Starting a diesel that's been idle 10yr on prospective boat?

[Aloha_float]

get rid of that old fuel - I had the same situation and drained the tank and replaced the fuel - I used an additive to strip the remaining biofilm from the tank linking as pressure washing will not do this - I started with a nice clean tank and my racor has been clear since - my boat is a 1986 and sat on the hard an estimated 5-6 years in Maryland before I refit it.

[HappyMdRSailor]

I'll wait for the real congrats when you have her in your hand...

In the meantime Woo Hoo!

[westwinds]

Yes, get rid of the old diesel. Modern refinery processes take heavy oils and split the carbon chains into shorter ones with heat and catalyst. This results in diesel (and gasoline) that goes stale in a year. Even if this is old straight run refined diesel, it is still likely to have some condensation that degrades the diesel. Put a new filter on it and purge injection pump, fuel lines and piping from injection pump to injectors either with a manual pump lever on the low pressure fuel pump (if the engine has this) or else put an electric pump on there to purge everything. I would not bypass the fuel filter as tolerances in a diesel injection pump are ten times closer than say bearing and journal clearance on a crankshaft and that's about five times less than the thickness of paper from your computer printer so keep the diesel clean. If you have an electric fuel pump, you might also want to setup a way of polishing the diesel to make sure there is no water in the diesel whenever you do a fill up, maybe a glass bowl on the fuel filter or even a Baja filter.

I would not worry about oil seals as what makes those leak getting hard from heat, or the number of hours on an engine. I second the idea of cleaning out the fuel tank and then dosing it with diesel biocide to kill any organisms in the tank.

[SkiprJohn]

Originally Posted by appick

Thanks no we haven't closed on the boat yet... Just agreed to price. The lakes up here are still pretty well frozen up so I won't be motoring anywhere any time soon. I'll keep this updated when/ if the lakes thaw and we get the boat.

Another question for you guys is diesel fuel from say 1995 that's been well below freezing for 4-5 months a year and probably rarely above 80f in the summer any good? I know the smart thing to do would be have the tank pumped and cleaned. But I've been reading up on PRI-D and it sounds promising... Assist snake oils do I suppose!

Do you think the lakes will thaw this year? It's been a heck of a winter for you folks!

If it were my diesel. I am a cheapskate. I would filter the heck out of what doesn't look too sludgy, clean your tanks very well. Decant the old diesel and then use it half and half with new. That's just me.

[HappyMdRSailor]

Originally Posted by SkiprJohn

Do you think the lakes will thaw this year? It's been a heck of a winter for you folks!

If it were my diesel. I am a cheapskate. I would filter the heck out of what doesn't look too sludgy, clean your tanks very well. Decant the old diesel and then use it half and half with new. That's just me.

No kiddin' huh??? We just had a 20 degree night in MS... Heard is was going to be really icky up there...

Lots of cheapskate uses for diesel... Save a couple gallons for parts cleaner... Fill a water bottle for bringing along on future boat inspections... A little squirt here and there might shave a few dollars off the asking price.... For reintroduction to the tank 25% back in would be me...

[Cheechako]

I've lost track... isnt this a small tank? Get rid of that stuff! You've got enough potential problems ... get fresh fuel in there.

[appick]

Fairly small probably 20 gallons. I'm just debating whether to have it professionally cleaned if/when we sell our boat and buy this. Or if I should pump it out take a looksy and go from there.

[Cheechako]

Originally Posted by appick

Fairly small probably 20 gallons. I'm just debating whether to have it professionally cleaned if/when we sell our boat and buy this. Or if I should pump it out take a looksy and go from there.

Probably not a bad thing to do if the access inside the tank is good. Even if you replace the fuel, the old stuff seems to form a slimy film on the inside of the tank that sticks.... it will take direct squirting pressure to remove it along with the old fuel. So if you are going to have it cleaned.. dont remove the old fuel until they do it.

[SabreKai]

Just a couple of comments to add to this for things to look for when checking out old engines.

When I bought Sabre Dance, I had a mechanic come to look at the engine, and get it running. He used the in/out bucket routine which worked fine. He spun the engine with the decompression levers open, and lubed up the engine. Once that was done he dropped the levers one by one and the engine started and ran fine. We did find that the raw water impeller was bad and the pump itself needed to be rebuilt as the lobe was worn down. Engine started and ran clean with no smoke for a gold half hour.

When we launched, the mechanic did the start up, and this time half the marina disappeared in a huge cloud of black smoke. I mean black, couldn't see your hand in front of you. That disappeared and the engine ran fine.

However, at some point about 30-40 hours after we got it going, something let go and the entire contents of the oil pan ended up in the bilge. Rear main seal dried out? Who knows. I pulled the engine and sold it, as it would have cost as much to rebuild it. (Volvo MD-17C)

One other thing, I once went to look at a small boat, and after the owner got the engine running, (single cylinder Yanmar) he found the mechanical stop didn't work. So we ended up with a running diesel on the hard with no water cooling. I finally crawling into the quarter berth head first to open up the access and get at the lever to stop the engine. One more thing to check before starting an engine. As an aside, the bowden cable that did the shut down for Sabre Dance's MD-17c also was iffy. To be expected from a cheap Canadian Tire cable (boat was home built and very weird in places) but still something to keep an eye on.

[bletso]

Well today we re-commissioned our Perkins 4-108 which has been idle for 17 years. That's right - 17 years. It was turned over once in a great while. Sounded like a kitten. The re-start can be viewed on the blog. One headache less for Vigah. I certainly had my doubts! http://69.89.27.238/~sailboa1/2014/04/21/engine-room/ I definitely has some clean-up work to do, but the old girl still knows her stuff. SOme short videos with sound as well.

[appick]

Blesto: Nice work and what a cool boat. Congrats on getting it up and running. I'm going to guess you didn't use the 17yo fuel? How is KY this time of year? We actually got about 70F for the first time since early November the other day!

[bletso]

We are bouncing in the 60 - 75 range. Couple days cool, then warm.. I used a 5 gal diesel can. One of my projects will be to tackle the old stuff and tank..

I figure it won't be long before I will be complaining about the heat!