On Sun, 22 Mar 2009 20:32:38 -0700, "Mike" wrote:

As a young lad, spending time on my grandfathers farm, it was drilled into
my head to NEVER, EVER let the tractors run out of fuel. There was no excuse
other than laziness to let that happen since we had fuel onsite. I let it
happen once, and boy was he ****ed. I watched/helped him go thru the
procedure you described above. It never happened again.

Even if you are careful about not running out of fuel there is still
the issue of replacing fuel filters periodically. Some engines are
easier than others. Our primary generator has a 4 cylinder Yanmar
that is self bleeding for the most part but you do have to pre-fill
the new filter with clean fuel and crank it a bit.

The main engines for the trawler are DD 6-71s which are self bleeding
if you crank them enough but the engines consume so much battery power
while cranking that it is very easy to end up flat before they light
up. The solution is to install electric fuel pumps which can be
valved online when needed. You can hear the sound of the priming
pumps change when the injection system is fully charged, and the
engines will then fire up on the first turn.