Dont forget to often check your fuel fill gasket

[Russell]

Bad day for me today. Started out good, got the new bowsprit mounted and all the rigging back in place and it turned out great. But since I finished that early enough in the day I decided to tackle reawakening the engine from its winter slumber.

After priming it endlessly, she finally started up, and purred nicely. I was going to let it run for a bit to warm up before doing an oil change. After about 15min it started stuttering and tons of white smoke exhausted, I shut it down and checked the racor, FULL of murky nastiness. Was it water? Or just super dirty fuel? I drained it and reprimed it, filled with murky nastiness again, drained and reprimed 2 more times and finally clean looking, but I could actually see little "bubbles" of water coming out of the seperator as I primed it. In all I pulled about 1/2 liter of water out before it primed clean (and I know full well that there is going to be water below the pickup tube, so there is more in there).

I had my fuel polished and tank cleaned when I replaced the engine 2 years ago, I knew it was sparkling in there (before this winter it was always super clean and never any gunk on filters or water in the racor). So I was perplexed as to where all this water came from, if the tank was taking on bilge water it would also be leaking fuel into the bilge and I would have smelled it long ago. I decided to check the fuel fill, and sure enough, the gasket it was pretty shoddy looking (I had replaced it 5 years ago). My theory on what happened, with the insane amount of snow we had this winter, when the cockpit filled (which it did at least 3 times to the brim), when it began to melt it managed to slowly seep into the fuel fill, since snow was blocking up the cockpit drains it probably allowed a tremendous amount more in then even a huge downpour or entire cockpit pooping would.

So two lessons learned, check the fuel fill gasket at least yearly, and be better about shoveling snow out of the cockpit (if not covered). I have always hated the location of the fuel fill, I hate it even more now.

Now I need to polish the fuel again, even though its running clean now in the slip, I know once underway and the tank gets mixed up, that standing water on the bottom is going to get sucked right up.

I am assuming, hopefully some of you more wrench monkey oriented people out there can reassure me, that since I drained all the water out that I could and kept doing it till it ran clean with no water coming through the racor, that I did no damage to my engine since water in theory never actually got to sit in the engine for more then an hour.

Sometimes I want to beat people who use the quote "There is nothing so fun as messing about on boats".

[Steve Laume]

Sorry to hear of this trouble, Russel.

My fuel fill is up on deck and the holding tank pump out is in the cockpit sole. This seems to be an infinitely better arrangement.

I have always been concerned about water getting into the fuel at the fill. I grease the gasket several times a year. This year I went to Sears hardware and bought several new O rings. These are easy to replace and after your experience, I will be doing it often. The old one I pulled out fo the fuel fill was a crushed nasty mess that no longer resembled an O ring.

I believe greasing these O rings is an important bit of maintenance. It keeps the O ring from binding when screwing the filler cap down. I also figure that if grease is a good enough seal to keep our sea cocks from leaking that it might be enough to keep water from entering the deck fills even if the O ring is not in optimum condition.

When installing the new O ring I filled the groove with grease first first and then rubbed more on the outside of the O ring.

After hearing your story, I wish I would have installed an inspection port in the new fuel tank, Steve.

[MFC]

Russel -

Sorry about the fuel issues. Was the tank topped off when you put her up for the winter -- i.e., can you rule out condensation?

Mostly, I just wanted to express my admiration for your most excellent use of the "smiley". That is a rare skill - kind of like finding a girl who can curse good. Bravo.

Matt

[Russell]

Steve,

Smart idea on the greasing the O ring, I am going to start doing that as well.

Matt,

Seems to be a rather large amount of water to be condensation? I was onboard all winter and condensation in general inside the boat was not much of an issue.

[bottomscraper]

I grease ours every year along with the deck plate for the emergency tiller. I just use Morey's Red like on everything else.
I replace the o-ring every couple of years, I'm due this year.

I also replace the water tank filler o-rings every couple of years, I don't grease them but probably some food safe grease would not be a bad idea.

[Oswego John]

What would that be, mayonnaise, butter or Crisco?

Jes' kiddin,

O J

[Jim_B]

Great tip on replacing. After a quick trip to the hardware store I did the 5 yesterday. Hardest part was getting the old O-rings off the caps. This was probably the best $2.51 I've spent on the boat. Thanks!

[Steve Laume]

Next time you are at the dentist's, ask the hygienist for some old dental pics. These things are the best tool ever for removing old O rings. Great for cleaning out Philips heads too.

You will find all sorts of other uses for them once you have some, Steve.

[bottomscraper]

What would that be, mayonnaise, butter or Crisco?

Jes' kiddin,

O J

Bacon Fat!



Actually I was thinking something more like the silicone grease use for o-rings on whole house water filters: DOW 111

http://www1.dowcorning.com/DataFiles/09 ... 002d53.pdf

[Numbah134]

Next time you are at the dentist's, ask the hygienist for some old dental pics. These things are the best tool ever for removing old O rings. Great for cleaning out Philips heads too.

You will find all sorts of other uses for them once you have some, Steve.

Um, no. Stick to something softer than the material with the groove that the o-ring sits in - which hardened stainless steel dental picks are not, nearly always.

Part of an old cut up credit card is a good choice for most metals, or use a credit card from your wallet if you didn't put any cut up ones in your tool kit. On a plastic plug (or other item), best to go back to no tools if at all possible (clean very well (rubbing alcohol works nicely) to get old grease off the ring, then squeeze with your fingers to make a hump form that you can grab.)

O-rings are cheap. The various items from plugs to engine blocks with grooves in them are more expensive. Scratching those expensive items ruins the seal.

I don't have any thru-hull filler caps, but I spent a good 9 years or so working extensively with items having many o-rings.

Any yes, silicone grease is the usual food-safe grease of choice. The paint discussion would lead one to think it should be handled with care, or perhaps another type might be worth finding.

[sfreihofer]

Dental picks are good, but I have found that crochet hooks are even better. You can get them in various sizes, including very small ones, and the little hook works well to snag the "O" ring and remove it more easily than a dental pick. Since they are designed to work in fabric without snagging, they don't usually damage the "O" ring if you are careful.

My two cents... no change, please.

Stan Freihofer
1981 CD 25 #794
Ft. Lauderdale

Next time you are at the dentist's, ask the hygienist for some old dental pics. These things are the best tool ever for removing old O rings. Great for cleaning out Philips heads too.

You will find all sorts of other uses for them once you have some, Steve.

[Joe Myerson]

Russell et al:

Thanks for posting this warning. I've never even thought about checking those O rings--and I'd bet my bottom dollar (getting there quickly, BTW) that they're the originals from 1982.

And Stan, thanks for the crochet hook idea. It's a new tool that won't even take up much space in the onboard kit.

--Joe