rotten egg smell in engine compartment.

[gonesail]

Originally Posted by er9

i haven't run the engine in a couple of months though.

if salt water has been standing in certain hoses it can turn rotten and the stench is amazing. ask me how I know

[fritzthecat]

Rotten egg smell is generally from sea water, thats somewhere caught in the cooling system and gets a ventilation somehow... batteries, especially sealed ones smell different

[southseasailor2]

Originally Posted by er9

i noticed a slight rotten egg smell in engine compartment couple weeks ago when i opened up the cockpit locker and had the engine room opened up. figured it was just marina smell. opened up engine compartment and cockpit locker again today to get some work done and smell it again. dont smell it on deck so im guessing its my batteries.

my two start batteries are behind the engine a foot or two and the water heater behind them. im guessing my batteries might be going bad. they are west marine/ sealed lead acid start batteries. at least 5 years old.

as luck would have it i just filled my heat exchanger with barnacle buster and want to start the engine to flush it out. am i taking a huge risk by even trying to use the batteries once or twice more to start the motor or should i not and just pull them both and replace first?

the batteries are sealed type. i dont see any leaks or bulging near the top of the batteries and they are not hot at all but its been three hours since the charger has been on.

It will be salt water that has been sitting in a pipe for a while.
Danny

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by er9

thanks bill. i found the source of the smell and fortunately i dont think its the batteries after all.

there is an overflow pond about 1/5 mile from me to windward. I thought i'd noticed the smell before (im new to this marina). well ive been at the boat the past couple of days and its been warm and stagnant and the smell has been horrible. a neighbor confirmed its the containment pond which is pretty gross.

i was at the boat yesterday during one of these smell spells, closed up the boat and left for a few hours. when i came back there was no longer the smell outside but when i opened up the boat it smelled pretty bad.

i think what was happening was this bad air got into the boat when i wasnt there, dissipated in the cabin and probably lingered a while longer in the engine compartment. when i opened it up i smeeled it and though batteries.

it could still be batteries and i will monitor them closely to be sure but now i dont think so...

I had/did this once before noting it happened with wind direction

[Old fella]

Originally Posted by Wotname

More importantly, if you can initially smell H2S (rotten egg gas) and then shortly after you can't, get to known fresh air ASAP.

H2S can be detected by smell at very low concentrations (around 0.0005 ppm) but higher levels (around 100 ppm) quickly deadens the sense of smell. Personal gas detectors will alarm as low as 5 or 10 ppm.

While very low levels (well below 0.1 ppm) can be tolerated indefinitely, very high levels are deadly. It is as toxic as CO and will kill you with a single breath at 1000ppm.

This is right, I worked in a oil refinery for a couple of years and they used to say if you stay there and stop smelling it, your about to go tits up.

[Two Skippies]

If it were my boat, I'd just go about my business, and assume my wife had been down there shortly before me.

[Old fella]

Originally Posted by Two Skippies

If it were my boat, I'd just go about my business, and assume my wife had been down there shortly before me.

Ha ha ha, yeah with my system it could have been me, might just have to go and have another shower.

[OloteleMtn]

The tuna cannery across the bay usually keeps me from smelling anything objectionable from inside my boat....

[er9]

Originally Posted by OloteleMtn

The tuna cannery across the bay usually keeps me from smelling anything objectionable from inside my boat....

I just loaded up on incense from amazon for all of the reasons just mentioned.