I have read a lot about the smell from the head but my problem is the diesel smell in the cabin. Is there anyway to lessen this or at least make it tolerable for a wife? I am thinking about exhaust fans out the back, deoderant, cedar boards. I am stumped......
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Source
Rick Where is the smell coming from? We've had a diesel boat for almost 7 years and have NO diesel odor at all. You need to find the leak, somewhere, and fix it. There are only a few sources, but many spots - hose connections, loose bleed bolts,loose filter(s). It's gotta be coming out somewhere, and it really shouldn't be coming out anywhere. Then you get to clean your cushions, which is a whole different topic, previously covered very well here and in the forum archives. Stu
Rick Where is the smell coming from? We've had a diesel boat for almost 7 years and have NO diesel odor at all. You need to find the leak, somewhere, and fix it. There are only a few sources, but many spots - hose connections, loose bleed bolts,loose filter(s). It's gotta be coming out somewhere, and it really shouldn't be coming out anywhere. Then you get to clean your cushions, which is a whole different topic, previously covered very well here and in the forum archives. Stu
Smelly, oily stuff, ain't it?
Find a mechanic who can assure you that it's running as best it can and use it as little as possible. The more you sail, the less smell you get. Deoderant probably would just give you a headache anyway. The best solution is plenty of fresh air!
Find a mechanic who can assure you that it's running as best it can and use it as little as possible. The more you sail, the less smell you get. Deoderant probably would just give you a headache anyway. The best solution is plenty of fresh air!
Diesel Smell
Once you have fixed the leak you can get rid of the smell by washing down the area with white vinegar ...full strength...if the smell has been around a long time then wash down everything in the engine space and cabins you can with the vinegar
Once you have fixed the leak you can get rid of the smell by washing down the area with white vinegar ...full strength...if the smell has been around a long time then wash down everything in the engine space and cabins you can with the vinegar
Crankcase breather?
Is the smell actual raw diesel fuel? Or is it more of an exhaust type smell? If the latter, a common source can be the crankcase breather tube on your engine, which can exhaust fumes into the cabin. Our cabin had quite a bit of this exhaust type odor, so I followed a trick I read about in a magazine and redirected the breather tube to the side of the air intake - and just like that the problem was solved. I have since read elsewhere that this pracice, while common, may interfere with the proper pressure balance in the crankcase. If this isn't a good idea perhaps someone out there can explain why? It sure solved the smell problem. Steve Christensen
Is the smell actual raw diesel fuel? Or is it more of an exhaust type smell? If the latter, a common source can be the crankcase breather tube on your engine, which can exhaust fumes into the cabin. Our cabin had quite a bit of this exhaust type odor, so I followed a trick I read about in a magazine and redirected the breather tube to the side of the air intake - and just like that the problem was solved. I have since read elsewhere that this pracice, while common, may interfere with the proper pressure balance in the crankcase. If this isn't a good idea perhaps someone out there can explain why? It sure solved the smell problem. Steve Christensen
Bilge
Rick, is it diesel you smell, or the odor of the engine? If the engine has any leaks, oil or diesel, the culprit could be your bilge. I noticed that the cleaner I keep the bilge the more the smell decreases. Regular scented dishwashing detergent works great. The advice given so far is good also. You can air it out, check for leaks and clean the cushions. I use our carpet steam cleaner with the upholstery attachment to clean the cabin cushions. The odor of diesel fuel is almost impossible to eliminate entirely. I know this from years of experience with diesel powered heavy equipment. The best solution is cleaning and air it out. Our Hunter has an odor, but she is an older model with a leaky engine. After we have cleaned and aired her out, we don't notice the smell. IMHO the only other solutions are either new boat or new wife. It depends on how much you love your boat. ;>)
Rick, is it diesel you smell, or the odor of the engine? If the engine has any leaks, oil or diesel, the culprit could be your bilge. I noticed that the cleaner I keep the bilge the more the smell decreases. Regular scented dishwashing detergent works great. The advice given so far is good also. You can air it out, check for leaks and clean the cushions. I use our carpet steam cleaner with the upholstery attachment to clean the cabin cushions. The odor of diesel fuel is almost impossible to eliminate entirely. I know this from years of experience with diesel powered heavy equipment. The best solution is cleaning and air it out. Our Hunter has an odor, but she is an older model with a leaky engine. After we have cleaned and aired her out, we don't notice the smell. IMHO the only other solutions are either new boat or new wife. It depends on how much you love your boat. ;>)
What to use for engine bilge cleaning?
