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Capt'n Pauley's Place - The Virtual Boatyard is hosted by:

Capt'n Pauley Productions
4142 Ogletown-Stanton Rd.
#243
Newark DE 19713

Paul W. Esterle
302-438-4145
pesterle@comcast.net

Copyright 2009

Comments

[garry wright]

Hi there,

Where can I purchase complete plans for the Bolger Brick? Thanks! garry

[Capt'n Pauley]

I'd use a variable speed saber saw. I use a Bosch. Go with a medium fine metal cutting blade and a slow speed. Take your time and you'll be fine. The chips will fall into the tank, so you'll need to clean them out as best you can. The filters should handle the rest.

Good luck!

[Michael Boniface]

Thank you Paul,
The Betamarine engine is the smartest thing we did on the boat. Can't speak enough of the high quality !

Re. my tank challenge - I came across their site but got the feeling thay didn't work directly with the public. I will go back to it, as I recognized that they have some excellent solutions.

Just one thing re my previous note - how would you go about making the hole for one of their plates ?
Thanks again.
Miguel

[Capt'n Pauley]

Congratulations on the Betamarine engine, my favorite!

I have a good solution for you. It will give you both an access plate to clean out the tank and a convenient place to add the needed pickups. A company called seabuilt (www.seabuilt.com/index.php) makes access pates that can be installed easily from outside the tank. The access hole will give you room to suck out the crap and the cover plate can be used to mount the fittings.
I wouldn't use a drill pump or a vacuum. I've had bad luck with the drill pumps and the vacuum can still spark and light the diesel fumes. My choixe would be a vacuum style oil change pump. It might take awhile but it will be far safer.

Hope this helps!

Cpt'n Pauley

[Michael Boniface]

Hello Paul,

My name is Miguel Boniface. I and my parents have an 1977 32ft Islander, in San Pedro California.

I have been delighted for sometime with your valuable articles. The last one was "Marine Fuel Polishing Solves the Problem", in Madmariner.com.

I would like to know if you advise me on one issue with respect to installing the basic system.

We installed a new Betamarine 20hp engine 4 years ago, but the mechanic didn't touch the fuel tank, or even mention the need to inspect the tank, etc. Our ignorance didn't help things.

This summer, four years later and less than 30 hours on the engine, we found ourselves engineless after a sail back from Catalina Island.

Given we were still ignorant of microbes that clog fuel filters, we called in a Betamarine mechanic to inspect/repair the engine, thinking that the problem was something integral to the internal parts of the engine.
Well, the engine was fine, but the RACOR filter and engine fuel filter clogged up.

So we spent 570$ to have him replace filters and due a general maintenance repair.
Since then, I have been reading and reading everything about the root cause of this problem, and the various solutions.
The commercial services run 300-400$, but only cure the problem momentarily.

I am going following your advice and install an on board fuel polishing system. I will use the Walbro pump and another RACOR 500fgss filter.
My issue on, to which I haven't found an answer is:
I believe the system should be independent of the fuel pick-up line and filter to the engine. As such I can use the system at dock as well as when sailing around, during which more sludge drops off the tank walls.

My questions are:
As such I will need to install 2 new pipe fittings to the aluminum tank - one pick-up from the bottom of the tank and another for the return.
How do I install these ? Build an aluminum round plate, and install the fittings onto it ?

before doing that, I want to suck up as much sludge from the bottom of the tank as possible, through the fuel gauge sender plate. There is no access port. Can I use a portable pump that attaches to a drill or maybe a wet/dry vacuum ?

Re. if drilling the new fittings via a plate into the aluminum tank is the answer, I felt that I could do so without fear of the explosion factor. Drilling into aluminum doesn't throw off sparks. Diesel flash point is very high so I felt this would be alright.

I know I have thrown a few too many questions
at you, but I hope you can help.

Kind Regards,
Michael Boniface