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Loss of power, stall and after 15 min restarts

patrscoe

Member III
Last year while sailing on a extended trip down the Chesapeake Bay, I was arriving into the my marina on the last day, about 400 yds away from my slip, my engine stalled. After going through the engine and did pretty much nothing to resolve it, the engine restarted and I motored into my slip. I had some nasty weather the last few days, pounding seas so I figured it was dirty fuel.
I replaced the fuel filters (Racor 10mil and Universal fuel filter on the engine), removed the diesel fuel from the tank, installed a access port in my tank and cleaned the tank by hand.

A few weeks ago while heading back from a sail, my engine did the same the thing and it eventually restarted and working fine to the slip. It was a fairly calm day - no waves and pounding seas.
One thing I notice on both incidents, I started to loss rpms and I had to increase my throttle to keep up with my speed up through the channel. Also when it restarted, it seemed fine.
I am debating to go through the same process I did last fall.
On previous sailboats, I never changed my fuel filters multiple times throughout the season, especially due to stalling out. I only changed them each spring and never had issues.

Any thoughts?

Keep changing my filters?
Change out my fuel?
Clean out my pick up line? (how?)
 

Christian Williams

E381 - Los Angeles
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
Many of us who suffered similar symptoms found the issue to be a hairline crack, just about invisible, in the aluminum casting of the (old) fuel filter housing. The Racor 200-series is famous for that after 20 or 30 years. The crack is a suction, so no leak shows. Have a careful look.
 

Frank Langer

1984 Ericson 30+, Nanaimo, BC
Many of us who suffered similar symptoms found the issue to be a hairline crack, just about invisible, in the aluminum casting of the (old) fuel filter housing. The Racor 200-series is famous for that after 20 or 30 years. The crack is a suction, so no leak shows. Have a careful look.
Mine was a very small air leak in the fuel pump, which even the mechanic missed, but I eventually found thru a technique in Nigel Callers Boatowners Mechanical and Electrical Manual, a must for every boat owner to own, in my opinion.
My symptoms were as you describe. So could be the fuel filter, fuel pump, or a tiny crack in a fuel line.
Frank
 

patrscoe

Member III
I will take look at the Racor housing and assembly. I was thinking of replacing the fuel pump as I only have had the sailboat for over 2 1/2 years and not sure how old the pump is.
 

patrscoe

Member III
I changed all fuel filters, carefully inspected the Racor housing and looked okay, I tried to remove the filter from the electric pump but the nut and twist access would not allow me to do this unless I damage the pump so I left it alone. I pumped out the fuel and re-cleaned the tank. There was some blackish film at the bottom of the tank starting to build up but not a lot.
When I bled the fuel at the fuel filter on the engine, the fuel that initially came out was blackish (with small particles) so I let the fuel bleed out until the fuel was clean. Fresh fuel and the engine is running fine.

I can understand the spring of last year when this happen, as I purchased the sailboat the fall before, and sailed her non-stop in the early spring 130 nm down the Chesapeake bay in a horrible S 20 to 24 kt head wind and steep waves for nearly 27 hrs and the bow was just pounding in and through the waves so my tank was stirred up and my engine stopped few hundred yards away from marina (it was a little deflating going all that way, non-stop and have your engine stall out as you see your slip in the distance). But after that, I completely cleaned the fuel system and was thinking I should be good for awhile.
I know I have not used her as much as I wanted this year due to the excessive heat and personal / family activities but I didn't think it would become contaminated again so quickly. I also ordered a new fuel pump and the next fuel filter cleaning, I will replace it and take the existing pump home and clean, and use it as a spare.

Anyways, I will need to treat the fuel more often and schedule to change out the filters twice a year.
 
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