[Mookie_jones]

I have a irwin 30 with a universal engine. Yesterday after my son turned down the amusement park due to illness, he did ask to go on his first boat ride, in which we ran out of gas. I ended up grabbing the canister from the head that had a couple of gallons of diesel from last season but couldnt get it started. I pulled out the manuals that end up telling me to bleed the filter and injectors. I mistakenly pulled the bottom from the racor unit but then found the bleed valves on the engine. I was able to get it started for a bit, but it would only run at high rpms and then would die off, finally not able to getting it to start after 5 hours.

I do wonder if it partially started when i bled the air from the system but introduced air when i pulled the bottom from the racor.


Also not mentioned in the manual was to shut off the intake water.
I am returning on friday with new filters for both the engine and racor, but i need to be able to move my boat back to its home. does anyone have any suggestions? have i caused damage from not turning off the intake?

 

[MarkSF]

On my Universal 5424, bleeding is a 3-step process :

1) The Racor filter (well I have a Fram, but the principle is the same)
2) At the housing for the filter on the engine
3) Finally, and often forgotten, at the bleed screw on the bottom of the fuel injection pump on the engine.

I have an electric lift pump so all I do is step 1 with ignition off, then 2 and 3 with the ignition on. The above order is important, for obvious reasons.

I have personally experienced doing only 1 and 2, and starting the engine, only to have it die. The final step at the injection pump is an essential one.

 

[Gladrags1]

I think you reintroduced air in the system which needs to be bled. Undoubtably, a lot of air so it will take a lot of bleeding.

Do you have an electric lift pump in your fuel supply system? If so, let it run with the key turned on and the bleed screw in the spin on filter cracked until it stops blowing bubbles and runs fuel out.

Also, take on more fuel. Your pickup might be clogged due to sucking up all the crud in the bottom of the tank. This might be causing you to starve the engine of fuel. It's never good to get so low on fuel. You might need to add cleaner to the tank.

It is possible that you cranked in water if you cranked and cranked and cranked. I sort of doubt that, thinking your issue is more likely crud clogging pick up.

Good luck with her!


Mandolin, Bayfield 36 sailing out of Rock Creek.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[mitiempo]

More than 30 seconds or so of cranking without it starting can waterlock the engine. If that has happened you need to get the water out of the cylinder(s).

 

[christian.hess]

not on all engines

does yours have a manual pump you can use to manually bleed? agree on more fuel...if not your just asking to suck in more air...

good luck!

 

[MarkSF]

I should mention that by "bleed" I mean open the screw until pure fuel with no air bubbles comes out.

 

[christian.hess]

is there another type of bleeding?

 

[Stu Jackson]

Bleeding 101 Bleeding M25 Series Engines 101- A Summary of Links for You

If you have the knurled knob on the top of the injector pump assembly, this info for M25 series engines would also apply to your engine.

Good luck, it's pretty easy.

 

[Shockwave]

If you cranked and cranked without closing the sea water intake you've likely filled your cylinders with water. Was there water coming through the air intake? Did the engine lock up?

If no, you were lucky. When you get back to the boat open the compression levers, close the seacock that feeds the engine and try to turn it over. If it turns over go ahead and bleed it, crack everything from the injectors back to the filter. Work from the filter to the manual pump, till you have a stream, no bubbles, then through the fuel pump. After the fuel pump have someone turn over the engine for you and close the injectors one at a time. When that is done throw the compression levers back on one at a time after it begins to fire. PS, don't forget to open the seacock.

If its hydrolocked, call a mechanic asap.

 

[KMC]

I had the same issue when I recently serviced a 2GM20F. I had removed the bottom of the racor bowl to clean out debris. When I came to bleed it I just couldn't get fuel to the injector pump. It turned out that I had disturbed the o ring seal of the racor bowl and it hadn't seated properly and was therefore drawing in air. I reseated the bowl and manually pumped the fuel through to injector pump and she fired right up and ran beautifully.

 

[Jaramaz]

What Shockwave and others say about water in the cylinders is very important. That is the first issue to address.

When that is fixed, you can consider bleeding again. It is sometimes a *****!
There are some tricks, probably described in the links given in other replys. One may consider to put the diesel tank under some pressure - a small pump (eg for bicycle tires) will be sufficient. Connect it to the tank air intake. That will press fuel to the pipes and to other parts.

/J

 

[bljones]

is there another type of bleeding?

From your knuckles when your wrench inevitably slips while cracking a bleed nipple.

 

[christian.hess]

well yeah duh! jajajajajaja

isnt that half the fun?

the other is smelling like crap and getting diesel all over and basically making a mess of things jajaja

 

[SteveInMD]

It's very hard to describe the bleeding process in a meaningful way unless you understand there are two sections of the fuel system - the low pressure feed side and the high pressure (injector) side. If you want to learn about this, and how the bleed the air from a motor I suggest you really need to read a basic book about marine diesel engines. Do yourself a favor and get Nigel Calder's book (or something like it) and read the pages on bleeding air from a fuel system.

 

[Mookie_jones]

Well I will know nmore when i return tommorrow night. It was geting to a point where it didnt want to turn over but im hoping it was from the battery dying. while it was turning it was spitting water.

The o-rings on the racor would make sense also as i frantically screwed it back on. Hopefully it will turn over easily tommorrow so i can get her back home saturday.

 

[christian.hess]

spitting water from where?

bummer

 

[Mookie_jones]

from the exhaust into the wateroff the stern.

 

[Capt Len]

Could be bypass water and engine is nearly full. I'd pull the injectors or open de compress before turning up a hydraulic klunk. Keep raw water off until you solve the bleeding.

 

[christian.hess]

yeah dont overdo it...decomp always...

 

[Mookie_jones]

can anyone offhand tell me how to decompress? I looked online and it talked about a wire. is that the same one i was thinking is the choke?