Engine Failure

[jacksaid]

My Engine stopped over the weekend and although it did restart it would only idle. In neutral advancing the throttle does not increase engine revs. Throttle linkage is OK. I first checked for water in the separator and this was clear. I then disconnected the fuel pipe on the output side of the secondary filter. with both manual priming and turning over the engine no fuel was coming out of the pipe. My assumption is therefore that one or both of the filters are clogged. My next step will be to remove the filters.My questions are:
1) Are my assumptions correct and if so
2) Will clogged filters be apparent eg will I see evidence of clogging without sawing them in half?
3) If they are clogged will I need to drain and flush the tank
4) If they are not clogged what next?
Note filters were new in April. Boat is about 1.5 years old with 400 engine hours - it is a Volvo 2030

Thanks in anticipation

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[colvic]

If you replaced all your filters is one a little slack...caused by vibration, thus allowing air to be sucked in and your fuel still left in the tank?

Phil

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[Guest]

will only idle in neutral? is this significant, i am curious why you put that bit in?

if the filters were blocked that badly you would have symptoms of not starting at all or starting, attempting to rev and then dying.

the lift pump on the 2030 is the most puny piece of merde i have ever had to mess with, if you have the operating cam in the wrong place you will have great difficulty in moving any fuel. turn the engine over by hand until you feel the lift pump having a bit of resistance. when i changed my fuel filters i actually had to take the banjo bolts out of the lift pump and pour fuel in to prime it.
to answer your question about how do you know if the filter is blocked, turn it upside down and see what comes out! empty it into a jar, water, cack and bug is all self explanetory.
if not blocked is lift pump diaphragm ok? ujdo the 2 6 ml screw bolts holding it on, undo the banjo bolts, dont lose the copper washers, mark the top and bottom half for reassembly purposes, undo the little screws and lift the top off, the one way valves are little bits of plastic, make sure that they dont have cack under them stopping them sealing, stretch the diaphragm and check for holes, if all ok put back together again and refit. pour fuel into the banjo holes and try and bleed. you could try blowing into the fuel tank (block off breather) with a dinghy pump to see if you can easily force fuel thru the primary filter to the lift pump.
but answer to my first question first before getting stuck in
stu


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[jacksaid]

Thanks for your reply
My comment "will only idle in neutral means". That the engine will start but when trying to advance throttle in neutral it dies away. It struggles at idling revs in neutral. I included this comment to show that it is not a problem with the drive train e.g rope round prop. ( the symptoms are of fuel or air starvation. (I have checked air filter) I also did move the fuel pump onto the cam.

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[Guest]

the dying away is the important bit, it is fuel starvation.
do as i said and empty the filters into a jar to check the contents, if the contents are dirty or jellyish, the prob is self explanatory, change the filters and find out where the contaminant has come from and fix that if the lift pump is not lifting sort that,
stu

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[isha]

If he fuel tank vent has become blocked would that also lead to fuel starvation?
Dave

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[dickh]

I have the Perkins Perama - same base engine as the VP 2020 - check that the exhaust elbow is not caked up with carbon etc but I would dought this with only 400 hours. Is the tank nearly empty? you might ned a fullish tank to give enouigh 'head' to the fuel, although if the pump is workink OK this should not be a problem.
Sounds like a flocked filter/fuel problem - change the filters to make sure, checking the filters are seated correctly without any air leaks, add some Magic Potion like SOLTRON to your fuel to kill any bugs and try again. You should be able to pump fuel thro' with the lever on the pump unless it has stopped in the wrong position on the cam.
Wait a minute tho', the engine is only 1½ years old - don't Volvo give a 3 yr warranty? - let them sort it out!


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I'd rather be sailing... /forums/images/icons/smile.gif

 

[boatmad2]

Are your filters before or after the lift pump? if after you should get fuel when working pump lever, dont forget some lift pumps have a small screen filter in them.
Check tank breather is not blocked. A blocked filter is not always visibly so.
I would change the filters and if the problem comes back the tank may need cleaning also you may have the fuel bug problem this looks like like slime in the filters.

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