We originally thought that the keel fuel tank was the only one that was leaking, but late Tuesday afternoon we determined that the starboard tank also had a pinhole leak. The leak was so small we were still planning on leaving for Clearwater Wednesday. We’d just decided that we’d run all of the fuel out of the starboard tank as soon as possible.
So we pulled out of Snead at 0836 on Wednesday morning, en route to Clearwater, running off the starboard tank. At 0850 the engine began coughing. There was clearly a fuel problem. We gave it 15-20 minutes, thinking there might have just been a little air in the lines that we could power through. Not the case.
20 minutes later we decided to turn around and spend another day at Snead to check it out. It turned out to be another day very well spent at the yard. We pumped about a gallon worth of muddy fuel that must’ve been sitting in the starboard tank supply lines for years. We completely drained the starboard tank, so there was nothing left to leak.
We changed both primary fuel filters, secondary fuel filters & I learned how to easily bleed air from the fuel lines. We also changed the oil and oil filters. I now have a much better handle on the entire fuel system and feel comfortable with troubleshooting and maintenance.
We’ll now be running off of only the port fuel tank, but I don’t see that as much of a problem. By our calculations, that tank holds around 68 gallons. A lot of new boats these days only come with 40 gallon tanks standard, so I’m still ahead of the game.
Clearwater Thursday or bust.