Slight smell of rotten eggs

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Paul&Ness

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Hi. Little perplexed by a strange smell in the engine bay of my boat. While sorting out a slight fuel leak on one of the engines I had a faint whiff of rotten eggs! Couldn't see anything that might cause such a smell, no strange fluids or materials so I thought I would ask more knowledgable people than I, here on the forum.
What could possibly cause such a smell in an engine bay (diesel)?
 
Sounds like an overcharging / venting battery. Build up can be explosive so be careful. Check the condition of the battery/s and also feel if they are warm under charge
 
rotten eggs smell is hydrogen sulphide - usually created in sea water/river water flush boat toilet pipes. The water in the toilet water inlet pipe goes bad and you can get quite a pong. Check under the floors in the cabins etc to see if its any worse. The smell may just have drifted into the engine bay.

You could conceivably get the same effect in the engine cooling system if the engines have not been used for a while. Check for any leaks.

Something else that causes a terrible acidic/bad egg smell is a knackered battery. Check to see if any of your batteries are getting hot or developing bulges in the sides. If so switch off any charging and disconnect them.
 
Thanks guy's. Sorted :) It was a battery, definite smell of rotten eggs when I removed the cell caps. Battery now removed and awaiting replacement.

The forum works. Thanks.

Paul
 
Don't assume manufacturers set up chargers correctly either, my Antares one was setup for sealed when the were normal vented lead, 0.5V too much going in all the time.
 
Some on here have batteries lasting 10 years.

The most I have ever got is about 2-3 years ( including a brand new boat ). To my knowledge I do nothing odd. They don't run flat and I leave hem on shore power when away ( having said that the first boat I had I disconnected the lot each winter so they were not float charging and they were never replaced ......) so given the cost if batteries the advise to find out why and check the charger is pretty sound.
 
jrudge said:
Some on here have batteries lasting 10 years.

The most I have ever got is about 2-3 years ( including a brand new boat ). To my knowledge I do nothing odd. They don't run flat and I leave hem on shore power when away ( having said that the first boat I had I disconnected the lot each winter so they were not float charging and they were never replaced ......) so given the cost if batteries the advise to find out why and check the charger is pretty sound.
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I leave mine disconnected when off the boat. Can be 8 weeks or so over winter. Doesn't seem to cause a problem, as they get a good charge on shore power. I am wary of leaving the charger on for so long.
 
If you use the electric thrusters a lot when entering the port, and if you don't plug it in because you aren't planning to return to the boat for a while. Then your thruster batteries will stay depleted for a long time, not a good thing
 
Bouba said:
If you use the electric thrusters a lot when entering the port, and if you don't plug it in because you aren't planning to return to the boat for a while. Then your thruster batteries will stay depleted for a long time, not a good thing
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Don't use thruster much. Same batt as engine starter. Always gets a good charge before we depart. No issues yet after 4 years.
 
Mine are always trickle charged by solar panels, well, only when it's sunny, so not at all all the time, but it does seem to keep them in pretty good nick. Before fitting solar I was also changing them every few years or so.
 
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