Engine sump

[dr2owen]

Can someone please explain the concept of the sump below the engine for me. Why is it separate from the bilge and how do I empty it. On my Cape Dory 330 it is filled with water and other sorts of foul debris and when I flip the switch on the electrical panel labeled sump nothing happens. The boat has a separate pump in the bilge which is working fine.

[Steve Laume]

It is there to catch any oil or other contaminates that might leak from the engine before they get to the bilge. This is so that they cannot be pumped overboard when the bilge pump cycles.

The problem with this system is that the pan is not easily emptied of water that might accumulate there from the stuffing box drips. I used to use a turkey baster to remove the water in the pan. If I didn't keep the level fairly low, it would spill out onto the cabin sole when on a port tack. After dealing with this situation for a few years, I added a 1" drain tube that would allow the pan to empty into the bilge. This can be stopped with a standard rubber plug.

You can also use a fuel bulb with short lengths of hose to pump it out into a container or into the bilge, Steve.

[Jim Walsh]

Can someone please explain the concept of the sump below the engine for me. Why is it separate from the bilge and how do I empty it. On my Cape Dory 330 it is filled with water and other sorts of foul debris and when I flip the switch on the electrical panel labeled sump nothing happens. The boat has a separate pump in the bilge which is working fine.

The breaker labeled “sump” on your panel is to activate the pump to empty your shower sump, which is separate from your bilge. The shower sump collects the grey water from your shower and sink in the head. You should have a separate bilge pump breaker on your panel.
The reason nothing happens when you activate your sump breaker is your sump pump may have a float switch, hence if there is no water in your sump the float switch does not activate your sump pump.

[JD-MDR]

Often when I change the oil and fuel filters a little oil spills. Its nice that it doesn’t go down into the bilge . I know how scummy and stinky it gets after a while. I can easily vacuum and wipe the pan under the engine

[BernieA]

On my CD28, the pan below the engine and reverse gear is integral with the motor mounts but does not extend below the stuffing box. It catches any oil, fuel, transmission fluid, antifreeze or seawater from the cooling system. Stuffing box drips go to the bilge. The gap on the forward end allows overflow from the pan to flow to the bilge. I check and clean the pan regularly and do what I can to stop any leaks before they get serious. A quick wipe with a paper towel is normally all it needs. The last thing I want to have is an overflow pumped over the side.

Bernie
CD28 S/V Pinafore

[Paul D.]

The sump pump switch is there for the shower drain but you may not have a sump pump installed. Our 33's head floor grate drains to the bilge but there is no sump or pump system for it. I guess it was up to the owner to install an actual sump in the bilge and separate pump. There are bilge sump w/pump kits available from Defender you could mount in the bilge and hook up to the panel -but you still have to figure out where to pump it too - overboard or holding tank etc.

I too use a hand pump to drain the pan under the motor. If there is any oil or fuel there it should not be pumped overboard but taken to a gas station or something. (We give our old oil to the marina owner who uses it to heat his workshop.) Once the pan is drained, I'd clean it all with a degreaser & detergent. If you have no engine oil/fuel leaks then you can drain to the bilge and pump out when needed. My sump only gets oil in it if I spill it during a filter change. Sometimes it still happens even after years of doing this task. I usually have good luck hand loosening the filter, placing a gallon zip lock bag over the filter from behind and then removing it into the bag.

Good luck,

[John Danicic]

An "Oil Absorbing Sheet", (Bilge Blanket) is handy for all oil spills, drips and leaks. They are like big thick paper towels. They absorbs only oil and not water so they float in the sump if water seeps in via the cockpit hatches and/or stuffing box and collects. That water, with the oil absorbed by the bilge blankets, is easy to pump out with a hand drill pump into the bilge and thence out with the bilge pump. I added a spur to the shower bilge line that allows me to use that pump to drain the engine swamp directly. Using a turkey baster that Steve Laume suggested, would be a good job for a bored teenager.



As an owner of a venerable Perkins 4-108, I know a thing about oil leaks under the engine. I always have two layers of bilge blanket under the engine and change them about twice a season. Bilge blankets are the best way to clean up any oil spills. Pollution abatement crews use versions of them to hand clean rocks, birds and beaches after oil spills.

https://www.westmarine.com/buy/west-mar ... 86_007_506

[Tom Keevil]

On Rover the “sump” switch is wired to the bilge pump. I don’t know why, but it is occasionally useful. We keep an oil absorbent pad floating under the engine, and another down in the main bilge. These pick up any oil drops that get spilled. The engine sump fills up with water from the stuffing box. We occasionally use a hand drill pump to empty and clean the engine sump, but in general we just let it overflow into the main bilge. That doesn’t cause us any problems.

