TL;DR; A short explaination of how to service your fuel pre-filter/water separator for beginners.
On Wednesday arvo I got onto the boat and motored into a quite bay, picked up the courtesy mooring. The plan was to replace the fuel filters and get a twilight sail in (NE 13knots, perfect).
I started servicing my Beta 14 engine myself last year and hadn't serviced the Lucas (Delphi) C.A.V. pre-filter water separator fuel filter before. I purchased replacement filters before realising the previous owner had left a set behind. So now I had two sets of spares.
I don't think I had eaten enough for lunch because things quickly went pair shaped. In the replacement kit there were two replacement gaskets (different diameters) and two o-rings also different diameters.
I didn't know what this type of filter was named, so I had googled for "Ryco R2132P" to do some research on how to service it. I fould a youtube video. Great. I pulled it apart without paying enough attention to where everything went. Usually, when I do something like this I carefully photo every step of disembly so I can put it all back together again. Not this time. Maybe because I had diesel all over my hands in no time.
First problem. I didn't realise how much fuel this thing holds. At least two cups. I hadn't planned ahead and organised something to tip into so I could pour it back into the fuel tank. I also didn't realise that the fuel would completely drain out of the bottom of the filter.
Having separated the filter from the housing above and the glass bowl below, I now had two old gaskets and two new gaskets. Great. I remembered from the youtube video that the larger diameter gasket goes up into the housing with the top of the filter snugging up onto it. The instructions in the filter kit said that I should be able to push the filter onto the o-ring (which I had replaced) and I rotated the filter to try and ge the gasket centered and everything fitting snug. But the filter didn't want to stay. I played around a bit more and just held everything together while I reasembled the whole thing.
Then I replaced the secondary filter on the engine block and bled the system.
I opened the fuel line and started the engine. I had done a crap job of bleeding the system. So I went below and saw that the pre-filter was leaking fuel and on closer inspection I could see the top gasket wasn't seated properly. It was sticking out one side at the rear. Bleed another half a litre of fuel out of the filter and pour it into the dirty drip tray I have at hand. I still had lots of trouble getting the top gasket in and seated and reassembling everything. Fuel everywhere. Have I got the gaskets around the right way? Does the smaller one go on top and the larger one on the bottom? No, that doesn't look right. Gee, there is a lot of fuel over my hands and everything!
I had now googled about bleeding diesel engine, specifically Beta 14. I had never done it before. I find the bleeding bolt above the secondary filter and bleed that. OK, this time should be better. Open the fuel line. Go back on deck to start the engine. Engine splutters and stops a few times before all the air is out of the system. Going great. Go back down and OMG, even more fuel leaking out. It is worse than the first go.
But hang on. Something doesn't sound right. I go back up on deck and hang my head over the stern, There is no water coming out of the exhaust. Turn off engine. There is some weed in the sea-water filter bowl but not that much to block the system. The bowl lid comes off easily. No vaccum. Hmm, maybe with all the stopping and starting of the engine with the poor bleeding job I did on my first attempt the water syphoned back out of the sea-water intake. Anyway, the bowl is empty, so I close the sea-cock, tip some water in to prime it up and open up the water cock.
Now I make my third attempt at reseating the fuel filter. Another half a litre of fuel into the dirty drip tray. Still having trouble. But wait, what is the bigger problem? The fuel filter or the water intake? Bleed the engine again. Start it again. It takes a few goes to get the engine going and all of the air out of the system. Same problems. 1. No sea-water pumping into the cooling system. 2. Fuel dripping out of the fuel filter.
OK, try everything again!
Bloody hell, still no water coming out of the exhaust. I just slipped the boat and replaced ALL the sea-cocks with TruDesign PVC valves. The boat surveyor made me double clamp all the pipes. The marina assured me they had made sure all the through-hulls were clear.
I've got to get water going into the cooling system but I can't keep starting and killing the engine over and over or I will drain the starter battery. I've got to get home. I can motor home even with fuel pouring into my bilge and even with the engine not cooling if I keep the revs low it won't overheat. But this can't be good for the impeller. Oh, better check the implellor (which I only replaced a couple of weeks ago). Looks fine, Still damp in there. Good.
Start the engine again. Don't worry about the leaking fuel. I have massive wads of paper towel in the engine bay now to try and soak up the diesel dripping down. I've got to let the battery recharged a bit. (I do have a lithium ion jump starter on board if I need it but it is overdue for a reacharge). No water coming in. With the engine ideling I dive in and take a long screw driver with me. I shove it up into the through-hull and a few strands of seaweed come out. I press my lips against it and give it the kiss of life. I blow. I can feel there is some suction with my fingers pressed up against it. I massage my palm against it to try and give it a pump. I blow a few more times.
I get back on board. I'm dizzy and stumbling around. No water coming out of exhaust. Actually, there is some water coming out but very little. There must be a blockage. Fuel leaking everywhere below deck.
I disconnect the pipe taking water into the sea-water filter. I blow and blow and blow until I can feel that I have cleared the blockage. Somehow, the water must have back-syphoned when I was stopping and starting the engine and the weed that was in the basket blocked up the hose. One problem solved!
Back to the fuel filter. I have to stop the engine and let it cool down. It was 75C. It's getting dark now. Maybe I've stufed the gasket? Hey, I've got another spare kit on board. Let's try that one. I also put a rag up under the housing to try and clean out where the gasket should be seating itself. There is black residue coming out but no dirt. It doesn't feel corroded or damaged.
I go through everything again but with the new repco brand kit replacing all the o rings too. No luck, Every time I do it, it gets worse. There is fuel everywhere. I am defeated. There is one packet of instant noodles on board and lots of powdered cafe latte drink mix. I'm going to stay the night and come back to it with a clean head in the morning. I turn off the bilge pump in case it starts up and starts pumping diesel into the water. Early in the morning a southerly hits.
First light, with nothing else on board to eat, I make many cups of instant cafe latte and unbolt the fuel filter housing from the engine bay so I can have a good look at what is going on.
As soon as I turned it over so that I could see up under the housing to where the gasket goes I instantly saw my problem. The old gasket was still in there! Then I realised my mistake. The replacement kit comes with two gaskets, but my fuel filter needs three. One on and under the filter itself and another one between the glass bowl and the aluminium base that the bowl sits onto. When I pulled it apart and saw that I had two gaskets sitting in front of me and two replacement gaskets to go in, I got confused and didn't realise that I hadn't pulled the old gasket out from under the top housing. It was still siting there! No wonder I had so much trouble assembling everything and getting it to sit in place.
Curiously, there is another post on another online forum where the author made the exact same mistake!
I spend some time cleaning up all the fuel. It had run down into the bilge too! I used more fuel in this excercise than I normally use in three months!
Another fun day of boating. Another lesson learnt the hard way.
