Engine dripping diesel!!

[rajjes]

I have just filled the tank with diesel and bled the fuel lines in preparation to start the engine for the first time since installing it.

A few minutes after bleeding, I started hearing the dreaded drip drop under the engine! On checking, i found that diesel is dripping about once every 30 seconds from under the engine at the base of the flywheel housing which has a small cutout at the base (no idea what's its purpose).

I have checked to see f there is any external leak but couldn't find anything. Is it possible that when pumping for bleeding some diesel found its way in the engine??

Has anyone experienced something similar, does this call for major surgery???

Engine is a 2nd hand 2 cylinder kubota z482 which was running well before installation...

 

[smeaks]

When bleeding did you spill some oil? Perhaps direct from the bleed screws? Are the injector lines resecured?

 

[rajjes]

Well diesel was coming out from the bleed screw while bleeding but after closing and wiping down everything it still continued to drip

 

[Evadne]

With nothing running the only fuel should be in the fuel lines and pumps. Actually, with the engine running that is true as well, of course, including the return pipe. Diesel will trickle almost invisibly down the casing, you need to find where it is coming from. If all was well last season, I'd suspect corroded copper or steel piping first (I had it again this season), damaged connectors, joints etc. second and major problems like cracked castings after that.
Just a thought: you didn't lose a copper washer from one of the joints when you were bleeding it, did you?

 

[achwilan]

Overtightening the bleeding screw may ruin it, which could explain your symptoms.

 

[Birdseye]

your post implies you havent yet started the engine but its still dripping diesel. In which case there is a poor joint somewhere in the system, and most likely in the return piping for excess fuel. you have remembered that there is a return from the injectors back into the tank havent you?

Just carefully follow the run of the pipes. If the fuel flows after the pumping has stopped it can only be the pipes emptying perhaps fed by syphoning fuel.

 

[srp]

I've seen talcum powder used to locate sources of fuel leaks - you need a fairly clean and dry engine to start with, just puff it onto the likely source(s) and see if it gets damp.

 

[pandos]

Little pieces of white paper work even better, Especially if the leak is spitting out around a joint.

Just move the slip of paper around the engine until a drop lands on it and then trace back to source.

 

[macnorton]

Shaving foam on the joints works very well, it will vanish when in contact with fuel.

 

[rajjes]

Phew, managed to sort out the leak from the return pipe as suggested!

Many thanks to all for the input!