Westerbeke bleeding the fuel lines

[ruggerted]

Thanks Sanibel. I recently removed the injection pump and high pressure lines to service them. I think that there may still be too much air in there. I will continue to crank the engine over and hope that all the air bleeds out of the high pressure lines. But, to your suggestion what it he governor you referred to? and the pump body? I have included some pics of mine for reference.

[sanibel sailor]

I am not familiar with your engine. Mine is completely different. I have a bleed screw at the high point on the pump.

[Mickeyrouse]

I have had three Westerbeke engines in the last 39 years As most everyone knows, Westerbeke has yet to actually manufacture an engine. They are a quite small company - less than 100 employees- and are apparently getting smaller. What they actually do is marinize short block engines for marine use. They were once practically the only source for yacht-size diesels found on American-built yachts but are now almost invisible in the propulsion market. Over the years their short blocks have been, among others, Perkins, Kubota, Mitsubishi, and Isuzu.
About the time when they began using Japanese short blocks, the fuel lift pumps were added by Westerbeke. These were generally electric pumps as opposed to the older mechanical pumps. That’s when they began marketing their engines as “self-bleeding.” While certainly easier to deal with than a mechanical lift pump that has sucked air, cracking the lines open in the fuel feed system certainly expedites matters. If the fuel system is really empty of fuel a “self-bleeding” engine may still take a lot of cranking- so much so that water coming in to the exhaust system at the exhaust elbow can back up and fill the cylinders - ask me how I know.
I have found I only need to bleed one cylinder. When that one hits, the others will fire in just a few revs of the engine.
One other caution on “self-bleeding”. It takes a lot of cranking to purge the air from a complete fuel-starved engine. In addition to the risk of water in the cylinders, that much cranking puts a lot of strain on the starter motor- just feel how warm it gets when cranking as much as it will require.
To facillitate matters, I installed a remote starter button in a suitable location in the engine compartment. It doesn’t have the pre-heat switch- unless it’s well below freezing outside, my Mitsubishi and Isuzu Westerbekes have always started quite quickly even in wearher I don’t really don’t want to sail in any way.

[sanibel sailor]

Generally good info.
Westerbeke is clearly withering, mainly doing generators only where they still have a significant presence. Only 4 propulsion engines, all export only and 2 Universal engines (20 & 25) available in the US.
Marinizers do not start with a short block which does not include major components like cylinder head, etc. More likely they order near complete engines, minus exhaust manifold and add marinizing components. I expect since they are doing a bigger volume, they can custom order the engines how they want.

[ruggerted]

Gents;
All really useful information. Like Sanibel, I took out the injector pump and I found it to be operational. Your information gives me the feeling that the lines are just fuel starved. I will continue to get one clean of air and see if it starts. Wish me luck.