fuel system troubleshooting

[bmiller]

Does the pick up in the tank have a pencil filter in it? Those are notorious for this type of problem. I have the same boat but am not sure if we have those. It will be at least a week before I can get to the boat and check.

[peterg]

Got carried away today and removed the fuel tank from the Beagle. Of course, I had to remove the newly installed 15 gallon holding tank that I had recently installed starboard of the diesel tank, so that I had room to wiggle the fuel tank out. Naturally, the fuel tank was full in prep for winter storage, so I hand-pumped most of the fuel out into the empty jugs left over from anti-freezing the systems. It was nice and dry under the aluminum tank with no signs of corrosion on the tank bottom or sides. The diesel I pumped out also looked clean. Took the tank home and removed all fittings and, much to my surprise, found no screen on the bottom of the pick-up tube. Also, there was very little sludge/dirt/water in the tank bottom and no real evidence of any internal corrosion, so I sloshed the tank with gasolene a couple times, dumping any picked up garbage, then rinsed it out thoroughly with hot water and detergent, then clean water, and will pick up some acetone tomorrow for the final rinse. I always used acetone on gas tank innards for the final rinse back when restoring Brit cars- it does a good job of picking up any stray water and evaporates fast. We used to put a few ounces of acetone in our tanks if we thought water was a problem, and it always seemed to work better than the alcohol based water removers on Walmart shelves. Next question, what type of filter do other 27 owners have on the end of the pick-up tube? The boat apparently never had one from the factory- maybe I should leave it off and let the Racor grab anything that comes down the pike.  Comments?

[seburnett]

My fuel pickup also lacks a filter, but then again, the Racor is between the lift pump and the secondary filter on the engine so I don't think one is necessary, particularly since I'm running the 2 micron Racor screw in right now.

I replaced my lift pump with the Facet I mentioned a few posts ago, and found out that the old pump was not the problem.  As a result, we seemed to have isolated the valve attached to the fuel pickup as the problem.  Potentially it has been open for many years and the packing gland assumed a fixed shape...that is until when I started flipping it back and forth while replacing hoses, etc.  That may have allowed air sucking into the fuel line.  We took out the valve (since we couldn't find an immediate replacement for what is probably the original part) and it ran fine out of the tank.  We ran it beautifully at the dock for a while, took it out in the bay, came back, lined up for the dock with the wind at our backs and low and behold the diesel died.  Luckily we drifted right up.   Then it seemed to run worse...until we bypassed the Racor primary filter, when it ran great.  So I swapped out the hoses to and from the Racor today as they were on oversized hose fittings and potentially not sealing well (though it won't explain why it ran fine with the Racor inline earlier).  Hopefully I can fire it up tomorrow to see how she runs.

[Allure2sail]

Hi:
I was away for a few days (wish I had been sailing) and I will check the fuel pickup in the spare tank that's here tomorrow to see if it does have a screen on it of any type. I have to say if you are using a 2 micron filter before the lift pump and it lasted the season your fuel tank and the fuel you have used this season must have been pretty clean. In retrospect the mesh screen filter in the bottom of the lift pump that the fuel passes thru after the racor water separator / filter (which I call the secondary) is if I remember right is like a 80 micron which means it really doesn't do much after all. Never really thought of that. Does anyone have a part number for a 2 micron filter on the engine (I call that one the primary filter), I have never been able to find anything better that a 10 micron.
To be continued....
Bruce
S/V Allure

[seburnett]

Looks like I finally have it fixed and running well.  I'm not sure quite what was the final straw but I replaced the fuel switch, which didn't take care of it, and then replaced the remaining lines in the fuel system and swapped a new 2 micron Racor filter with a new 10 micron.  It finally seems to be running well, though none of those problems completely explain how it seemed to be isolated elsewhere in the fuel system at different points.  I checked into the on engine filters, and I don't believe that there is anything out there except the 10 micron.  Doesn't seem to help much to run two 10 microns in series but I'm going to try actually sailing for a change before I start worrying too much about it.

[Allure2sail]

As I went back and read over some of the emails I began to wonder about a possibility. Perhaps the old lift pump was not able to pull enough fuel thu a 2 micron filter, especially after it started to pick up "stuff" in the fuel. I agree with you that it doesn't seem to make much sense having two 10's in a row. That's why I use a 30 on the Racor water separator / filter unit. I saw the spec on the screen mesh filter inside the lift pump and it was pretty high, like 80 to 100 micron (which means theoretically it should never get dirty). Glad you seem to be all set, It's been a battle and I think you finally won.....
Bruce