Originally both the head sink and the shower drained into the bilge. That was a rather disgusting setup. We added a through hull for the sink, and plumbed the shower drain into the holding tank. That line has a ball valve in it to keep odors confined, and we really don’t use it very often.

When we repowered Rover with a Beta 25 (with 4 motor moints), we mounted it on the original 3-point engine bed. This involved adding a steel beam under the front of the engine, which turned out to make accessing the engine sump much more difficult. Therefore, that sump has gotten much less attention in the last seven years, but it hasn’t caused any problems for us, other than making retrieval of dropped bolts/sockets/nuts etc more difficult.

[Doug Gibson]

Similar challenges to keeping my engine sump empty/clean with 4108 perkins. If the stuffing box is serviced and adjusted properly, there should not be enough water dripping to fill up engine sump. When I purchased my boat, the stuffing box leaked a lot - and filled up the sump, allowing oily water to spill into keel bilge. So, the first thing I did was to cut back propeller shaft mount flange on transmission to provide room to properly repack and adjust stuffing box (there is almost no room to do this in original factory installation). This dramatically reduced the amount of water dripping from stuffing box into the engine sump - it no longer overflows into keel bilge sump. I also keep pads in sump under engine to absorb leaking oil. Twice a year, when I finish servicing engine / changing oil, I spray engine with degreaser and rinse engine with fresh water. I then use a wet/dry shop vac to vacuum up oily water and other debris from the sump and then wipe down with paper towels - nice and clean with no smell!

Water leaks from deck/cockpit/rudder post can wind up in the engine sump as well.

[Bill Goldsmith]

When full, my engine sump can hold about 4 gallons of water. Sometimes it is an oily mix. I normally pump it out with a hand pump into old anti-freeze bottles and dispose of them as oily mix at a proper facility. I've been meaning to install a permanent 1/4" tube from the sump up to the cockpit locker and attach a hand pump to that, which would make regular pump outs much easier. I'm pretty sure the source of the water is the engine compartment ventilation cowls, since the water normally does not accumulate there unless there has been a driving rain. One of these days I will get covers for them.

[Joe Myerson]

My little boat has a sump, which often gets full of oily water. I try to bail it out regularly, using an old sponge or a turkey baster. In addition, I leave one of those handy oil-absorbing "diapers" that John D. mentioned, in the bottom of the sump. I also put one of those "bilge socks" in the bilge--and change both regularly.

--Joe

[Steve Laume]

I have a few of these left over from playing with the kids. They are great for all sorts of water removal and relocation. Much more fun than a bilge pump for emptying a kayak. We used them for wash down on a rafting trip as well as on river water battles. It holds much more water than a turkey baster and can be used for other purposes as long as it is clean. Got fish blood and scales on the boat, just whip out your stream machine and wash that nasty stuff right off. Anchor mud and no wash down hose; no problem. An engine sump full of water you don't want going overboard; just suck it up and blast it into a container. Need to refresh a sleepy crew member? You might have to think twice about that one but they are fun to play with, Steve.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXzpDpW9kY0

[bottomscraper]

I hate to admit how many of those oil absorbent pads (engine diapers) we used when we still had the Perkins 4-108. With the new Beta 38 only one each oil change.

https://shop.hamiltonmarine.com/product ... 42969.html

[gates_cliff]

I've found I have a leak from the back of the engine so I have to empty out the engine pan and bilge regularly to avoid the pump dumping oil in the water. I talked to the mechanics at Marine Engines Unlimited in Galesville and they suggested I wait until the end of the season to have it repaired.

Also:
On my boat I have one of those extension hoses that is connected to the oil sump. It finally occurred to me that I ought to use it with my oil extractor and just put the tube through the hose. Up until now I've always gone through the dipstick hole and of course had a mess once I removed the hose. I'd spend as much time cleaning up around the engine and pan as I did actually removing the oil.

[Steve Darwin]

I empty the engine pan with a fuel bulb: about 1 ft. of stiff hose to insert into the pan and about 6 ft. of flexible rubber hose from the bulb up through the companionway, over the bridge deck, and down into a cockpit drains. Didn't think the bulb would lift to that height, but it works.