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Engine Power Loss Issues - Any advice?


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26 minutes ago, dor said:

Many years ago I has a similar experience.  It was caused by water in the diesel.

How on earth do you check for that? This would be one of my biggest fears but also unsure how it would have got there as it has been all but full for all 3 weeks and never refuelled in anything but dry conditions. The boat had been sat for quite some time prior to me picking it up but again, it has taken 3 weeks to materialise, just seems at odds with the performance to date.

Thanks for the comments again though, all worth considering. :cheers:

 

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Drain some off from the fuel filter or bleed valve into a glass, let it settle and look for paleness/cloudiness.

There is a paste you can buy which you stick on the end of your fuel tank dipstick or mop handle (in my case) and then dip it into the bottom of the tank.  If there's water there it changes colour.

Clever Clicky

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1 minute ago, zenataomm said:

Drain some off from the fuel filter or bleed valve into a glass, let it settle and look for paleness/cloudiness.

There is a paste you can buy which you stick on the end of your fuel tank dipstick or mop handle (in my case) and then dip it into the bottom of the tank.  If there's water there it changes colour.

Clever Clicky

Cheers for that :cheers:

Not got a fuel tank dipstick yet mind :D

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.......... do like I do then ... mop handle or broom handle or break off a thin bit of tree branch ...... or glue all your old round pound coins together ...... or visit McDonalds and nick a load of straws to stick together ....... you could do the same with spaghetti, probably.

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16 hours ago, bizzard said:

Often missed by engine servicers is a wee fuel filter in the electric fuel pump which your Isuzu probably has. Probably behind a bayonet fitting cap on rhe end where the fuel pipes are connected to it. . A fairly common cause of breakdowns.

This is what has happened to me 3 times. First time got an engineer out to fix 'coz I was a total idiot. 2nd & 3rd time fixed it myself.

:)

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This happened to me last season after a service with filters etc changed. About 50 hours after the service there was an occasional loss of power. This gradually got worse until the engine stalled regularly. After a lot of cranking the engine eould start then run erratically then ok for a varying amount of time ( possibly several hours) until repeating. We called RCR out three times and on the third visit their engineer discovered the fuel/ water filter bleed screw had been loosened to bleed the fuel line after a new filter was fitted and then tightened onto the sealing washer whilst the washer was off centre. This worked ok for a while but under certain conditions would leak fuel/ allow air in to the diesel feed with the associated problems. Fitting a new washer correctly got us going and it has been ok since then (summer 2016).

Engine is Canaline 42 but filter housing was one fitted by boat builder separate to engine.

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3 hours ago, Ace 01 said:

This happened to me last season after a service with filters etc changed. About 50 hours after the service there was an occasional loss of power. This gradually got worse until the engine stalled regularly. After a lot of cranking the engine eould start then run erratically then ok for a varying amount of time ( possibly several hours) until repeating. We called RCR out three times and on the third visit their engineer discovered the fuel/ water filter bleed screw had been loosened to bleed the fuel line after a new filter was fitted and then tightened onto the sealing washer whilst the washer was off centre. This worked ok for a while but under certain conditions would leak fuel/ allow air in to the diesel feed with the associated problems. Fitting a new washer correctly got us going and it has been ok since then (summer 2016).

Engine is Canaline 42 but filter housing was one fitted by boat builder separate to engine.

Many thanks for that Ace....and Laurie ...much appreciated .....engine not fully stalled as yet but been close to it so far.

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3 hours ago, Laurie.Booth said:

This is what has happened to me 3 times. First time got an engineer out to fix 'coz I was a total idiot. 2nd & 3rd time fixed it myself.

:)

That little filter on the fuel pump with a bayonet fitting used to gunge up regularly on our Vetus. I always kept a spare or two. 

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21 hours ago, The Grumpy Triker said:

OK thank you - I'm in the bracket of 'A little knowledge is a dangerous thing'- I also had the answer "It's obviously something round the prop or shaft!" - been down the weedhatch so often to no avail that I'm like an F1 tyre changer with the hatch now :D

My confusion on this is that it keeps clearing and given a clean filter less than 130hrs of cruising time I thought ....hoped it would still be clean.

You  only require a few litres of "dirty fuel" to achieve your symptoms ,have you drained the water trap on your first filter from the tank?

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Apologies if someone else has mentioned this but it's possible that the river excursion being a bit more bumpy may well have stirred up some foreign matter, that might explain why the engine was behaving itself up to that point.   

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OK folks, RCR guy just left, spot on service I have to say, even though he's been tearing around all day.

- No extra filter just the primary and secondary

- Fuel came out clear as day, nothing in there except pure clean diesel....no water, nothing

- Tested it with a secondary field pump after replicating my issue after just 3-5 minutes of runtime, checked lines and nothing coming through - test pump work like a dream.

- switched back to boat pump and awaited it to stall again....nothing!....worked like a dream, but not safe enough to go on the river so having an enforced holiday in Tewkesbury until Tuesday probably.

thanks again to all for their help, greatly appreciated.:cheers:

Time for a beer or two to drown my sorrows :D

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OK you have had welding done on the tank, it is not unknown for a piece of scale to get sucked up against the fuel take off pipe cutting back the fuel supply, when the engine dies and the lack of suction drops the scale to the bottom of the tank and off you go again until the next time

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33 minutes ago, mross said:

Did the RCR bloke show you the breather for the fuel tank?

Aargh!....forgot that bit in the rain....will get him to Show me Tuesday as your info was of big value....I feel that knowing where that is will be a biggie in future ....many thanks again mross 

4 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

OK you have had welding done on the tank, it is not unknown for a piece of scale to get sucked up against the fuel take off pipe cutting back the fuel supply, when the engine dies and the lack of suction drops the scale to the bottom of the tank and off you go again until the next time

Nope  - not on the tank, the tank had to be emptied due to the Welding just outside it on the hull. ...but again a good shout.

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Of the inside of the tank skin got red hot it could still flake as Brain described. its the heat, not the actual welding. I suspect that is why many welders weld with the tank full of diesel (not petrol though - that’s an entirely different matter). The diesel would keep the inner side of the hull cool.

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6 hours ago, Laurie.Booth said:

This is what has happened to me 3 times. First time got an engineer out to fix 'coz I was a total idiot. 2nd & 3rd time fixed it myself.

:)

If you have a filter / agglomerator  before the pump then I believe the filter inside the pump is not really needed.

 I use this pump and copper pipe to get a sample from bottom of the tank.

 

dscf5434.jpg

Edited by Scholar Gypsy
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2 minutes ago, Scholar Gypsy said:

If you have a filter / agglomerator  before the pump then I believe the filter inside the pump is not really needed.

Hmmm... if that little filter is getting blocked then surely that’s evidence enough that it IS needed. 

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10 minutes ago, WotEver said:

Hmmm... if that little filter is getting blocked then surely that’s evidence enough that it IS needed. 

Yes, fair point.   But I would bet in that case that there is no filter before the pump. Three filters in series does seem a bit paranoid...

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Just to raise a point. What looks like a filter to the curary glance that is fitted between tank and engine may well be a form of water trap known as a sedimentor. These are designed to pair with the main filter or one next to it to remove the larger bits of crud and water but will leave about 20% of the water in finely divided droplets plus the smaller pieces of crud in the fuel. In this case the thing that looks like a filter will be working as it should.

In my view if you have one of those small filters after a sedimentor you should consider fitting another full sized filter after the sedimentor and binning the small filter. Preferably a  pocket (swiss roll) type filter rather than pleated because they can retain more crud before blocking.

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