Ongoing fuel problem

Csail

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I had this intermittent problem for a year or so now. The engine was just dropping down to idle then picked up again but yesterday died. It was about 10 mins after i re-fuelled so do you reckon the crap in the tank got stired up? or air in the system? I'm off down there later to fix it. Also tried to remove the screw on filter but it won't budge....any ideas?
 

Bilgediver

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Could be crud in the fuel tank. Do you have any way of getting into the tank or could you syphon some fuel out from the bottom of the tank and see what you collect.

Once you get the filter opened up it should give a clue.

could be rust,sludge or the dreaded bug!!!!

It is possible that it is not connected with the tank filling and is air. MAny of the primary fuel filters are fitted at the highest part of the fuel system and are also on the suction line to the fuel pump. Any leakage on one of the filter O rings will allow air into the filter which may be unseen. Some filter cartridges are shorter than others and it is possible in a filter designed for the longer cartridges (Volvo) that the filter bolt becomes thread bound if a shorter cartridge is used and so there may not be the required pressure on the seal rings.

John
 

DaveS

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You've confirmed that it's air rather than crap which is a great step forward, but the root cause of it - a small leak somewhere on the suction side - will still be there, so you can expect the problem to recur. I had this last year, and after faffing around trying to find the air leak - not at all easy - eventually spent a happy afternoon dismantling all of the suction pipework and reassembling it using blue goo. There were a remarkable number of connections - about 20 - and the culprit could have been any of them. In the process I found a bit of what looked like plastic swarf stuck in one of the pipes, so fixed another potential problem at the same time! No problems since.
 
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