Last weekend, we took a trip down the Bay which amounted to about 80 miles under power. On the return, I happened to notice that the reading on the fuel vacuum gauge had crept up from the 3-5 range to around 10 (the high end of the "Yellow" range on the Racor gauge), though the engine seemed to be running ok. Time to change the filter, I thought, even thought it was new this spring.
Changed the filter a couple days ago. Now the gauge reads 12 (in the "Red" area). Hmm. Swapped the gauge with the one on the polishing system. Same reading.
Eventually, my favorite marine technician came by, disassembled the manual fuel shut-off, and dug out three BB-sized spheres of silicone from the valve. Put everything back together. Vacuum reading back to 3.
So where did the the three BB's come from? I just had the sending unit out within the last month. That was bedded with silicone. Maybe the silicone was applied across a screw hole and got pushed down through the hole and into the fuel when the screw was inserted?
Interestingly, two of the three spherical blobs were clear and one was white, suggesting two different contamination events.
It surely was nice to find the smoking gun. Absent that gauge, I would have eventually either lost the engine to fuel starvation while underway or simply burned out the fuel pump.
Love that gauge!
Bill
Changed the filter a couple days ago. Now the gauge reads 12 (in the "Red" area). Hmm. Swapped the gauge with the one on the polishing system. Same reading.
Eventually, my favorite marine technician came by, disassembled the manual fuel shut-off, and dug out three BB-sized spheres of silicone from the valve. Put everything back together. Vacuum reading back to 3.
So where did the the three BB's come from? I just had the sending unit out within the last month. That was bedded with silicone. Maybe the silicone was applied across a screw hole and got pushed down through the hole and into the fuel when the screw was inserted?
Interestingly, two of the three spherical blobs were clear and one was white, suggesting two different contamination events.
It surely was nice to find the smoking gun. Absent that gauge, I would have eventually either lost the engine to fuel starvation while underway or simply burned out the fuel pump.
Love that gauge!
Bill
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