asteven221
Well-Known Member
I am not going to mention the manufacturer (yet) because I think they owe me an explanation first so I will give them time to do it. Anyway here's the story which may interest you all.
I recently serviced my TAMD63p engines myself as I do every year and have done for many years. Routine stuff. This year however I decided to use 3rd party filters form a big manufacturer instead of the genuine Volvo filters I normally use. When deciding to do so I discovered that there are fakes on the market, so I took the step to email the manufacturer quoting the company I am buying from. They came back saying that the supplier is official and that I will be getting genuine products. They even sent me a certificate of quality. I have no reason to believe that the filters were anything other than genuine matched filters.
The story is that we pootled off on a 14 mile round trip journey at about 7 knots. No problems. The following week, on returning from the same place the sea was a wee bit lumpy, so it called for some throttle. 18 knots for 10 mins got us through the uncomfortable beam sea. After throttling back, I noticed a smell of diesel and opened the stair hatch to see significant amounts of fuel sloshing about the floor in the engine bay. First thoughts were a burst tank or hose, so I started to lift floor panels. At this point we were in a shipping channel, but fortunately there wasn't any traffic. As soon as the first panel was lifted I saw fuel spraying out the manifold where the fuel filters attach and immediately thought I hadn't put the filter on correctly and it was loose. In fact it wasn't there! It was lying on the floor and fuel was showering everywhere. The engines were brought back to neutral and I had the idea of retrieving the filter and sticking it back on. To my horror the filter from the same place on the other engine had detached itself and it too was spraying fuel everywhere. The engines were still running ok, but I shut down the port engine with the idea of putting the filter on and restarting it. Anyway, it wouldn't start so I kept the starboard engine on to get us out the channel. By this time carbon monoxide alarms were going off and general panic was breaking out as fumes were filling the boat and I was think calling the coastguard, preparing the liferaft etc...etc...
To cut the story shorter, a boating buddy was passing and towed us back and I berthed safely on the remaining engine. It took me with the help of 4 others folk, 5 hours to pump out over 120 litres of diesel and to clean up the boat. I must mention that Sealine did a brilliant job in the design of the engine bay on the F44, with a grp finished floor and sealing the fore and aft bulkheads. Hardly a drop of fuel escaped from the engine bay. After pumping out and a lot of hard work, there is no sign or smell that the event took place.
There were a lot "what if's" in my mind after all this - fire being the biggest one in my mind. Fortunately no harm was done to us or the boat, but why did the filters blow off? They were matched as exact replacements by the manufacturer. They looked identical. Clearly the pressure of the high speed run caused them to detach themselves, but why? The manufacturer has now got them back for an investigation, hence my opening comment about waiting to see what they say.
I think I know why they blew off. If you do a side by side comparison with a genuine Volvo filter you can see that the hole where the threads are is slightly larger. You would never know by looking at the filter in isolation, but side by side with the genuine filter it becomes apparent. Without an answer from the manufacturer, I can only offer this as an explanation.
The moral of the story for me is to just fit the genuine filters. I realise Volvo don't make them in the first place, but maybe there is an argument to say that at the very least they supply a product that has been specified and inspected to a certain standard suitable for their engines. It was a bit of a scary situation for us and it's amazing how it makes you think about fire safety and how you would deal with such an event out at sea. I still wonder if I was sensible to keep one engine running. On hindsight probably not. I will also remove the padlock from the liferaft, which is daft when I think about it now, even although the key was at hand. What if the padlock jammed?
At the end of the day, we lived to tell the tale and once I get an official response I will report back if anyone is interested in what they say.
I recently serviced my TAMD63p engines myself as I do every year and have done for many years. Routine stuff. This year however I decided to use 3rd party filters form a big manufacturer instead of the genuine Volvo filters I normally use. When deciding to do so I discovered that there are fakes on the market, so I took the step to email the manufacturer quoting the company I am buying from. They came back saying that the supplier is official and that I will be getting genuine products. They even sent me a certificate of quality. I have no reason to believe that the filters were anything other than genuine matched filters.
The story is that we pootled off on a 14 mile round trip journey at about 7 knots. No problems. The following week, on returning from the same place the sea was a wee bit lumpy, so it called for some throttle. 18 knots for 10 mins got us through the uncomfortable beam sea. After throttling back, I noticed a smell of diesel and opened the stair hatch to see significant amounts of fuel sloshing about the floor in the engine bay. First thoughts were a burst tank or hose, so I started to lift floor panels. At this point we were in a shipping channel, but fortunately there wasn't any traffic. As soon as the first panel was lifted I saw fuel spraying out the manifold where the fuel filters attach and immediately thought I hadn't put the filter on correctly and it was loose. In fact it wasn't there! It was lying on the floor and fuel was showering everywhere. The engines were brought back to neutral and I had the idea of retrieving the filter and sticking it back on. To my horror the filter from the same place on the other engine had detached itself and it too was spraying fuel everywhere. The engines were still running ok, but I shut down the port engine with the idea of putting the filter on and restarting it. Anyway, it wouldn't start so I kept the starboard engine on to get us out the channel. By this time carbon monoxide alarms were going off and general panic was breaking out as fumes were filling the boat and I was think calling the coastguard, preparing the liferaft etc...etc...
To cut the story shorter, a boating buddy was passing and towed us back and I berthed safely on the remaining engine. It took me with the help of 4 others folk, 5 hours to pump out over 120 litres of diesel and to clean up the boat. I must mention that Sealine did a brilliant job in the design of the engine bay on the F44, with a grp finished floor and sealing the fore and aft bulkheads. Hardly a drop of fuel escaped from the engine bay. After pumping out and a lot of hard work, there is no sign or smell that the event took place.
There were a lot "what if's" in my mind after all this - fire being the biggest one in my mind. Fortunately no harm was done to us or the boat, but why did the filters blow off? They were matched as exact replacements by the manufacturer. They looked identical. Clearly the pressure of the high speed run caused them to detach themselves, but why? The manufacturer has now got them back for an investigation, hence my opening comment about waiting to see what they say.
I think I know why they blew off. If you do a side by side comparison with a genuine Volvo filter you can see that the hole where the threads are is slightly larger. You would never know by looking at the filter in isolation, but side by side with the genuine filter it becomes apparent. Without an answer from the manufacturer, I can only offer this as an explanation.
The moral of the story for me is to just fit the genuine filters. I realise Volvo don't make them in the first place, but maybe there is an argument to say that at the very least they supply a product that has been specified and inspected to a certain standard suitable for their engines. It was a bit of a scary situation for us and it's amazing how it makes you think about fire safety and how you would deal with such an event out at sea. I still wonder if I was sensible to keep one engine running. On hindsight probably not. I will also remove the padlock from the liferaft, which is daft when I think about it now, even although the key was at hand. What if the padlock jammed?
At the end of the day, we lived to tell the tale and once I get an official response I will report back if anyone is interested in what they say.
