Messages

Stu, thank you for the feedback (and for all your articles and posts - I have learned a lot from your writings).

"Sectionalizing" is on my list. I will take a jerry can of new clean diesel to the boat next week and connect jerry can>fuel pump>secondary filter. This will split my efforts between before/after the fuel pump. My main suspects are the npt fittings on the tank, the racor, and the secondary filter. If it continues to fail after that test I'll zero in on the secondary filter connections, filter seat, and filter bleed screw. If not, then tank fittings and racor.

Gregory - thank you, that had not occurred to me at all. I'm guessing with the sweet running before the clog and subsequent repair it's okay, but it's on my list to check now.

KWKloeber, I hadn't come across the IC30A forum - only the C30 facebook group, where I also posted. I have been overwhelmed with the quality information here on C34.org- particularly on the M25 and boat electrical systems, however I will join the IC30A forum as well and I hope the information is of the same calibre. Of course, I will ensure I properly tug my forelock when communicating with this group. Your post on checking for leaks is superb, and I will try your brake vacuum pump methods next week. Thank you. Oh, and its the 10u on the racor and a napa 3390 on the engine filter. I have been hand-tightening them on fairly forcefully, but both originals (to me) were very hard to get off. The engine filter required wraps of hocky tape to get enough grip with the strap wrench, and the racor required removal and a screwdriver hammered through the filter and another wedged in the base. Good times.

All this is actually (almost) fun. I am learning a tremendous amount about my engine. I could do without the ticking clock of haul-out, but I still have a couple of weeks to spare. If I can get a day with the winds in the right direction, I could sail it out the channel, but I am nervous. If you're bored and want a laugh, google map King Bay, Mactier Ontario. The passage to the west is where I need to get out. The passage to the south does not have a recommended gap to open water, only a winding inside channel south - good for motoring but not sailing.

My first post. Thank you all for the wealth of information on this site. I'm afraid I'm an interloper, as I have a Catalina 30, not a 34. Please don't banish me – the amount I have learned from this site has been amazing! Now, the tale of my engine woes – this is long, so I tried to make it somewhat entertaining and put some questions at the end.

To summerrize the saga below:
1989 M25XP runs sweet for 10 minutes then dies.
Cracking the injector pump bleed seems to help a little (runs poorly but does't die)
I don't believe it is clogged fuel delievery
Possibly air getting in the lines from work done fixing clogged fuel delivery

I recently purchased a 1989 Catalina 30 on Georgian Bay up  in Canada. My wife and I enjoyed several overnight trips, unfortunately completely windless with no sailing, but the motor (M25XP) seemed to run fine. We probably put over 20 hours on the engine. No problems. The boat is at a dock with no services – just the dock – and we had arranged for winter storage about 6 hours by sail south. On the planned day to move her, with a brisk wind (finally!) and two children in tow we began the motor to open water. It is a 40-minute motor down a rock-strewn channel to get to open water. With the wind on the nose we began with all confidence in the motor into the chop. 20 minutes into the trip the engine began to sputter and cough. Then it died. I restarted it, but it began to sputter again, so I wheeled around 180 degrees and unfurled the genoa just as the engine died a second time. Our first sailing experience on the boat was more stressful than I would have liked, but we managed to sail her back to the dock avoiding many large granite piles and gave each other a few high fives. Rough water had stirred up crud on the tank and blocked something up I surmised – a common problem that this group confirmed (and C34.org).

