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Subject: TWL: Alternate fuel sources and the beauty of a boost pump
From: Rich Gano (rgano@XXX.XXX)
Date: Wed Jan 02 2002 - 00:14:22 EST
In my latest alteration package I added a fuel cross-connect line and cutout
valve from just after the port main engine Racor filter to just after the
generator's Racor filter. The generator was installed with its primary (and
only) fuel feed through its own Racor from the same source as the STBD main
engine. Years ago I had installed a cross-connect with cutout valve between
the main engines after their Racor filters. Yes, I can cross-connect
port/stbd tanks at the manifold prior to filtration, but that would not
solve a stoppage caused by a clogged filter.
As an aside, I once noted one engine beginning to lose RPM and was able to
open the post-Racor cross-connect to restore full RPM to the lagging engine.
While continuing to run both engines at a moderate pace, I opened the
clogged Racor, quickly put in a new filter, bled the air with my installed
electric priming/boost pump, shut the cross-connect (I am a fanatic about
independent fuel sources for the mains), and resumed full power operation -
all in about the time it takes to type this.
It was the advent of the remote reading fuel line vacuum gauges in the pilot
house that got me to thinking I could now be in a position to know when I
should use a cross-connect for the generator. Previously, I would only know
so if the generator were to stop (or a main engine were to lose RPM, as
noted above). Actually a clog never happened with the generator, but when
it did stop earlier this year because of a control circuit problem, I could
tell from the vacuum gauge (reading zero) that it was not a fuel line/filter
clog. With zero vacuum, one might surmise air ingestion as the cause of a
sudden stop, I suppose, but use of my electric priming/boost pump failed to
get it going again eliminating that possible cause.
Air ingestion WAS the culprit recently when my stbd engine quit. Bled it
with the electric boost pump, started it, ran for awhile, secured electric
boost pump, engine stopped - cause obviously air ingestion. Oddly, I never
did get enough pressure at the source of air ingestion to make a drip big
enough for me to see. Got rid of some junky lines and connections in the
fuel system, as earlier described, tightened the Racor tee handle with a big
ole rubber washer instead of a wimpy little o-ring, and the whole lashup ran
like a scalded cat all day sans priming pump. My electric priming/boost
pump and vacuum gauges are some of the cheapest and best additions I have
ever made. I even refueled another boat once with the boost pump when I had
20 feet of fuel hose made up to a valve in the line after the pump.
Rich Gano
CALYPSO (GB-42-295)
Southport, FL
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