We’re Going to Get Rid of the Fuel Problem if it Kills Us

After fighting with the fuel system for the last couple hours of our passage to Cyprus, we were determined to fix it once and for all. The first part of solving any problem is understanding it. The fuel tube that sucks up the diesel from the tank is getting clogged with debris from the bottom of the tank. I have been able to clear it before using a metal pushing stick but the last time I did it the metal stick broke inside the tube (doh!). We also filtered both tanks for hours hoping to suck up any of the debris – but it didn’t work … so more desperate measures were required.

One of the tanks in the cockpit

We started by transferring all the fuel out of the port tank to the starboard tank, and unhooked all the hoses to the port tank and physically removed it from the boat. The process of taking the tanks out is about an hour of work removing bedding, mattresses, unbolting supports, unhooking fuel lines, vent lines, and the filling hose. Then we needed to remove the sliding hatch, take down the dodger and bimini, and push the tank up the companionway hatch (Each tank holds 230 litres of fuel and is about 6 feet long, three feet wide and a foot deep) – without spilling any diesel. We carried the tanks ashore where we sluiced clean fuel into the tank and drained it out a hole in the bottom – until it was clean.


A "Diesel Bug" - about 1.5 inches long...and it moved!!

After this process, we ended up with about a teaspoon of debris – mostly plastic shavings, probably from the installation of the diesel furnace. While that may not seem like much, it’s enough to make an otherwise perfectly good diesel engine stop in its tracks. After the port tank, we did the same for the starboard tank that was surprising clean (since our problems always happened after transferring fuel from the starboard tank).

At the same time, we took the fuel pickup to a local welder and replaced the 5mm tank pickup tube with a 10mm pickup tube – so if we still have debris (or ever get it from somewhere else) it will get sucked up into the filters and not get stuck in the tube – or that’s the plan anyway. We also changed the shape of the tubes to remove angles in the fuel pipe, where the plastic seemed to accumulate the most.



The "classroom" while the tanks were being dealt with.

 Several hours later we had our fuel system reassembled and ready to test – unfortunately we didn’t have time to do a test under load before we departed for Israel – so we left on blind faith that we had finally licked the problem – and 24 hours of perfect engine behaviour later, it appears that we did.