only reaches to the aft part of the header. . Though, I have not heard about anyone else consistently getting water in the gascolator. I have been getting the word out and will discuss this issue with the fuel supplier the next time I am at the airport.

I think two gascolators is a good idea, or at least adding a bowl to the existing one so it does not fill up. The original stock glass bowl is a 4oz or 3oz bowl? If its 3 oz I will order a 4oz gascolator from Steves. This will at least give an extra oz of safety.