(Only) After sailing, diesel will not start. Take a mechanic sailing?

antaris

antaris

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12 Jul 2012
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249
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Athens, Greece
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Hello everyone,

This is a weird one (for me, at least!)

Engine is a Sole Mini 44, approx 600 hours. Engine always starts with first go in marina marina/port with same battery. Even after two months; in warm and cold weather - it always starts happily. Runs absolutely great. I'm very happy with it. I do not use shore power/solar to charge start bank (so battery is not fully charged after a month or so).

Noticed last summer - after sailing (+heeling) for a few hours, the engine will not start. Sounds like the battery is not up to the task. I turn the ignition and... nothing happens - just a click. I need to wait for 4-5 minutes and then the whole thing starts, yet the battery seems to struggle, like it's got no juice. So, I'm drifting outside the ports until the system fixes itself. Not nice.

I therefore presume that the shaking/movement does something to it. Admittedly the battery (start bank) is getting old. Tried with another one, also rather tired, battery. Same effect.

Any clues? Surely it must be battery-related? Are old batteries sensitive to.... heeling? Is that possible? The funny thing is I cannot replicate it for a mechanic - unless I take him sailing!
 
Remake the battery connections, in case they are loose or corroded. Charge the battery properly.
Maybe something is draining your battery under way? Maybe try sailing with the master switch off.
 
If the battery is left for months you might not get much more than a quick start out of the charge that is left in it, so being weak starting coming back isn't surprising if you don't have much motoring out from your berth you might not have recharged it much and you're using it more even when under sail I guess? How long are you motoring out? Have you checked you are getting a full volts from the alternator?

But not having enough to turn over then 5 minutes later it does is weird for sure. In the 5 minutes waiting around have you turned other systems off or reduced their load like the autohelm? That might allow enough recovery to get a weak start. A volt meter will tell you a lot.

I've got one of these which I keep in my car and have used it a few times. My car randomly has no charge once every few months, not so often that its worth giving a blank cheque to an autoelectrician to try to find the cause. They work surprisingly well for their size and hold their charge for longer than your boat battery will Maypole 400A Power Pack 15V
 
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If you leave your battery for months without any form of charging and then expect it to start your engine you are very lucky that it does so. Please install a small solar panel and a cheapish charging controller (the controller is a must-have or the panel might overcharge and ruin your battery). About £40- £50 should cover it.
 
Thank you all.

All I was trying to stress is that the battery is indeed charged (at 12.8V) when sailing - and the engine does not start.

Even if I do not charge it over 1 month... my engine still starts in the marina.

Only when sailing this happens - and I thought maybe it is a common issue!
 
Check the wiring loom.
Many years ago I had identical symptoms. Turned out the motion of sailing worked a connection between the start panel and engine loose. A cable tie around the offending connection solved the issue.
 
Is the boat heeled when the engine fails to start? If so, perhaps a loose connection that separates when heeled but comes together when level. Other than that, in my (admittedly limited) experience, strange electrical behavior has usually indicated a failing battery.
 
Does the problem only occur on one tack or on both?

To trouble-shoot: disconnect at the battery, then jump-lead directly from battery to solenoid when heeling.

If the engine starts the problem is somewhere in the loom, if it doesn't the problem is either the battery (or even, to be thorough about the investigation, in the solenoid itself).

Note that you don't need to actually go sailing: you can heel the yacht on the pontoon or dock by running a halyard to a secure fastening on the shore etc.

Alternatively, just temporarily borrow a neighbour's battery then go heeling.

Finally, even if you never completely solve the problem, just get used to turning head-to-wind whenever you need to start the engine! ;)

PS I always carry a pair of jump-leads, so that if anything ever happens to the engine-starter battery I can jump-start directly from the domestic bank (different battery-types I know but volts are volts in an emergency).
 
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Check your starter and connections to the starter; if all is good, check that the alternator is charging the battery when the engine is on. A small solar panel will help to keep the battery in good condition.
 
Measure the volts on the battery while it's cranking.
Charge the battery properly for 24hrs, then do a little capacity test and perhaps a high current test.
If you don't have shore power, a small solar panel can make a big difference.
 
A crazy thought, could excess fuel or oil or WATER be finding its way into the cylinders causing hydraulic lock up when trying to turn over? It would take only a tiny amount of water to do this, how is your exhaust outlet protected when heeling over?
 
Babylon said:
Does the problem only occur on one tack or on both? Both!

To trouble-shoot: disconnect at the battery, then jump-lead directly from battery to solenoid when heeling. I will read the book to learn where/what the solenoid is!

If the engine starts the problem is somewhere in the loom, if it doesn't the problem is either the battery (or even, to be thorough about the investigation, in the solenoid itself).

Note that you don't need to actually go sailing: you can heel the yacht on the pontoon or dock by running a halyard to a secure fastening on the shore etc.

Alternatively, just temporarily borrow a neighbour's battery then go heeling.

Finally, even if you never completely solve the problem, just get used to turning head-to-wind whenever you need to start the engine! ;)

PS I always carry a pair of jump-leads, so that if anything ever happens to the engine-starter battery I can jump-start directly from the domestic bank (different battery-types I know but volts are volts in an emergency). Totally do, already!
Click to expand...

thank you, lots of suggestions here.

Only the heeling-in-port may be tricky, I am heavy (9 tonne, 1.90m keel, wide, etc). Will try the rest, for sure, though.
 
Boater Sam said:
A crazy thought, could excess fuel or oil or WATER be finding its way into the cylinders causing hydraulic lock up when trying to turn over? It would take only a tiny amount of water to do this, how is your exhaust outlet protected when heeling over?
Click to expand...

I do not even want to think about that! The engine (albeit with only 600hrs) was installed some years ago and PO (and myself) did not experience anything like that.

Protection? The exhaust outlet pipe comes all the way up to the deck, after the muffler thingy. No other special arrangements there.
 
Thank you all for your suggestions, it looks like cable/connection inspection is in line. A loose connection of some description may be the case.

I may also purchase a new battery - just this morning I got a reading of 14.8 while charging with said engine; something's not right there. I guess the battery is slowly leaving this cruel world.
 
3 years is still within safe limits, I reckon.
Before you buy, try to borrow.
I recently bought 2 batteries when they were not the problem.
(Switched off battery charge controller,!!!!!)

gary
 
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