Not sure if our boat is unique. The bilge under the engine does not appear to drain into the bilge under the main cabin sole. I have two separate bilge pumps wired so they come on together. The main cabin bilge is sparkly clean the engine bilge is... well... less than sparkly clean. When the engine bilge water is pumped out, the water is clean because the pump intake never gets the last inch or so of water out which is where any of the oil, diesel remains (which is not terribly much anyway) I would like to clean the engine bilge but don't know what cleaner to use that would be effective AND be able to be pumped overboard. Is there such a thing? I could vacuum the cleaner and water up with my shop vac but that seems to move the problem somewhere else, i.e on the ground, the grass, down the drain. I have used engine cleaners on my vehicles and it works great but am hesitant to try one on the boat. Comments? Suggestions? Thanks! David
Not sure if our boat is unique. The bilge under the engine does not appear to drain into the bilge under the main cabin sole. I have two separate bilge pumps wired so they come on together. The main cabin bilge is sparkly clean the engine bilge is... well... less than sparkly clean. When the engine bilge water is pumped out, the water is clean because the pump intake never gets the last inch or so of water out which is where any of the oil, diesel remains (which is not terribly much anyway) I would like to clean the engine bilge but don't know what cleaner to use that would be effective AND be able to be pumped overboard. Is there such a thing? I could vacuum the cleaner and water up with my shop vac but that seems to move the problem somewhere else, i.e on the ground, the grass, down the drain. I have used engine cleaners on my vehicles and it works great but am hesitant to try one on the boat. Comments? Suggestions? Thanks! David
Have you checked the cushions?
Sometimes in an older boat, if diesel has been spilled on the engine or in the bilges, the foam cushions will pick up a smell, and then even if you solve the leak problem or clean the engine, the cushions maintain the "diesel fuel smell". In my 1980 33 Hunter I had that problem. My solution was to tighten all the fittings and make sure nothing was leaking, use a good engine cleaner on the engine and drain pan under the engine (note, the pan under the engine is NOT a bilge area to be pumped out to the water...It is to gather oil and diesel and let you get it without putting it in the water. When I used the cleaner, I washed with a lot of water, but pumped from the drain pan into a 5 gallon bucket. Did this twice, then took all the cushions and fabric items off the boat, removed the covers, washed them, the washed the cushions with a lot of water, soap, and sunshine...ended up by spraying all the carpet on the sides of the boat with Fabreeze after cleaning, used Fabreeze on the cushions when putting them back together, and I also keep the regular bilge area clean with soap and water (you can pump this out to the outside, unless is has oil in it for some reason). I did this a few years ago and all I do now is clean the wood with lemon oil a couple of times a year and spray the carpet with Lysol to get rid of mold in the spring anduse the Fabreeze on the fabric...Boat has no diesel smell or old boat smell...secret is getting it clean the first time.
Sometimes in an older boat, if diesel has been spilled on the engine or in the bilges, the foam cushions will pick up a smell, and then even if you solve the leak problem or clean the engine, the cushions maintain the "diesel fuel smell". In my 1980 33 Hunter I had that problem. My solution was to tighten all the fittings and make sure nothing was leaking, use a good engine cleaner on the engine and drain pan under the engine (note, the pan under the engine is NOT a bilge area to be pumped out to the water...It is to gather oil and diesel and let you get it without putting it in the water. When I used the cleaner, I washed with a lot of water, but pumped from the drain pan into a 5 gallon bucket. Did this twice, then took all the cushions and fabric items off the boat, removed the covers, washed them, the washed the cushions with a lot of water, soap, and sunshine...ended up by spraying all the carpet on the sides of the boat with Fabreeze after cleaning, used Fabreeze on the cushions when putting them back together, and I also keep the regular bilge area clean with soap and water (you can pump this out to the outside, unless is has oil in it for some reason). I did this a few years ago and all I do now is clean the wood with lemon oil a couple of times a year and spray the carpet with Lysol to get rid of mold in the spring anduse the Fabreeze on the fabric...Boat has no diesel smell or old boat smell...secret is getting it clean the first time.
One bilge
As far as I have seen I only have one bilge and this is the one with the keel bolts in it. There may be another one and that would be a good reason for the odor. This other bilge does not show up on the parts diagram. Am I missing something there?
As far as I have seen I only have one bilge and this is the one with the keel bolts in it. There may be another one and that would be a good reason for the odor. This other bilge does not show up on the parts diagram. Am I missing something there?
diesel smell
i have a friend who traced diesel smell to pinholes in his fuel tank caused by age and corosion. replacing the fuel tank solved the problem almost instantly.
i have a friend who traced diesel smell to pinholes in his fuel tank caused by age and corosion. replacing the fuel tank solved the problem almost instantly.
