Gludy
Active member
In my pilgrims progress of trips which to date have included what we call the 'mutiny' trip, another trip back in zero visibility sea mist at night with a loose bouy and a warship loose ...... Last weelkend the time had come to do our first proper trip - the longest to date and to stay out overnight in a new harbour.
Well it all went very well, the kids enjoyed it, the better half enjoyed and our guest enjoyed it. On the way back the next day, I made a comment, which was to tempt fate, when I commented that it looked like this trip was going to happen without a major drama ... I spoke too soon because the next thing as I popped down to the lower helm to check things out was alarms and a zero oil pressure on the port engine - I manged to shut it down without further damage. On topping up with oil and restarting to see where the now very oily bilges were gettting their oil from, it was spurting at great velocity from what looks like a very short pipe connected two parts of the oil pump together.
The journey back was made on the one engine and I am now having the problem investigated, so I am in the Marina until further notice. So I keep my imperfect record intact - a drama on every trip!
Having the oil pump on the starboard engine a mere 4 inches from the deisel tank, I can only be grateful for the fact that it was the port engine that has gone and at least has the fault visible.
The mist of oil also seems to have clogged up the air filters - a simple job to put right but I have a question - can clogged up air filters somehow cause more oil to be used - does the restricted air intake somehow create vacumns that suck more oil out through the exhaust? I ask this because I seem to have used up about a gallon of oil in the starboard engine, which does not have any obvious leak.
Paul
Well it all went very well, the kids enjoyed it, the better half enjoyed and our guest enjoyed it. On the way back the next day, I made a comment, which was to tempt fate, when I commented that it looked like this trip was going to happen without a major drama ... I spoke too soon because the next thing as I popped down to the lower helm to check things out was alarms and a zero oil pressure on the port engine - I manged to shut it down without further damage. On topping up with oil and restarting to see where the now very oily bilges were gettting their oil from, it was spurting at great velocity from what looks like a very short pipe connected two parts of the oil pump together.
The journey back was made on the one engine and I am now having the problem investigated, so I am in the Marina until further notice. So I keep my imperfect record intact - a drama on every trip!
Having the oil pump on the starboard engine a mere 4 inches from the deisel tank, I can only be grateful for the fact that it was the port engine that has gone and at least has the fault visible.
The mist of oil also seems to have clogged up the air filters - a simple job to put right but I have a question - can clogged up air filters somehow cause more oil to be used - does the restricted air intake somehow create vacumns that suck more oil out through the exhaust? I ask this because I seem to have used up about a gallon of oil in the starboard engine, which does not have any obvious leak.
Paul
