A "bleeding"problem

[Caer Urfa]

Answer: With this handle (in the position shown on the photo) the valve/switch is "off" (which hopefully explains why on a sea trial the boat broke down as the person who took me out may have thought that in this position the fuel valve was open) (And it only takes a second with a marker pen to mark the position)
When the handle is turned to the right I have fuel. The switch does not turn to the left.
Hopefully later in the week I will have fitted a switch for each tank leading to a single "off switch" I will have cleansed and blown through each pipe and re-located the switches to where they can be reached. And established if there is a Non Return Valve preventing one tank from gravity feeding the other.
Its a bit like the Mensa challenge.

Hi Jim

Your changeover valve looks almost the same as mine, however I disagree with what you say from my own experiance, ie there is NO off ! the position shown says to me fuel is coming from the Starboard tank, when the handle go up to the right side as viewed fuel is coming from the port tank.

If you look at my picture you will see I also have two seperate fuel shut off valve before each filter.

Hope this might help

Mike

 

[Jim@sea]

Hi Jim

Your changeover valve looks almost the same as mine, however I disagree with what you say from my own experiance, ie there is NO off ! the position shown says to me fuel is coming from the Starboard tank, when the handle go up to the right side as viewed fuel is coming from the port tank.

If you look at my picture you will see I also have two seperate fuel shut off valve before each filter.

Hope this might help

Mike

Thanks for the photo. If I can get my engine bay as well presented as yours I will be very pleased.
My diesel tanks are out of sight, both are located high up and only 6" below the deck fillers.
If they had been easy to get to I would have had both of them out removed the sender units, cleaned them and checked for muck in the lines.
In case I have to do this I have ordered some large plastic hatch things so when the hole is cut in the wheelhouse sides one can reach in to get a grip on the tank hose to pull it down, or at least get a hacksaw in. Fortunatly at the boatyard where my boat is one of the lads is as thin as a rake and I can get him into the area under the tanks to pull them out. (if that is what it takes)
My fuel installation is at the other end of the engine bay with the first filter being under the stairs. With the on/off valve being located on the toilet wall I may re-route the pipes into there thus with 2 independent valves and a new on/off one it would be easier to reach.

 

[Jean]

Fisherman, I was replying to Daydreamers question, not suggesting return to separator/course filter was ideal, but with 2 tanks, feeding back to "the tank" is probably not an option anyway. 3 port valve does indeed look like a selector valve, possibly with a centre off, but can't be sure without seeing it.

 

[rogerthebodger]

That type of selector valve comes in two types "L" or "T". The "T" has 4 positions left, right, both or off. The "L" type has 3 positions left , right or off.

The type is normally printed on the handle but yours seems to have the labels that should be in the handle removed.

I have 3 tanks and use a double selector valve that selects both feed and return so that the bleed off from the injectors is returned to the same tank as the feed.

Have a look at ASPS site for this type of valve and the type you have.

https://www.google.co.za/search?q=f...ool-me-on-aux-tank-plumbing.384201%2F;216;216

https://www.google.co.za/search?q=f...Fcustom-designed-selector-valves.html;388;500

 

[vyv_cox]

Fisherman, I was replying to Daydreamers question, not suggesting return to separator/course filter was ideal, but with 2 tanks, feeding back to "the tank" is probably not an option anyway. 3 port valve does indeed look like a selector valve, possibly with a centre off, but can't be sure without seeing it.

My BMC 2.2 engine comes as you suggest as standard. All injector bleeds are manifolded back to the filter
housing, which has a return to one of the tanks. Up to now the two tanks are both feeding the engine but ultimately I shall probably use one as the primary tank as I intend only to use the boat locally.

 

[Graham_Wright]

All injector bleeds are manifolded back to the filter housing, which has a return to one of the tanks.

Mine is like that except there is no connection between the return filter and the tank. The Tee is open. Can this admit air? I don't understand why the injector bleeds are returned to the filter.

 

[Jean]

That's interesting, a return from filter housing to one of the tanks potentially causes same "problem" as simply returning direct to a single tank; in fact, even returning to the filter housing, causes any return flow to get back to the selected tank via the normal flow route. Only sure way I guess of ensuring return goes back to the selected tank is with a dual function valve as suggested in another reply.

 

[Jean]

Further thought; A return from filter housing back to a tank could potentially return to non selected tank, so sounds a bit odd. Simply returning to the filter housing ensures any return flow simply stays in the selected tank route.

 

[Ian_Edwards]

I had a problem similar to your's last year, I only have one tank and no changeover valve. The fuel lines blew clear from the engine back to the tank,so I assumed they were clear. It turned out, after much detective work and three different engineers trying to find the problem, to be a "lump" of sealant which has somehow got into the tank and lodged in a fire shut off valve and acting like a non return valve. It blew clear, from the engine to the tank, but if you blew the other way from the tank to the engine then the debris partially blocked the line. This caused fuel starvation when the engine was under load, but it would tick-over for ever.

So, have you checked that the fuel lines are clear, by blowing in both directions?

 

[fisherman]

A friend had endless trouble, in the end stripped every pipe and found in the pipe from the tank, vertical then a 90 deg elbow at the top, was a dead bluebottle. The engine ran slow OK, when opened up the fly stuck in the elbow.

 

[Caer Urfa]

That's interesting, a return from filter housing to one of the tanks potentially causes same "problem" as simply returning direct to a single tank; in fact, even returning to the filter housing, causes any return flow to get back to the selected tank via the normal flow route. Only sure way I guess of ensuring return goes back to the selected tank is with a dual function valve as suggested in another reply.

Hi

Not sure if it helps but as you can see my fuel return goes to a standard T fitting, either side of the T is a open/close valve, depending on
which tank I am running fuel from I then select the tank for the fuel return, also although each tank has a primary filter as a back up the fuel return has a secondry filter.

I mainly sail single handed and do a lot of heavy weather sailing and from experiance I find you want a flexible and user friendly fuel system which can be changed over quickly if required.

Mine is set up so I can completly isolate each tank if there is a problem, but in general run from one tank at a time until its low then fill it and then run off the other tank, that way I keep fresh diesel aboard even though I am 'under sail' ' 90% of the time.

Mike

[/ATTACH]

 

[Jim@sea]

I enclose a photo of the switch

I apologise, I was wrong. I took the photo last year.
The port supply pipe is the one on the left and the starboard one is the one coming from below, so the pipe on the right is the engine supply pipe and as the switch/valve only moves 90 degrees this means that either they are both off or on.
I am grateful for the photo's from Caer Ufra for his photos and have bought some switches/valves to do what he has done.

Hopefully this may sort the problem out.

 

[Bilgediver]

Answer: With this handle (in the position shown on the photo) the valve/switch is "off" (which hopefully explains why on a sea trial the boat broke down as the person who took me out may have thought that in this position the fuel valve was open) (And it only takes a second with a marker pen to mark the position)
When the handle is turned to the right I have fuel. The switch does not turn to the left.
Hopefully later in the week I will have fitted a switch for each tank leading to a single "off switch" I will have cleansed and blown through each pipe and re-located the switches to where they can be reached. And established if there is a Non Return Valve preventing one tank from gravity feeding the other.
Its a bit like the Mensa challenge.

If the handle is in its correct position on the valve spindle then it seems you have a 90 deg ported valve and there will be no off position. down is suction from the left pipe to tank and handle to the right is suction from the right tank pipe selected. Seems when you think "off" you might have selected an empty tank.