water separator maintenance

I dump my strainer of water each time I winterize to remove water that can freeze. I also remove any material like weeds if they exist.  The strainer is not too fine so sand particles can pass. The lake / River, I boat on seems to have very little weeds. When I take it too White Lake (NC), I would get some weeds in my strainer. So it is going to depend on the body of water you are on. My 1980 did not have a strainer, but I added one. My guess is the older boats did not come from the factory with one. Be sure to keep an eye on the O-Ring when you take it apart.   If not done properly you can have air leaks next spring and have overheating. 

Cut him some slack Paul,he's sharing too many Coors Lights with the CQ. To the original post being a 97 I assume we're talking FCC? If your careful of what you put in ie clean cans,hi volume stations it seems you can go for quite some time. But there is a drain plug on the FCC, you could drain it into something and see what comes out. I have seen FCC's corroded inside from not being checked and drained of water

I converted my EFI to carbs and put a standard separator setup.  I can take a picture of it.  So should I have a separate fuel filter inline?  Sounds like I should put a new one on each year instead of trying to flush it somehow.

Great.  Thanks for the info everyone