So, next steps: Enlist my son the aspiring race car mechanic – not a diesel guy, but very handy with things that drink dinosaur juice; The tank has no cleanout access so I ordered one from Boyds Welding (it made it from Florida to Detroit in 3 days and has now been in border limbo for a week and a half); I pulled the pick-up line out of the tank expecting to find a clogged screen only to find someone had already removed it; I checked the metal tube and rubber end and everything was clear; I changed both the primary Racor filter (R24T) and the engine mounted secondary filter. Time to bleed and start it back up. No joy, The engine would not start. I pulled the line from the engine mounted filter – no fuel with the lift pump running. My Racor is between the electronic lift pump and the tank, so next I took the tank line and hooked it directly to the lift pump – still no fuel. I disconnected the line coming from the fuel tank at both ends and blew through it (carefully). Clogged. Another more forceful blow and out into a bucket came nasty black gunk. I have fixed it! I am a diesel god! So I thought. Everything back together the engine started and ran smoothly confirming my diesel god-like status. It had been a long day, so off home for well-deserved libations. Sadly, the saga continues...

A few days later I decided to shake off the engine fear and take her out for a single-handed anchor out. 10 minutes from the dock passing through a particularly narrow passage – sputter, sputter quit. Fack. This time the light winds were against my return and stupid me had neglected to take off the main sail cover. Trying to tack under genoa only between the red-green-there-be-dragons-markers left my mouth a little dry. Not so much of a diesel god after all I thought, once tied safely to the dock.

Round 2 (still waiting for my tank cleanout access panel): Remove the rubber pickup end to keep it out of the gunk at the bottom of the tank. Clean the check valve in the racor (thank you Stu Jackson); Add some fancy diesel additives to the tank and take 20' of fuel line and run from the lift pump to the tank fill (through the Racor), after an hour of cycling, change the Racor out with a new one (at 50 Canadian pesos a pop!). Seems to run fine, but I feel less sure of myself. A week later my son and I try a second trip to move the boat south, this time I do a few donuts in the bay by the dock and everything seems fine, off to the races. First narrow channel: sputter, sputter, quit. I think the new boat is testing me, sort of like my wife did when we first started dating.

Round 3. Replace lift pump (I may have been happy with a new filter for the old one, but getting things like that up north can be challenging and I found a whole new pump for an only mildly curse inducing 170 Canadian pesos, and I can keep the old one as a spare), changed out the secondary engine filter again (why not!). Fool me once - this time I put the engine under load tied safely at the dock. 10 minutes in – just as she is reaching operating temperature, sputter, sputter, quit. Well, at least I didn't have to sail back into the dock this time. Checked the tank vent – clear. Removed the return line, with the injector pump bleeder valve open lots of fuel flows through the return, with it closed and engine running, small drips – not sure if that's normal?

After some head scratching I was able to turn the "run great for 10 minutes then sputter, sputter, quit" into "run great for 10 minutes then  lower rpm (2400 down to 2000) with a little sputter" by opening the injector bleed valve a crack. A clue? Possibly, but it was time to go home (with a stop to pick up the extra car left at the marina we dream of getting lifted out at before the north turns into a frozen wasteland.)

My current best guess is air getting into the fuel lines. I have been at each and every connection, dripping sweat and little blood, with bad eyesight. I have probably caused an air leak. I am going to swap out all the fuel lines for new, including the return  and replace all the hose clamps with the non- perforated kind, and a bouquet of roses for boat (it could help), and finally make sure the primary and secondary filters are so tight I'll never get them off again.  I should add that flow seems good and no water or gunk in the racor bowl.

Well, if you got this far thank you. I have a few questions that I am hoping will find the eyes of a real diesel god, and a few that you mere-mortal-but-more-knowledgeable-than-me sailors could answer:

1.   Does air in the lines sound feasible?
2.   Any other suggestions or troubleshooting ideas?
4.   Is running a boat in reverse at the dock at 2400 RPM a bad thing?
5.   Is there a diesel safe version of Teflon tape, or do I need to start researching NPT thread?

Ps if it helps, I will expand on sputter, sputter, quit. The engine will be purring (as much as a diesel can I guess) at 2400. My eyes are drawn to the tach when the engine seems to start missing, then a little drop maybe 200 rpm, increasing throttle has no effect, then it starts to lope down to 1500 back up to 2000, after a few lopes, it drops to 1000 rpm, then quits.