Help - broken down boat!

My diesel is totally clear so to me that looks like a lot of stuff in the diesel especially if you have just cleaned the tank , fuel and filters so all should be totally clean.

Sadly I use a lot of fuel and in mallorca most places have a huge fuel turnover so maybe that is it. Others will have a view but to me that does not look that great.

Good news re alternator belt.
 
jrudge said:
My diesel is totally clear so to me that looks like a lot of stuff in the diesel especially if you have just cleaned the tank , fuel and filters so all should be totally clean.

Sadly I use a lot of fuel and in mallorca most places have a huge fuel turnover so maybe that is it. Others will have a view but to me that does not look that great.

Good news re alternator belt.
Click to expand...

J, the tanks weren't cleaned in the end as the company who inspected the tanks said they looked ok (i.e. no crud on the bottom). The filters that they removed weren't that dirty either. My inclination is to run this tank to empty and continue to drain a little fuel from the bowl before every trip. Then hopefully once we fill with a clean tank we'll see totally clear fuel again.
 
jrudge said:
My diesel is totally clear so to me that looks like a lot of stuff in the diesel especially if you have just cleaned the tank , fuel and filters so all should be totally clean.

Sadly I use a lot of fuel and in mallorca most places have a huge fuel turnover so maybe that is it. Others will have a view but to me that does not look that great.

Good news re alternator belt.
Click to expand...

+1 (sub Mallorca for SoF )

Pete
Thx for posting all this stuff ,iam sure all the forum is willing you on and wish the very best to you all and the boat arriving safley in the Med .
However entertaining as it is this last episode with Jez .

But a loose belt --Crikey !

Setting off to sea in a boat unknown to you that's essentially been laid up without spare filters --eek ?

That's petty basic stuff -- written in every marine diesel engine hand book , RYA ,MBY and 100,s of Utube vids .

The locals will have your eyeballs within a week in the Med , investigsting --- fixing these calamities .

Acting /advising in your best interest ,get the team to do basic checks --MBY have some great engine vids ,from memory it's even a KAD 44 -perfect .

Fuel sample
That's contaminated for sure !
A few 100 L sucked through those filters will capture the crud ,this means regular filter changes even initially @ every fill up of 2nd fill up for a while .
Remember the filters have to deal with more than the consumption because a lot is returned in your case cleaner .
Keep dosing with additive too every fill up .

Pete 2x filters less than £20 ,additive same ish --say 3x£40 for 3 fill ups --£120 ---well worth it compared to grief with pump and injector woes + hassle .

When it's spotless then replace the engine filters before shipping off to the Med .
 
Last edited:
Good work on sorting the niggles out, hopefully youre getting to the end of all the little annoying issues, and can start using it without trouble.
 
Portofino said:
+1 (sub Mallorca for SoF )

Pete
Thx for posting all this stuff ,iam sure all the forum is willing you on and wish the very best to you all and the boat arriving safley in the Med .
However entertaining as it is this last episode with Jez .

But a loose belt --Crikey !

Setting off to sea in a boat unknown to you that's essentially been laid up without spare filters --eek ?

That's petty basic stuff -- written in every marine diesel engine hand book , RYA ,MBY and 100,s of Utube vids .

The locals will have your eyeballs within a week in the Med , investigsting --- fixing these calamities .

Acting /advising in your best interest ,get the team to do basic checks --MBY have some great engine vids ,from memory it's even a KAD 44 -perfect .

Fuel sample
That's contaminated for sure !
A few 100 L sucked through those filters will capture the crud ,this means regular filter changes even initially @ every fill up of 2nd fill up for a while .
Remember the filters have to deal with more than the consumption because a lot is returned in your case cleaner .
Keep dosing with additive too every fill up .

Pete 2x filters less than £20 ,additive same ish --say 3x£40 for 3 fill ups --£120 ---well worth it compared to grief with pump and injector woes + hassle .

When it's spotless then replace the engine filters before shipping off to the Med .
Click to expand...

Thing is Porto, the 60 hour old filters (15 hours since we've owned her) weren't overly dirty when they were removed and replaced. Anyhow we've got three sets as spares now and the filters will be checked again when the boat is serviced the week after next.
 
Re the fuel sample Pete, assuming it was drained from the bottom of the pre-filters I would say that is not unusual on a boat of of that age.

We have just sold our boat (1992 model) and every year I would take the tap out of the bottom of the filter bowl and flush the filter housing through. Always got quite a bit more crud than that but never had a problem at sea, even when it got a bit lumpy. We did polish the fuel in the tanks one year and it was quite enlightening to see what got caught in the filters of the polishing system.

It was similar on the boat before that as well.
 
Portofino said:
+1 (sub Mallorca for SoF )

Pete
Thx for posting all this stuff ,iam sure all the forum is willing you on and wish the very best to you all and the boat arriving safley in the Med .
However entertaining as it is this last episode with Jez .

But a loose belt --Crikey !

Setting off to sea in a boat unknown to you that's essentially been laid up without spare filters --eek ?

That's petty basic stuff -- written in every marine diesel engine hand book , RYA ,MBY and 100,s of Utube vids .

The locals will have your eyeballs within a week in the Med , investigsting --- fixing these calamities .

Acting /advising in your best interest ,get the team to do basic checks --MBY have some great engine vids ,from memory it's even a KAD 44 -perfect .

Fuel sample
That's contaminated for sure !
A few 100 L sucked through those filters will capture the crud ,this means regular filter changes even initially @ every fill up of 2nd fill up for a while .
Remember the filters have to deal with more than the consumption because a lot is returned in your case cleaner .
Keep dosing with additive too every fill up .

Pete 2x filters less than £20 ,additive same ish --say 3x£40 for 3 fill ups --£120 ---well worth it compared to grief with pump and injector woes + hassle .

