Spring work
John F. Hughes
Well, it's been a busy Spring. I thought I'd report on a couple more projects
aboard Sarah for this go around...
(1) Remote Oil Filter. Foley Industrial Engines sells a remote oil filter kit
for the Westerbeke 4-107, so that you needn't undo that wretched horizontal can
that has a removable filter element inside of it, dripping oil down all over
one of the engine mounts, etc. You would think that installing this little
devil would be simple: take of the old thing, bolt this one in place, and bolts
the remote filter-holder somewhere else. Attach the tubes and be done with it.
Well, there are some problems. There's a parity issue: the oil has to flow in
one particular direction in the filter: from the outer edge, in towards the
middle, and up through the hole-in-the-middle. That means you have to get the
hoses hooked up right. But...there's nothing on the engine to indicate which is
which---which is Out and which is In. So...I tried turning over the engine for
a few turns to pump a little oil and see which hole it came out of. No
luck--needs to turn over faster and longer than that. Also, the hoses can't be
attached to the remote mount without some real cleverness--like re-installing
the nipples onto which they screw so that they point in a new direction. And
you need some liquid or spray permatex, so you can get a really thin layer on
the gaskets...and... Suffice it to say that this project has taken longer than
predicted on my work sheet.
(2) "Polishing the Fuel". I learned (from the net!) that "polishing your fuel"
means "sucking the stuff out of the tank, filtering it, and shoving it back
in." Well, some folks advocate having a pump at the tank before the primary
filter, so that you can do this whenever your rolling around in a harbor...you
route the output of the primary filter back through the return line, and just
let the sucker go. I took a more prosaic approach: I got a $3 "kerosene
siphon pump" from Home Depot, reached back to where the tank is (behind the
engine...), opened up the fill gauge, and stuck the pump in. The other end went
into a nice large Spring Water jug (empty and dry...). I was planning to
fill the jug, then go up on deck and pour it back into the tank through a nice
filter. I stuck the "suck" end of the pump down to the bottom of the tank and
started it going (*very* easy, because of a great little squeeze-bulb
assembly), and then "vacuumed" the bottom of the tank, so as to pick up water
and other sludge down there.
BOY, was I surprised! It's a miracle that my engine ever ran at all, and a
real testimony to the Racor primary fuel filter. The stuff that sucked up was
almost brown in color, with lots of grit at the scale of fine sand or larger,
and lots of fine particulate matter as well. By the time I was done, I had two
gallons of fuel in three separate bottles, each with about 2 oz of water (or at
least, non-diesel-fuel) at the bottom, and lots of rusty-sandy-grundge stuff
down there. I looked at it and figured "I could pour this back into my tank,
though a nice filter, but why not just take it to the recycle place at the
marina? It's about $4 of fuel, and having any of its slime in my tank risks big
$$$ in engine repairs..." So that's what I'm going to do--back to the
recyclers. And I'm gonna do it again, mid summer, when new sludge has had a
chance to move down to the low end of the tank.
(3) There have been miscellaneous other tasks---some sewing (burgee repair, and
a sunbrella cover for my dinghy motor; Casey's "This Old Boat" and my wife's
knowledge of sewing were both invaluable!)---some plumbing (new stuff, old
stuff moved, holding tank, ...) and a fair bit of miscellany that will just
plain make me happier. The largest (or most visible) thing has been to re-do
the interior teak. It's been oiled for 20 years, and has darkened to the point
where it looks like mahogany. Nice, but dark. I took it out (large plywood
panels, mostly) and have cleaned it with TeKa (or the West Marine equivalent,
which is much cheaper), which works increadibly well. I'm using Tip Top Teak
oil, because it's the lightest one I can find. Amazon Golden was much too
dark for my taste. I'll have to do the interior bulkheads in place, which may
mean that some other things get stained, but that's OK, because I'll be
re-painting all the painted stuff below, too.
(4) I spent a half day in our local machine shop machining a brass thinghy to
set into the cabinsole. My dining table is mounted on a bulkhead and folds
down, and has a leg that drops down to support the end. The leg has a pin at
the bottom, that fits into a hole in the cabinsole. It's hard to find the hole,
and so the cabinsole gets dinged up with all the attempts. This little brass
thinghy is designed to reduce this problem. Sure, it took 3 hours to make (I'm
not a great machinist, to say the least), but I'll sure enjoy having it
there...
So...there's still lots left to do. But I'm getting closer, and the boat's
getting closer to being the boat I really want, where there's nothing at all
that really annoys me. And the summer weather is fast approaching...as are
our plans to sail to Maine...
-John
Jeff Huntington
>
>
> Well, it's been a busy Spring. I thought I'd report on a couple more projects
> aboard Sarah for this go around...
>
I posted something on this a while back, and realized after reading John's post
that I might have made a mistake, or at least might not have been clear.
John has described two different procedures. The one he starts off describing is
known locally as the "Baja Bypass", the second procedure is called "sounding your
fuel tank". They are both important procedures to perform. Sounding your tank
is important enough that everyone should do it at least once a year. The Baja
Bypass is more useful if you take on a load of bad fuel (or to help to keep from
taking on a load of bad fuel).
Since this is the start of the boating seaseon for much of the country, maybe it
is worthwhile for me to post a lesson on fuel, in case there are some people out
there who don't know.
If you could keep your fuel tank full of clean diesel fuel at all times, chances
are you would never have a fuel problem with your diesel. To accomplish this,
fill up frequently from a reputable source. The two most most common causes of
fuel problems are water and algae. Water is usually the base, and most serious,
cause of diesel problems.
