Webasto runs on water nearly!

[TSB240]

I thought it was time the boat had a mid winter warm up yesterday. The webasto fired up but seemed to be giving little heat out for an hour. It eventually spluterred a few times then locked out with a fuel shortage code.

I still had half a tank of diesel approx 20 litres

Today I pulled about a litre of mainly water through the heater drip feed piping and pulse pump before getting a constant pulse of good fresh red diesel.

Sodts law the tank has no sump or drain plug or easily accessed inspection hatch.

I expect that the dip tube for the heater is shorter than the dip tube for the engine outlet so you can guess what tomorrows job will be. I will at least be nice and warm as the heaters working great now.

I don't believe condensation can cause this amount of contamination and suspect a new design of all over winter cover has been draining onto a loosely screwed down filler cap.

Looking on the bright side it could have been a lot worse if I had tried warming up the engine.

 

[snowbird30ds]

I expect that the dip tube for the heater is shorter than the dip tube for the engine outlet

The water will be below the diesel not on top of it, don't you mean the heater dip tube is longer?

 

[TSB240]

don't you mean the heater dip tube is longer?

No I don't think they are normally.

I understand heater dip tubes are usually set up so a reserve is held in the tank for engine use only.

I expect their will be more water in the bottom of the tank but will find out tomorrow when I try taking a sample from the engine take off.

 

[Laysula]

As I remember the tank is under the stern bunk and the sender unit is fairly accessible. Being about 3 inches in diameter it is certainly big enough to get a rigid pipe in to syphon it out. May well be worth building a polishing rig and doing the job properly.