One more thing to do
Rick, my experience was the same as the other posts....I found a small leak in the fuel line connections on the secondary filter. Fixed it and cleaned the engine pan, and aired everything. But the cushions didn't really loose the smell until I stored them off the boat the following winter. Also, I added a large louvered vent to the compainway hatch board which is great to keep the boat from getting stuffy while away. Kevin
Rick, my experience was the same as the other posts....I found a small leak in the fuel line connections on the secondary filter. Fixed it and cleaned the engine pan, and aired everything. But the cushions didn't really loose the smell until I stored them off the boat the following winter. Also, I added a large louvered vent to the compainway hatch board which is great to keep the boat from getting stuffy while away. Kevin
Rick: I think I can help you eliminate the smell completeley by going to the source, especially if you have the Universal engine. It may apply to other engines also but I'm not sure. In my case, the smell was so bad my wife did not want come to the boat. I told her I could not smell it but I actually could and finally I had to come up with a solution - after I found the problem. The Universal engine was originally made by Kabuta, who made tractors. On the tractor engines, the breather tube just hung off the engine and the fumes went into the field, which was no big deal. When they adapted the engine to marine use they merely routed the breather tube to the bilge, which is a big deal. The fix is easy. Locate the breather tube and get a longer piece of rubber tubing and route the new hose into the foam air filter. You'll have to rig up a clamp to hold it there but that is easy to do. Now the fumes go back in the engine. If you have leak in the gas tank, that is another matter. These tanks only last about 12 years. All the small critters that live in the tank just love feasting on the tank and leaks eventually develop. Once a leak develops, there is no fixing it. When mine started leaking, i brought it to a fabricator and when they pressure tested the tank I had little pin holes all over the place.
Crankcase breather II
Interesting that Don Guillette has the same suggestion that I posted (reply #4 below) and that I too have a Universal engine. Is this problem unique to Universals? Or do all diesels emit fumes from the crankcase breathers?
Interesting that Don Guillette has the same suggestion that I posted (reply #4 below) and that I too have a Universal engine. Is this problem unique to Universals? Or do all diesels emit fumes from the crankcase breathers?
Diesel Smell In Cabin
Steve; Oops, I did not see your response. I only dropped down about 2 responses and then thought I had the answer to Rick's problem. Had I seen your response I would have seconded it. I know at least 20 guys from various locations such as Long Beach and a Catalina list on another network that have made this mod to their Universal engine. The mod worked for me and for them. If Rick had a diesel fuel leak he would know it. He'd see and smell fuel in the bilge.
Steve; Oops, I did not see your response. I only dropped down about 2 responses and then thought I had the answer to Rick's problem. Had I seen your response I would have seconded it. I know at least 20 guys from various locations such as Long Beach and a Catalina list on another network that have made this mod to their Universal engine. The mod worked for me and for them. If Rick had a diesel fuel leak he would know it. He'd see and smell fuel in the bilge.
Crank Case Breather III
Afternoon Rick: I had the same problem with odor with an M25 Universal. I put a T in the down line from the breather port and then ran a hose from the T to the breather. I did this just in case there was any oil accumulation in the line to prevent it from venting. That eliminated a major portion of the odor. BUT, I could still smell faint traces of diesel that were most apparent when the engine was running. I continued looking and found a small crack in the exhaust elbow that was covered up with insulation. It wasn't a big enough make any noise, but it was big enough for the diesel odor to fill the engine compartment and leech into the cabin. Got that fixed and odor is no longer a problem. Just another idea for you to chew on.
Afternoon Rick: I had the same problem with odor with an M25 Universal. I put a T in the down line from the breather port and then ran a hose from the T to the breather. I did this just in case there was any oil accumulation in the line to prevent it from venting. That eliminated a major portion of the odor. BUT, I could still smell faint traces of diesel that were most apparent when the engine was running. I continued looking and found a small crack in the exhaust elbow that was covered up with insulation. It wasn't a big enough make any noise, but it was big enough for the diesel odor to fill the engine compartment and leech into the cabin. Got that fixed and odor is no longer a problem. Just another idea for you to chew on.
Breather Filter
I bounced this problem off of the forum in the marinedieseldirect website. What I got back was to change the breather filter. I wondered it any of y'all tried that and it did not take care of the odor problem. Good Winds Dave M s/v DAMWEGAS
I bounced this problem off of the forum in the marinedieseldirect website. What I got back was to change the breather filter. I wondered it any of y'all tried that and it did not take care of the odor problem. Good Winds Dave M s/v DAMWEGAS
Dave, that advice is bogus.
