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chuckhanson

chuckhanson

Regular Contributor
I decided to replace my gasoling filters yesterday. I picked possibly the best day of the year to do this job. The temperature index was 115 degrees at Pickwick lake. The project went very well on the port engine; the engine started and no leaks. Then I turned to the starboard engine. The installation went well but the fuel pump was pumping air only. I first focussed on air leaks on the suction side of the pump. Then I turned to air sucking back through the generator which shares the same line from the starboard tank. Finally I looked to the improbable; the dip tube may have fallen off. I carry a piece of copper tubing for this purpose. I opened the gas fill cap and inserted the tubing. For some reason I pulled it back out and it had very little gasoline on it. I got my handy dandy measuring stick and found I only had 3" of fuel in the tank. In twenty-two years of boating with this boat, I have run out of fuel one time. It was on the port tank. It ran out at 2". In that case I was feeding both engines off one tank. I ran out on one tank with a full tank on the other side.

In the future, I will check my fuel level as a first step in troubleshooting a fuel supply problem and avoid four hours of troubleshooting in melting heat. On the good side, I lost 3 pounds yesterday. I will probably find them today. Another good thing is that the last time on the boat, I went for a three hour cruise. I got back to the slip just as I was running out of gasoline and didn't realize it. I was having more fun and burning more gasoline than I figured.

Chuck Hanson
 
Its a good thing you weren't in an airplane. My boat has 2 125 Gal. tanks. The most I can draw out of them is 112 Gals. I am out of gas with 24 Gal. on board. My first boat only held 18 Gal. I miss it
 
A bad dip tube! Hey; that might be what's wrong with mine. Got a "mysterious" loss of fuel pressure on one side--and the tank was really low.

Have a cool one on me, Chuck!


Jeff
 
You know Chuck, things like that happen to me and once they do, something in my brain NEVER lets me forget about it. That makes me more paranoid about the issue than ever. I would wind up having gas gauges in every location I frequent and then a talking reminder on my phone...visual clues around the cabin etc.etc. My list is too long now as it is. You should see the OCD kick in when I leave the boat.....did I leave the switch on? And then it starts
 
Interestingly, I stick my tanks everytime before I leave the slip. The last trip I had 6" (30 gallons in each tank). I cruised for 3 hours and the starboard tank was down by 15 gallons. That is 5 gallons per hour for the starboard engine. That is a little heavy for my normal cruise. I will have to remember to carry a little more fuel.

Chuck Hanson
 
Chuck,

If it means anything, the best thing we did was add those Garmin GFS10 fuel flow meters to our chartplotter system. We hold 240 gallons and it measures it down to the 1/10 gallon whether we pour fuel into the carbs at WOT or idle thru the ICW. It always displays the amounts remaining or however you wish to measure it. When we fuel up we have options to just reset our default values or add a specific amount of fuel and it auto calculates or resets everything...even has an odometer, timer and several other nice features like distance to empty or reserve. For what its' worth
 
The problem seems always to get more complicated. After putting fuel in the tanks the pump would not pump. When I ran out of fuel I sucked air into the line going to the pump. That caused me to loose my prime. There just wasn't enough suction on the pump to pull the gas up 16 inches. As it turns out over the years the suction on the pump got weaker. I replaced the pump and now I am back in business.

I will get something like the Garmin when I buy another boat. I have had this one for 22 years and I am used to sticking the tanks.

Chuck Hanson
 
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