When it's spotless then replace the engine filters before shipping off to the Med .
Click to expand...

I don't always agree with you but you did write exactly what I was thinking !
 
Just for people's interest and amusement, this is the fuel sample taken from a boat THAT WE DIDN'T BUY. Amazingly it still performed as per the original spec on the sea trial.

BadFuel.png


Estimated cost to have the tanks cleaned and fuel polished was €5k.
 
petem said:
Just for people's interest and amusement, this is the fuel sample taken from a boat THAT WE DIDN'T BUY. Amazingly it still performed as per the original spec on the sea trial.

BadFuel.png


Estimated cost to have the tanks cleaned and fuel polished was €5k.
Click to expand...

And this is the latest bowl full of diesel I have just drawn from my engines, yuk!

IMG_2847.jpg

Have been adding Marine 16 and changing filters for months now but I suspect I am losing this battle and will need to get my tank cleaned when we get back to Blighty in a few weeks!

Out of interest, would you mind letting me know who you commissioned to check your fuel system through please?

Thanks,
Andrew
 
crossy said:
And this is the latest bowl full of diesel I have just drawn from my engines, yuk!

View attachment 65982

Have been adding Marine 16 and changing filters for months now but I suspect I am losing this battle and will need to get my tank cleaned when we get back to Blighty in a few weeks!

Out of interest, would you mind letting me know who you commissioned to check your fuel system through please?

Thanks,
Andrew
Click to expand...

Eeek, that doesn't look good! Where's the boat based? How as the sample taken?

Our boat is currently in Hythe and google threw up SAL Marine in Lymington as a firm that would add inspection hatches, clean tank and polish fuel. As per my earlier posts, they checked the condition of the tank via the sender aperture and confirmed they looked OK. They changed the filters at my request (I'd have changed them at the imminent survey anyhow). the full job would have been about a day's labour @£55ph plus £200 for filter. All plus VAT I suspect.

Subsequently, the local (non-VP agent) engineer recommended SDM (http://sdm-fuelsolutions.com/ ) and said they were the ONLY company that he would use so they may be worth a try.
 
Last edited:
Greg2 said:
Re the fuel sample Pete, assuming it was drained from the bottom of the pre-filters I would say that is not unusual on a boat of of that age.
Click to expand...

Greg, you make an important point there. Yes, my fuel sample was drained from the bottom of the two pre-filters, where it had rested overnight. In fact, after a few minutes of being in the glass, the sediment settled to the bottom and was almost imperceptible. Unless you looked very closely I don't think it wold be noticeable in the bottom of glass filter bowls. And as Porto correctly points out, in 6 or so hours of running the 500 litres in the tank could have been through the filters multiple times as a result of unspent diesel returning to the tank (I could be wrong there).

If there was that much sediment suspended in the body of the tank that might be a different matter.
 
Last edited:
petem said:
Greg, you make an important point there. Yes, my fuel sample was drained from the bottom of the two pre-filters, where it had rested overnight. In fact, after a few minutes of being in the glass, the sediment settled to the bottom and was almost imperceptible. Unless you looked very closely I don't think it wold be noticeable in the bottom of glass filter bowls. And as Porto correctly points out, in 6 or so hours of running the 500 litres in the tank could have been through the filters multiple times as a result of unspent diesel returning to the tank (I could be wrong there).

If there was that much sediment suspended in the body of the tank that might be a different matter.
Click to expand...

Pete, your engine pre-dates common rail or unit injectors I believe, and is mechanical, therefore I don't believe it will be returning much hot diesel back to the tank. No bad thing there! Your diesel sample looks no worse than mine, and to date I have not suffered any issues. I would file this under "There are other more important things to worry about".
 
petem said:
Greg, you make an important point there. Yes, my fuel sample was drained from the bottom of the two pre-filters, where it had rested overnight. In fact, after a few minutes of being in the glass, the sediment settled to the bottom and was almost imperceptible. Unless you looked very closely I don't think it wold be noticeable in the bottom of glass filter bowls. And as Porto correctly points out, in 6 or so hours of running the 500 litres in the tank could have been through the filters multiple times as a result of unspent diesel returning to the tank (I could be wrong there).

If there was that much sediment suspended in the body of the tank that might be a different matter.
Click to expand...

Whilst I always find debris in the bowls, when I go on to empty the secondary filters from the engines when changing them it is inevitably debris free so I work on the basis that the filters are doing their job. :)
 
Last edited:
petem said:
Eeek, that doesn't look good! Where's the boat based? How as the sample taken?

Our boat is currently in Hythe and google threw up SAL Marine in Lymington as a firm that would add inspection hatches, clean tank and polish fuel. As per my earlier posts, they checked the condition of the tank via the sender aperture and confirmed they looked OK. They changed the filters at my request (I'd have changed them at the imminent survey anyhow). the full job would have been about a day's labour @£55ph plus £200 for filter. All plus VAT I suspect.

Subsequently, the local (non-VP agent) engineer recommended SDM (http://sdm-fuelsolutions.com/ ) and said they were the ONLY company that he would use so they may be worth a try.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info Pete, will give them a call when we get back.

That sample was drained from the bottom of the primary filter bowls after a short lumpy ride with the tanks only about 1/4 full so expected a bit. I have had no engine issues as yet but will keep adding the fuel treatment and changing filters until we get back.

We are based in Poole but will be up the Hamble river for the early part of the winter to get a new set of covers made so will look to get the tank drained, cleaned and the fuel filtered and returned then.

As others have said, your particular case doesn't look so bad and you may find the after a few tanks consumed then the filters may do the job for you.

Am a bit alarmed at the £5K quote for a tank clean and fuel polish though, hope i'm not facing that kind of bill :(
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top