May 16th Trip to the Summer Slip in Menominee
This is the 40 mile trip that should have taken 8 hours from Green Bay to Menominee and ended up taking 24.
Engine overheats
We start three hours late and as we pulled out of the Marina at 11:00 AM in time to make the bridge openings before the lunch time shut down. As we pulled into the channel that goes to the Fox River we hit bottom. We backed up and tried again several times, but each time we just got stuck. Then I noticed that the water temperature was going too high, so we turned around and went back to the dock at the marina.
I discovered that even with the cooling water reservoir full to the brim and fluid present in the water heater, there still was no fluid at the water pump just below the thermostat housing. When I took the thermostat housing off there was no fluid present. So I poured some into the housing slowly and filled it up that way. Evidently, when I removed the fluid in the fall and replaced it with fresh fluid I was not able to get any into the engine proper.
Filter Change #1
While messing around with the cooling fluid I had trouble shutting off the engine so I shut off the fuel at the input of the Racor Primary Fuel Filter, but that did not stop the engine quickly. Shifting back and forth from forward to reverse did stop the engine. Other folks say you can put your had over the air intake to stop the engine also. Anyway, I started the engine again and forgot that the fuel was still shut off. Needless to say the engine stopped. As soon as the fuel shut off valve at the input to the Racor was opened a white cloud flowed into the bowl of the Primary Racor filter. I changed it, but I also drained everything out of the Racor filter housing. The marina gave me a quart of clean fuel so that I could pre-fill the Racor housing after I inserted the new filter. We also changed the secondary filter on the engine.
Then we started off again, this time the water was a little bit higher in the Fox River so we had a better chance, but it is 3 PM now. We brought the boat up to where it got stuck and we turned up the engine RPM to near full throttle and waited as the boat slowly moved through the mud and after about 15 minutes we did get into the river channel about 75 yards away.
We motored down the river and through the open bridges. For one of the bridges we had to wait about 90 minutes as they had an electrical fault and it would not raise. We anchored at the side of the river and used the time to attach both the main and jib so that later we could sail.
We motored our way past the channel markers and out into the open water of Green Bay where we set the sails. We kept the engine running so that we had a better chance of getting to Menominee in time for the 9:30 AM Greyhound the next morning for a ride back to Green Bay.
Filter Change #2
About a half hour later the engine quit. I checked the secondary fuel filter and found that there was a lot of pressure on the vent side which is also the input side of the filter. I assumed that this meant that the filter was clogged. I removed the filter and found that the stuff in the center was clear, but when I tilted the filter over on its side the stuff from the inlet side or outside of the filter came running out and it looked really bad. I did not have any clean fuel left, so now I siphoned with my mouth and let it pour into a bucket and found a batch of black, smelly particles but then it cleaned up so I filled a quart jar with the clean looking diesel. Installed the new, but last, secondary filter filled with clean fuel. For good measure the Racor filter element was also changed and the Racor housing was filled with the remaining clean fuel.
Engine Stops the third time.
Now it is 9 PM and the fog is rolling in from Lake Michigan over the Door County Peninsula. We motorsail on for another two hours and the engine stops again and I do not have any more new filters. Motorsailing seems to be a good way to get the stuff out of the bottom of both sides of the fuel tank.
We sailed for three hours in very little wind to an anchoring spot (out of the way of commercial traffic) and went to sleep in fog as thick as pea soup. Next morning (three hours later) I remove the secondary filter and tap it so that whatever dirt was in it would go to the bottom of the canister's outside cylinder. Then I put it all back together and purged the fuel lines until I could see it pumping out of the air vent above the secondary filter in copious quantities. Gave the air intake a generous spray of WD-40 and it started right up but did not run long. The second time we started her she ran and ran for the rest of the trip (about 3 hours) and no sails or waves to get more dirt into the filters. We missed the Greyhound but found a ride with an airport limo type company that was going to Green Bay with two other passengers later that afternoon.
If you got this far you'll like the
www.trawlerworld.com/c_features_06.htm
site as it goes into how to keep the fuel polished clean as a whistle.
Lessons Learned
1. One set of fuel filters is not enough two sets are barely enough.
2. My next order will be for three sets, and I will change them every time I change oil no matter how clean they are. Further more I am going to clean the tank this winter.
3. I think I will get a vacuum gauge, TEE and shut off valve right after the Racor to see when it is clogged, then I should add a pressure gauge right after the pump to see when the secondary filter on the engine is clogged.
4. This time I bought three NAPA fuel filters at 1/2 the cost of the Universals
5. Typical fuel line air purging takes three sets of 30 second runs with the decompression lever pulled back. I did not think about sea water going into the exhaust manifold, but they tell me that it can damage the engine, but it is easy enough to stop the sea water by disconnecting the hose to the pump or from the pump. Next time after I get the full secondary filter installed I will also use a small funnel to fill up the rest of the housing through the vent opening.
6. The little bleed needle when attached to a small ID hose that dumps into a jar gives a perfect indication when the fuel is primed now that I have the electric fuel pump installed. A TowboatUS guy showed me another way to tell is by loosening up an injector inlet, but it can be dangerous if not covered with a thick cloth so I have never done that.