What the guys here are doing by routing the breather vent to the air cleaner is duplicating Positive Crankcase Ventilation. Yanmars are already plumbed that way. It was required on cars back in the sixties. AKA- PCV. No PCV system uses a filter to let the air OUT of the crankcase, only to let it in. The fumes are drawn into the intake manifold and burned in the combustion chamber. Then out they go via the exhaust system. It cleaned up one-third of engine emissions from the cars of the day. Of course, now engines are built tighter and there are less fumes to potentially release. But on a diesel, fumes from the crankcase will always have to be dealt with. They will be greater because of the inherent high compression of a diesel engine. That may be why diesel engine crankcase oil turns black so fast, but that's just a guess on my part. Anybody know why? Pat?
What the guys here are doing by routing the breather vent to the air cleaner is duplicating Positive Crankcase Ventilation. Yanmars are already plumbed that way. It was required on cars back in the sixties. AKA- PCV. No PCV system uses a filter to let the air OUT of the crankcase, only to let it in. The fumes are drawn into the intake manifold and burned in the combustion chamber. Then out they go via the exhaust system. It cleaned up one-third of engine emissions from the cars of the day. Of course, now engines are built tighter and there are less fumes to potentially release. But on a diesel, fumes from the crankcase will always have to be dealt with. They will be greater because of the inherent high compression of a diesel engine. That may be why diesel engine crankcase oil turns black so fast, but that's just a guess on my part. Anybody know why? Pat?
Tell Im Fred!!
No shot at you Dave, but if that's the best that MarineDieselDirect Tech's can come up with for an answer, they need jobs flipping burgers. They might read a lot about these things, but do they actually use them? When I was having an odor problem, I looked at a lot of things but the breather wasn't one of them. The standard breather on a Universal at that time was no more than a sponge rubber collar that fit over the housing. I cleaned mine as a matter of routine maintenance and still had the odor problem until I solved the problems as previously listed. Think about it. With the violent intake being generated when the engine is running, skunk odor couldn't get past it. Some kneejerk pulled that response right out of left field.
No shot at you Dave, but if that's the best that MarineDieselDirect Tech's can come up with for an answer, they need jobs flipping burgers. They might read a lot about these things, but do they actually use them? When I was having an odor problem, I looked at a lot of things but the breather wasn't one of them. The standard breather on a Universal at that time was no more than a sponge rubber collar that fit over the housing. I cleaned mine as a matter of routine maintenance and still had the odor problem until I solved the problems as previously listed. Think about it. With the violent intake being generated when the engine is running, skunk odor couldn't get past it. Some kneejerk pulled that response right out of left field.
Clogged Sponge??
Thanks Fred & JB I was not too happy with the answer either. It looked like he was blowing me off to sell a part. I asked him why changing breather sponge would prevent this. Didn't address it. Last time I checked a clogged filter lessens flow. Just thought I would see what info the response would gin up and I got it. Thanks Good Winds Dave M s/v DAMWEGAS
Thanks Fred & JB I was not too happy with the answer either. It looked like he was blowing me off to sell a part. I asked him why changing breather sponge would prevent this. Didn't address it. Last time I checked a clogged filter lessens flow. Just thought I would see what info the response would gin up and I got it. Thanks Good Winds Dave M s/v DAMWEGAS
FYI Dave
Morning Dave: IF you have a Universal with the old sponge breather, you might be interested in this. I upgraded from the old breather to the later model that muffles the engine noise. The part number for the M25 is 301138, about $100 and change, and it was worth it. The new one deadens the roar you get from the intake, making it much easier to carry on a conversation while under power. The only effect that a dirty filter could have is the lessening of efficiency of the engine. Smell just couldn't come into play in the cabin and engine compartment. By a stretch of the imagination, I guess that it might cause an odor problem at the exhaust, but I'm not going to hang over the stern to find out.
Morning Dave: IF you have a Universal with the old sponge breather, you might be interested in this. I upgraded from the old breather to the later model that muffles the engine noise. The part number for the M25 is 301138, about $100 and change, and it was worth it. The new one deadens the roar you get from the intake, making it much easier to carry on a conversation while under power. The only effect that a dirty filter could have is the lessening of efficiency of the engine. Smell just couldn't come into play in the cabin and engine compartment. By a stretch of the imagination, I guess that it might cause an odor problem at the exhaust, but I'm not going to hang over the stern to find out.
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