2022-05-15 More of the same generator issues

Sunrise

I was up early as I’d gone to sleep early. The waves circling around the Falmouth Harbour headland were high enough to cause the occasional slap on the aft section of the hull and that, coupled with some rolling, made for a somewhat uneasy sleep on my part.

I tried the internet again, and still cannot connect to my work account, but I’ll get that SIM card from the store ashore if they are ever open during daylight hours!

I’ve had my second cup of coffee using my Aeropress and am almost at the point where I’m brave enough to open the generator compartment and see what diesel might have leaked overnight. I pinched off the supply line last week, so whatever has dripped down must have been in the system.

Early morning

I risked a peek at the generator compartment and it looks pretty good. My lower ribs hurt a bit today as I was leaning head-down using them as a fulcrum yesterday, but I am going to go ahead and sop up the diesel from pan and the Joy/Diesel/Water emulsion from the bilge. The rain showers passing through mean that I have to shut the hatches, after which it becomes hot and sticky almost immediately. But when I open the hatches the breeze cools things down again and lets me work. I’ve sucked up almost 2 gallons of emulsion, which is approximately what I dumped in yesterday. The bilge is looking drier and the drip pan underneath the generator is not only dry but now is also clean; the previous crew that worked on the genset had let the saltwater drip in and set, so there was dirt and some rust to get rid of.

Now that everything is ready I’ll put my borescope to good use and if I see nothing amiss I’ll put a removable aluminum drip tray under the fuel filter and release my crimp on the fuel supply hose. If nothing drips out then I’ll prime the fuel system (which pressurizes the diesel supply line) and if that is successful I’ll reconnect the impeller assembly and give the generator a trial run while watching it carefully.

The priming test showed a leak, but I couldn’t quite locate it with the borescope camera assembly. I checked my supplies and found that I had a spare Cummins Onan fuel filter (which wasn’t on my spare Excel sheet!) and I’ll drain the fuel again and see if I can remove the old filter and put in a new one. I hope that the old filter shows evidence of a leak!

Noon

According to the manual, only 250ml or so of fuel should drip out of the filter. I had clamped off the fuel supply at the first filter and after ~3 liters of fuel had overflowed my small container I put the plug in again and tried to figure out what had gone wrong. It seems that the return fuel line to the tank is the culprit, as the tank is higher than the generator engine!

I clamped off everything again and switched the new filter in – a very tight fit in that chamber and with the diesel fumes it wasn’t a fun exercise at all. But I’ve got the new filter in place and have just cleaned up the diesel spill again. I am getting pretty good at this but have now used up a roll of kitchen paper towels and a roll of shop towels and am working on my next roll of shop towels.

13:28 Success

The new filter is in, the hoses are all connected up and the priming for 1 minute showed no fuel leak. So I prayed to Otto D. and fired up the generator. The engine started right away and has been running for 10 minutes with no leaking fuel or leaking coolant water. 90A @ 28V are being fed into the battery bank, that’s only 2500W and the generator is rated to 10,000W. I’m going to open a beer in celebration and hope that my headache goes away after breathing some fresh air.