oceandreams89
Member II
Hello everyone,
Last fall, the day after Thanksgiving, while completing a long, very cold, and very rough trip from our summer port of Mystic, Ct to our winter haulout up the CT river in Haddam, CT we experienced a fuel supply issue with our 1989 38-200, and I'm wondering if anyone has had similar experiences, and if I need to investigate this further.
We departed Mystic with about 1/2 tank of fuel (26 gallons or so) for a 6 hour trip at 1 gal per hour or less I figure. Plenty of fuel right....
Most of the trip was uneventful although very cold, and very windy with "fresh" NW winds, and rough short seas. We motorsailed west in Long Island sound towards the CT river entrance in Old Saybrook CT. As we turned north from the sound to enter the channel leading to the river we began to pitch a little more violently in the 4-6 ft seas as we entered more of a headwind / head sea condition.
As this began the engine started to loose power and then died. I went below and bled the system, and the engine re-started. I had to do this several times until we worked our way up wind enough that the waves grew smaller and the pitching motion reduced. As we entered calm water the engine ran normally and continued to do so for the next 2 hours up the river without incident.
I figured that as the pitching motion increased we exposed the fuel tank pickup in the less than 1/2 full fuel tank due to free surface effect, took some air, and killed the engine. The tank is fairly large in aream but shallow and I dont think there are internal baffles to prevent the free surface sloshing of fuel, but I'm not positive about that. That is the only reason that I can see for this problem since it ran great the remainder of the trip. I am planning on replacing the Racor and engine mounted filters this spring as normal before my trip back to Mystic. The fuel tank was out for repair 3 years ago and was totally cleaned then. I have been running with less fuel the last few years so that I am always using somewhat fresh fuel, it just means more trips to the fuel dock. Up until this day, I never had one problem with this engine in any conditions in the last 6 years, and we use this boat several times a week during the season.
Has anyone else encountered this problem or had a similar problem with their Universal 5432 / 38-200? It was certainly a trip to be remembered. It was about 30 degrees, blowing a steady 20-25 with unforecast gusts reaching, at the highest... 48 knots on our meter. Everything was wet and very cold, and later very icy. I just could not combine a day off with perfect weather to move the boat and it just got too late in the season, but never again to be sure......
Thanks for any insights anyone can offer on this engine fuel issue....(not on trip planning .
Todd
Last fall, the day after Thanksgiving, while completing a long, very cold, and very rough trip from our summer port of Mystic, Ct to our winter haulout up the CT river in Haddam, CT we experienced a fuel supply issue with our 1989 38-200, and I'm wondering if anyone has had similar experiences, and if I need to investigate this further.
We departed Mystic with about 1/2 tank of fuel (26 gallons or so) for a 6 hour trip at 1 gal per hour or less I figure. Plenty of fuel right....
Most of the trip was uneventful although very cold, and very windy with "fresh" NW winds, and rough short seas. We motorsailed west in Long Island sound towards the CT river entrance in Old Saybrook CT. As we turned north from the sound to enter the channel leading to the river we began to pitch a little more violently in the 4-6 ft seas as we entered more of a headwind / head sea condition.
As this began the engine started to loose power and then died. I went below and bled the system, and the engine re-started. I had to do this several times until we worked our way up wind enough that the waves grew smaller and the pitching motion reduced. As we entered calm water the engine ran normally and continued to do so for the next 2 hours up the river without incident.
I figured that as the pitching motion increased we exposed the fuel tank pickup in the less than 1/2 full fuel tank due to free surface effect, took some air, and killed the engine. The tank is fairly large in aream but shallow and I dont think there are internal baffles to prevent the free surface sloshing of fuel, but I'm not positive about that. That is the only reason that I can see for this problem since it ran great the remainder of the trip. I am planning on replacing the Racor and engine mounted filters this spring as normal before my trip back to Mystic. The fuel tank was out for repair 3 years ago and was totally cleaned then. I have been running with less fuel the last few years so that I am always using somewhat fresh fuel, it just means more trips to the fuel dock. Up until this day, I never had one problem with this engine in any conditions in the last 6 years, and we use this boat several times a week during the season.
Has anyone else encountered this problem or had a similar problem with their Universal 5432 / 38-200? It was certainly a trip to be remembered. It was about 30 degrees, blowing a steady 20-25 with unforecast gusts reaching, at the highest... 48 knots on our meter. Everything was wet and very cold, and later very icy. I just could not combine a day off with perfect weather to move the boat and it just got too late in the season, but never again to be sure......
Thanks for any insights anyone can offer on this engine fuel issue....(not on trip planning .
Todd
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