Always be careful with gas

MattSC · Post by **MattSC** » Wed Sep 24, 2008 9:40 pm

Got an unpleasant suprise today. Just as I boarded the boat, I thought I smelt gas fumes. Opened up the cabin and yep, I smelled gas fumes though it wasn't that bad. First thing I did was open everything up, shut off the shorepower and began to investigate. Turns out my Racor fuel/water separator filter developed a small leak at the drain nut. Not much fuel had leaked out, but just enough to alert me to it. I ended up changing the filter, and retightened everything, cleaned up what had dripped and gave it a good hard run and all seems to be OK. This could have ended up alot worse. I had changed the filter at the beginnning of the season and have put close to 40hrs on it without any signs of leaking. What caused it to leak I have no idea, it was fine over the weekend. This upset me a bit because I'm always checking and double checking things, and I had been checking all my hoses and clamps over the weekend and nothing was leaking then. Just a reminder to everyone, always periodically check your fuel system

rick1954 · Post by **rick1954** » Thu Sep 25, 2008 7:25 am

Matt, I know what you are saying. Because of this I always worried about some sort of leak during a run. By the time you may smell something it would be too late and you will be on the outside of the boat looking in , if you are lucky. So, I installed one of the fume detectors, this one will sound an alarm and turn the blowers on. How sensitive is it you ask, well let me tell you. If a person would put on perfume and step on the boat, within minutes the bugger will be off and running. It went off once for me when I installed the new pump and it developed a leak on one of the fittings for the regulator, so I boat without a worry now.

jddens · Post by **jddens** » Thu Sep 25, 2008 9:16 am

I've gotten in the habit of runnigng the blower continuously when underway. I have a sniffer and it works great, I just feel more comfortable with the blower going, especially with the lower cruise speeds that gas prices have initiated..................more wear and tear on the blower but iI figure it's cheap insurance.

MattSC · Post by **MattSC** » Thu Sep 25, 2008 8:38 pm

Just got back from the boat and everyting is OK. Rick, what make fume detector do you have? I definitely will be installing one during the off season. I'm also going to change the racor filter setup I have. It has three parts, the filter, bowl, and drain plug, and install one that has one part, similar to an oil filter. Two less parts that can fail. jddens, I also run my blower when I operate at lower speeds. Thanks again for the feedback,
Matt

james264 · Post by **james264** » Thu Sep 25, 2008 8:57 pm

You lucked out I had a similar thing happen about 9 years ago on my 78 clean machine .I wish it was a leaking nut turned out some @#$%&*% ran a stainless screw into the engine bulkhead to hold up a bracket turned out the screw was about an 1 1/4 long and about a 1/8 inch of it ran into the side of the tank .Well it decided to leak one day and I arrived at the marina with a six pack in one hand duffle bag in the other and a bilge with about 20 gallons of gas in it.What a mess the marina towed it to the lift drained out the gas I had to flush the bilge out etc. but before we towed it killing the 12volt power was like defusing a bomb the marina was worried about it pumping out the fuel and any spark even though all the pumps are sealed inside .I had thought the old tanks had rotted out so I decided to replaced em both but during removal of the old tanks I found what had caused the leak . That was a real pisser the old tanks where in great shape. jim

LandVF36 · Post by **LandVF36** » Thu Sep 25, 2008 10:53 pm

I replaced two aging units in my F36 this year. They were units from Marine Technologies http://www.mtiindustries.com/ms2.htm

One one unit, I installed a Y adapter and placed a sensor on the center stringer forward of each engine. I figured any leaks from side tanks or engines would flow downward and then forward to the lowest point in the hull. The sensors are also in the path of air the blowers force when running.

The second unit sits below my genny and in the path of the blower for it as well.

At the bridge, I have a remote display/alarm that looks like its been around many years, but it still works fine.

After they were in, I was installing fuel flow meters. I was pleased to hve the alarm go off only two seconds after opening the fitting just before the fuel filter. I had a paper towel under the joint, but I don't even think there was a drip before the alarm sounded.

You can get combo units for Gas and CO2 but I opted for a pair seperate CO2 alarms, one in the main solon, one in the forward cabin.

Mitch

MattSC · Post by **MattSC** » Fri Sep 26, 2008 6:50 pm

Jim, that sounds like a nightmare!! Thankfully it all worked out ok, too bad you had to get two new tanks when there shouldn't have been a problem. I was lucky, most of the gas that had dripped was contained in a small area so it cleaned up ok. I've lost faith in the racor setup though, its only 4yrs old and was put in when I repowered. Will be looking to see if they have a single element filter or I will be giving it the deep six and going with a different setup.

Mitch, thanks for the info on the sensors. I'm definitely going to install it on the boat, will have to investigate the best place for the sensors. I don't have a generator and have one 15yr old 62 gallon aluminum fuel tank which is in pretty good shape so it shouldn't be that hard of an installation. Your boat is gorgeous, you did a really nice job on her.

thanks again for the iput,
Matt