I have a Universal M-18 in my 30 year old Catalina 27 TR. This is my 4th season with the boat. The engine ran flawlessly until last Sept. One day we were out sailing and I reached to turn off the engine and it quite all by itself. Not good. I couldn’t restart a few hours later so we were fortunate enough to have just the right winds to sail up the river, turn into the river and stop at our dock. It actually looked like I knew what I was doing.
The rest of the season, until the end of October, I had sporadic starting problems. I could easily restart once I bled the fuel line using the bleed valve on the engine. Over the winter layup I did a lot of internet research on the problem. So in the spring I replaced all of the 30 year old fuel hose, re-routed it to a more direct and shorter length. Changed the Racor 2 micro filter to a 10, changed the engine filter, all fresh fuel in the tank and a new electric fuel pump. When I changed out the fuel lines, I found some of it to be ¼ inch but most 3/8 ID. I even found 3/8 crimped down to a ¼ fitting. Now, everything is ¼ which still give more flow than required for this fuel sipper engine. All new clamps, doubled into the ¼ barb x 1/8 npt fittings.
My reseach indicated that my fuel pump was probably going out because it had to suck the fuel through a 2 micron filter. The old round Facet pump was probably 24” lift at 8 GPH and 6 PSI. My new Facet Pro block is 4-7 PSI with 60” lift and 30GPH. The new hose route in somewhat shorter than before but pulls from the tank up to the Racor filter about 12” above the tank (same as before) forward to the pump about 6” above the Racor about 2 ft. (same at before) and then to the engine’s second filter.
This all worked great and up until a few weeks ago. Engine would start and stall. Bleed the line and its fine, for a while. This past week we were on a trip when the wind died. We motored for about 2 hours without a problem, when the engine started to loose RPMs and finally stop. Bleeding restarted the engine but only for a few minutes and the same thing happened. The wind came up a little so we sailed for about 20 minutes. The temp gauge indicated everything was fine but… We started the iron genny again and it was OK. The next day was windless and we again motored flawlessly for about 2 hours and the same thing happened. Several time of this past week we can run the engine fine for anywhere from 10 minutes to hours and restart with a line bleed. I have re tightened all of the clamps, Racor looks good and no water in the separator in the bottom.
I did notice the bleed valve leeks a bit of fuel on my fingers when I open it, but that is new. I even tried leaving the bleed valve open just a bit and the engine started OK and ran for about 20 minutes.
The PO left me many spare parts including a new bleed valve. I did some more research and maybe my increased lift on the fuel pump is collapsing the tank hose? All of the new hose is brand name A1 fuel hose with a liner and reinforced rubber cover. It would take a lot to crush this hose. The one in the tank is original and thin. But why would it not crush immediately? Why wait so long to narrow? Leaky bleed valve? But why would it run when I leave it open a bit?
Sorry for the long ramble but I put in as much detail to avoid pointing out to advisors “been there, done that”.
The rest of the season, until the end of October, I had sporadic starting problems. I could easily restart once I bled the fuel line using the bleed valve on the engine. Over the winter layup I did a lot of internet research on the problem. So in the spring I replaced all of the 30 year old fuel hose, re-routed it to a more direct and shorter length. Changed the Racor 2 micro filter to a 10, changed the engine filter, all fresh fuel in the tank and a new electric fuel pump. When I changed out the fuel lines, I found some of it to be ¼ inch but most 3/8 ID. I even found 3/8 crimped down to a ¼ fitting. Now, everything is ¼ which still give more flow than required for this fuel sipper engine. All new clamps, doubled into the ¼ barb x 1/8 npt fittings.
My reseach indicated that my fuel pump was probably going out because it had to suck the fuel through a 2 micron filter. The old round Facet pump was probably 24” lift at 8 GPH and 6 PSI. My new Facet Pro block is 4-7 PSI with 60” lift and 30GPH. The new hose route in somewhat shorter than before but pulls from the tank up to the Racor filter about 12” above the tank (same as before) forward to the pump about 6” above the Racor about 2 ft. (same at before) and then to the engine’s second filter.
This all worked great and up until a few weeks ago. Engine would start and stall. Bleed the line and its fine, for a while. This past week we were on a trip when the wind died. We motored for about 2 hours without a problem, when the engine started to loose RPMs and finally stop. Bleeding restarted the engine but only for a few minutes and the same thing happened. The wind came up a little so we sailed for about 20 minutes. The temp gauge indicated everything was fine but… We started the iron genny again and it was OK. The next day was windless and we again motored flawlessly for about 2 hours and the same thing happened. Several time of this past week we can run the engine fine for anywhere from 10 minutes to hours and restart with a line bleed. I have re tightened all of the clamps, Racor looks good and no water in the separator in the bottom.
I did notice the bleed valve leeks a bit of fuel on my fingers when I open it, but that is new. I even tried leaving the bleed valve open just a bit and the engine started OK and ran for about 20 minutes.
The PO left me many spare parts including a new bleed valve. I did some more research and maybe my increased lift on the fuel pump is collapsing the tank hose? All of the new hose is brand name A1 fuel hose with a liner and reinforced rubber cover. It would take a lot to crush this hose. The one in the tank is original and thin. But why would it not crush immediately? Why wait so long to narrow? Leaky bleed valve? But why would it run when I leave it open a bit?
Sorry for the long ramble but I put in as much detail to avoid pointing out to advisors “been there, done that”.
