Fuel fiasco

The plan was to get an early start on the fuel issue. So even though I awoke with a horrendous headache, I headed to the engine room. Well, after my first cup of coffee. I would be dangerous without at least that much caffeine in me!

First task was to disassemble the Racor to see if there was any crud in it. I could see a little silt in the bowl, so I wanted to thoroughly clean it. I did find some gunk in there, and got it completely cleaned out. Put it all back together and filled with fuel. But, the fuel did not look right. I drained some from the bowl and found a little water in it!

That is supposed to be next to impossible to happen. Several months ago I added a day tank, and all the fuel for engines and generator comes from there. The day tank is filled from the main tanks through a very large Gulf Coast filter system. There should be no way for water to get in the day tank. I took the inspection plate off the top of the day tank and was horrified to see a large amount of water and sludge sloshing around in the bottom of the tank. Yuck!

I pumped out as much fuel as I could, leaving mostly water and crud. My hand was too big to fit through the inspection opening, so Paula had to come down and put her delicate hand in the tank to wipe it out. That was truly some nasty stuff that came out of there!

Now we had a clean filter housing, and clean day tank. Next step was to take a look at the Gulf Coast filter to see if I could figure out why it was allowing crud and water to get through it. I removed the top of the filter, and immediately saw a problem. The top of the filter was covered in gunk and sludge. The fuel enters at the bottom and flows through the filter and exits at the top of the element. I should only see clean fuel on top. I removed the element and it was coated in this gunk, and the bottom of the housing was full of it. I cleaned the filter housing and put in a new filter element.

Apparently, at least one of the four main tanks, if not more, are contaminated with this stuff. I just took on a full load of fuel a couple of weeks ago, and am wondering if I got a bad load of fuel. In any case, this may be a problem for us on this trip. I am going to have to check the Gulf Coast filter after each time I transfer fuel to the day tank. I have two more filter elements on board, I hope that will be enough.

As if all of that weren't enough, we ended up with several gallons of fuel in the bilge. While working on the GC filter I inadvertently bumped a valve on the fuel manifold which allowed fuel to run into the bilge. It drained for several minutes before I saw it. What a mess!  On top of that, I realized I only had a handful of fuel spill pads in the lazarette. I usually keep several dozen, but did not realize how low I had gotten. So I had to use a plastic Mardi Gras cup to scoop the fuel into two 5-gallon buckets. Then use the fuel pads to sop up the remaining fuel. The fuel is contaminated with water and gunk from the bilge, so I don't want to pour it back in the tanks. So now I have two open buckets of fuel sitting in the cockpit. I have tied a couple of plastic garbage bags over the top to keep anything else from getting in there. And, to hopefully prevent the fuel from sloshing out if we get waked.

All of that took from 7:00 am until 2:00 pm, so we finally got underway at 2:30 pm. We did not make it more than 5 minutes and the port engine quit again.  Back down to the engine room. Suction looks okay, filter looks okay. Hmmm.  Tried bleeding the injection pump, and there was air. Perhaps I did not get enough fuel in the filter housing when I topped it off. Back upstairs and the engine started right up, then quit again in less than 5 minutes. Now, this is getting aggravating!  Back down to the engine room, bleed injection pump AND secondary filters. More air. Where is it coming from??? Start engine again and rush back down to the engine room to watch the Racor filter. I could see air bubbles in the bowl, and they appeared to be coming from the drain valve at the bottom of the bowl. I had Paula shut the engine down. Then drained the Racor housing, and removed the drain valve. Disassembled and cleaned that, especially the gasket that seals against the bowl. Screwed it back in, tightened as much as I dared. I had visions of cracking the bowl. I think I have a spare, but not sure where I have it stashed. Refilled with fuel, tightened lid well. Start engine, hold breath.... Yay!  No more bubbles!!

So we made a grand total of 12 miles today.  But, better than sitting still. We are currently anchored at Redfish Point, near the Pensacola Naval Air Station. Hopefully, tomorrow will be a very boring day.