The reason for this is that just a little water will quickly destroy a diesel
engine. Algea needs water and air to grow. If you can keep water out of your
tank (and most of the air too) the algea will not grow. The two most common
ways water gets into the tank is through condensation and with the fuel you
take onboard. If the fuel tank is kept full (particularly during cold weather)
the condensation in the tank will be reduced to almost zero. Since it is not
always practical to always keep the fuel tank completely full, you are bound to
get some water in the tank through condensation. As you know, the water will
settle to the bottom of the tank. The fuel pick-up tube is an inch or so off
the bottom of the tank, so you can have quite a lot of water in the tank, and
never know it - at least not until you are motoring through choppy water and
the fuel gets agitated. If you ever see just a little water in the bottom of
your primary fuel filter, you can be pretty sure you have a lot of water in
your fuel tank - and a serious problem is about to befall you.
To avoid water-in-the-fuel related problems, sound your tank before the start
of the boating season. To sound you tank, find a way to insert a hose through
the top of your fuel tank and push it all of the way to the bottom. Then, use
some kind of pump (the hand-crank Jackrabbit pumps work well) to pump the
water/sludge/fuel junk from the bottom of your tank into a container. If you
use a clear plastic hose, you will easily be able to see when you stop drawing
water and begin to draw clean fuel. The water and grung that you end up with
in your container must be disposed of, just a John said.
Using the Baja Bypass assumes that you sound your tank, and therefore don't
have a lot of water in the bottom. The primary (Racor of Dahl) fuel filter
should be located between the fuel tank and the pump (this is important
because you want to filter the fuel before it goes through the pump). The pump
used is a special high-capacity (relatively) pump installed for the purpose -
not the fuel transfer pump for your engine. As John described, a diverter valve
should be installed so that the filtered fuel is returned to the tank.
One of the advantages to this setup is that the pump can be run while you are
taking on fuel. If you see water collecting in the bottom of the filter bulb,
or the filter becomes clogged, you know you are taking on bad fuel and can stop
or pre-filter. On the other hand, if you end up in the normal course of things
with some junk in your fuel, you can turn on the Baja Bypass when you are
bouncing around on your anchor or mooring and filter out a lot of the crud
rather than clogging your filter when you are motoring across a bar.
I tried to keep this short, and it still turned out long. If you have any
questions or want more information, e-mail me and I will give your more
detail.
Have a good sailing season.
Jeff Huntington
John F. Hughes
> [Summary: two forms of cleaning fuel: "Sounding the tank", i.e., getting the
> water out of the bottom at the start of the season, and "Baja Bypass", i.e.,
> forcibly running all your fuel through your primary filter, a pump, and then
> back into the tank, to remove any other stuff, e.g., algae, dust, neutrinos,
> etc. :-). ]
>To avoid water-in-the-fuel related problems, sound your tank before the start
>of the boating season.
> [use a pump] (the hand-crank Jackrabbit pumps work well) to pump the
>water/sludge/fuel junk from the bottom of your tank into a container. If you
>use a clear plastic hose, you will easily be able to see when you stop drawing
>water and begin to draw clean fuel. The water and grung that you end up with
>in your container must be disposed of[...]
One thing to note: I didn't just get water. I got foul looking fuel, too. In
the 2 gallons I pumped out, there was probably only 4 or 5 oz of water (I keep
the tank pretty well topped up in winter), but there was so much disgusting
looking stuff that came out from the near-bottom, including stuff that looked
like rust, that I decided to go the whole way and just heave the whole couple
of gallons. It wasn't until near the end of the second gallon that I started to
get honest pink diesel instead of brownish-looking stuff.
And a question: for the Baja bypass thing, what sort of "high-volume" pump do
you use? As I look in the West catalog, I see nothing that seems promising.
Any suggestions? This *sounds* like a fairly easy project: a couple of
compression fittings, a couple of brass Y-valves, and you're off. Of course,
lots of things *sound* easy...
-John
Leonard Franco
Regarding the gunk you found in your tank. How long has it
been since you cleaned the tank? I haven't done mine since
I bought the boat new about 7 years ago and now you have me
worried I should do the same thing. Up til now I've always
thought things were fine 'cause the Racor is always clean
as a whistle.
Len
John F. Hughes
Well, my boat was built in 1970, and I think that I have the original fuel
tank. I am not certain whether the former owner ever cleaned it or had it
cleaned, but I know that this is the first time it's been cleaned in at least
3 1/4 years. I expect that it's been more like 10 years since it was cleaned,
though.
-John
Jeff Huntington
Sound your tank and find out. If you get no water and yuck from the bottom,
you know you are in good shape. If you do get water and yuck you will will
be glad you sounded. If you wait until you see something in your Racor, you
could have a very bad problem in you tank. I was talking to a guy the other
day that had left his tank get so bad that a professional fuel polishing did
not solve the problem. They ended up removing the tank and cleaning it. Big,
expensive, job. In almost every case, regularly removing the water from the
bottom and keeping the tank as full as possible will prevent "stuff" from
growing in you tank.
Jeff Huntington
cha...@snowflake.az.stratus.com
edition of Ocean Navigator. It goes into what exactly it is, what causes
the problem, how to design to avoid it, and how to get rid of it once
you have it.
As a matter of fact, there are 4 longish articles all on diesel powering
in this edition. They are entitled:
- Death to humbugs (hydrocarbon utilizing microorganisms)
- More power (how to supercharge or turbocharge)
- Engine cooling (how to cool large diesel engines)
- Geared up (transmission maintenance)
--
Charles Spitzer
cha...@snowflake.az.stratus.com
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