Pela 6000 Oil extracter gets a reprieve

[Gypsy]

In response to a previous post I mentioned that I was disappointed with my Pela 6000 whilst others gave it plenty of credit.

It was my first use and I obviously made a few mistakes, but today it paid for itself in one go.

One benefit of changing the engine filters oneself is that you see what crud has gathered and hence the filter doing its job. I was surprised and alarmed at the amount of water in the pre-filter and even some in the filter after the pump. Alarmed enough to decide to try to drain the water at the bottom of the fuel tank.

Bring the Pela back in from "the cold". The narrow "anteater" bowden cable snout allowed me to probe down the side of a partially released fuel guage to get to the lowest corner of the tank. A quick "suck" and a bit further poking with the snout and I was able to remove about 500ml of water plus some physical crud.

It is 5 yrs accumulation so I guess that is not too bad, but a very satisfying result. I decided to install a Racor pre-filter with a transparent bowl to help me see the water buildup in future.

I have also trimmed the "anteater" snout to the maximum necessary to get to the bottom of the engine sump and the fuel tank to reduce the resistance for future oil removal so I expect I will certainly get good use out of the Pela....it can stay on the boat.

 

[moody1]

We (HWMBO) took the blanking plug and fitted a small hose fitting. Which allowed a larger bore clear plastic hose to be used. The end of the hose then pushed over a length of alloy tube from DIY shop.
We use the Pela with this home-made pipe to suck up bilge water, water and silt from tanks and with original pipe of course the engine oil.

 

[John_Clarke]

I have found it to be useful for these sorts of jobs too.

If you get oil on the circular black rubber valve on the top fitting the rubber will perish. The Pela UK agent checked for me and was unable to obtain replacement valves. I have made a replacement from a rubber washing up glove and it works just as well.

A lot of air was leaking in at the pressure release valve and also between the black sleeves on both openings. I sealed all of these with Sikaflex (after degreasing and roughening with sandpaper) and the pump works much better and holds its suction longer.

I plan to make a splayed end fitting for the tube to improve its performance vacuuming up diesel bug gunge from the bottom of the tank. I tie a brass rod onto the end of the plastic tube to give some control when tank cleaning.

 

[mobeydick]

I bought one about 5 years ago, and found that sucking up water caused the 'bowden cable' type pipe to corrode inside and easily block. Also, the pressure release valve started leaking.

I got a new one last week, and the pressure release valve is no longer there, plus the 'bowden cable' seems to be ribbed plastic now, so that should be better.

I use the £5 Lidal job for on-borad use as it is much smaller