On Mon, 12 Feb 2018 19:22:11 -0000 (UTC), Bill
wrote:

wrote:
On Mon, 12 Feb 2018 05:08:44 -0800 (PST), Tim
wrote:

Bill
- show quoted text -
Got the last couple gallons out. Mostly water.

?-

How?d all that get in there anyhow?


===

Yes, that needs to be understood, otherwise it will happen again. It
sounds like it was a lot more than just condensation or ethanol phase
separation.

It could have been a bad fuel purchase, sometimes happens. More often
it's from a leak around the tank fill, possibly correctable with a new
O-ring.

We had something a little more exotic on our last Caribbean trip -
lots of symptoms of something going on, but no show stoppers thanks to
a good set of large Racor water separators. It was getting worse
however so needed to be solved. After doing a number of thought
experiments I figured out that it was likely the fuel cooler on the
return flow to the tank, something unique to large diesels. We had a
mechanic in the BVI pressure test the cooler and that turned out to be
the problem. Blind pig finds acorn on first try. :-)

We still had a lot of water in the port side tank however so had to
pay a fuel polishing service in St Martin to run it through a big
centrifuge: Lots of $$$ for that and about 40 gallons of discarded
fuel/water mixture.

---
This email has been checked for viruses by AVG.
http://www.avg.com



The fuel fill is raised a little above the deck, so maybe slowed down water
intrusion. I replaced the tank in about 2002. Had a corrosion hole in
the top. Maybe I need to pull the deck and see if there is a hole. Deck
is screwed down covered plywood. So not a big problem to pull.

If you can plug all the ports, you can get a rough idea of the
integrity with a vacuum on "blow". You will smell the fumes in the
bilge if it is leaking. Trick up a real long hose so the vapor doesn't
get back to the vacuum or you may have a jet engine.
Safer is compressed air but you have to be careful of the pressure.