Tuesday 7th May, 2013 - Mostly OK
Posted: Tue May 07, 2013 8:47 am
Was intending to do a long blog post today, with some photos and info about all the work I've done to the boat over the winter, but I've sat down in front of my computer for the first time in well over a week and my inbox is bursting... and we have an engine concern - again.
We're all fine and the weather so far has been glorious so it's been a pretty relaxed re-introduction into boat life for us. Nina is completely unfazed by any of it and is loving all the things to wave at from the wheelhouse. Lunar didn't bat an eyelid and knew exactly what was going on as soon as we put on her lifejacket.
All nine of the seacocks I replaced are fine. Two hoses were seeping where they connected so I removed and reseated them - they're now fine also.
Initially the engine fired up flawlessly, instantly, which was great. We motored slowly down from Totnes to Dittisham without incident, and had a lovely couple of days there.
Then we motored down to anchor off Dartmouth - engine seemed to take half a second longer than normal to fire up.
Wind was forecast so the following day we moved onto a pontoon - again, slightly slow engine start.
2 days later when we moved back to the anchorage, the engine took about 3 seconds (instead of 1) to fire up, and then seemed to be stuggling for about 10 seconds before settling to normal.
Similar this AM moving back to the pontoon again in preparation for the mini storm forecast in the next 48 hours.
My gut feeling is that there's a tiny air leak in the fuel system, which lets in a teeny amount of air over time when the engine's not running, and which clears out as soon as we're up and running.
We've got the new Racor Duplex fuel filter installed now with a lot of extra piping and connections so it could be almost anywhere! Any suggestions of how to locate microscopic fuel system air leaks? I'm thinking of removing the pipe from the tank and putting some diesel into it much higher up than the tank, so there's a 'head' of fuel, and then carefully inspecting all connections. Diesel molecules are absolutely tiny so perhaps if air can get in under suction, diesel can get out the same way, under pressure... maybe.
Any better suggestions?
We're all fine and the weather so far has been glorious so it's been a pretty relaxed re-introduction into boat life for us. Nina is completely unfazed by any of it and is loving all the things to wave at from the wheelhouse. Lunar didn't bat an eyelid and knew exactly what was going on as soon as we put on her lifejacket.
All nine of the seacocks I replaced are fine. Two hoses were seeping where they connected so I removed and reseated them - they're now fine also.
Initially the engine fired up flawlessly, instantly, which was great. We motored slowly down from Totnes to Dittisham without incident, and had a lovely couple of days there.
Then we motored down to anchor off Dartmouth - engine seemed to take half a second longer than normal to fire up.
Wind was forecast so the following day we moved onto a pontoon - again, slightly slow engine start.
2 days later when we moved back to the anchorage, the engine took about 3 seconds (instead of 1) to fire up, and then seemed to be stuggling for about 10 seconds before settling to normal.
Similar this AM moving back to the pontoon again in preparation for the mini storm forecast in the next 48 hours.
My gut feeling is that there's a tiny air leak in the fuel system, which lets in a teeny amount of air over time when the engine's not running, and which clears out as soon as we're up and running.
We've got the new Racor Duplex fuel filter installed now with a lot of extra piping and connections so it could be almost anywhere! Any suggestions of how to locate microscopic fuel system air leaks? I'm thinking of removing the pipe from the tank and putting some diesel into it much higher up than the tank, so there's a 'head' of fuel, and then carefully inspecting all connections. Diesel molecules are absolutely tiny so perhaps if air can get in under suction, diesel can get out the same way, under pressure... maybe.
Any better suggestions?