Californian owners manual and technical drawings

[STB]

Terand 1:

If your aft stateroom has the two double beds, I'm pretty sure that diagram will match your boat. If it has a queen or king bed...not so much.

 

[Terand_1]

Not sure if this is what you are looking for, or if it matches, but here is what I've got:

-- https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vgbr237zHvLyPbmz-PJZPv_gd0msPmqs/view?usp=sharing

Please see attached images. Need something similar to this to explain the three fuel tank set up for the two cat engines.

 

[STB]

Based on what you've said about having three tanks, my best guess would be...

-- You have three tanks: Port, Auxiliary (Middle), and Starboard
-- Each engine's supply can be from its own tank (Up) or Auxiliary (Down) or be turned off (inside)
-- Each engine's return can go to its own tank (Up) or Auxiliary (Down) or be turned off (inside)
-- When looking at the levers, one side is long, which is the handle. The other side is a small pointed arrow, the pointer. Selections are made by turning the knob to point the pointer at the choice.

So, a normal configuration would set each engine to supply and return from main or to set each engine to supply and return from the auxiliary tank as day tank.

But, I am obviously totally guessing. The good news is that it isn't terible to trace the hoses. Usually.

 

[Edelweiss]

Based on your picture, the valving appears to be setup for a standard 4 tank Californian LRC aft cabin boat.

If you have a center queen, then you won't have four tanks as someone else already mentioned.

Normally, if you have two full sized beds, one each, port and starboard, you should have two 120 gal tanks under each bed. The valves change the fuel draw and return only between the two tanks on each side. If one side only has three tanks, then one of the tanks has been removed or replaced with one large tank. Maybe it was leaking and the PO didn't replace it.

My boat also has one crossover line between port and starboard tanks which is controlled with two gate valves on the inside tanks. Allows you to level up the fuel load. Generator only draws fuel from Starboard tanks and on longer cruises you can develop a list.

If you lift the deck plate under the bed mattress you can check out the hoses and tank configuration. The PO may have modified the birthing or tank setup and just left the valving for four tanks in place.

 

[Terand_1]

"Main" confusion--Queen bed (three tanks)

Based on what you've said about having three tanks, my best guess would be...

-- You have three tanks: Port, Auxiliary (Middle), and Starboard
-- Each engine's supply can be from its own tank (Up) or Auxiliary (Down) or be turned off (inside)
-- Each engine's return can go to its own tank (Up) or Auxiliary (Down) or be turned off (inside)
-- When looking at the levers, one side is long, which is the handle. The other side is a small pointed arrow, the pointer. Selections are made by turning the knob to point the pointer at the choice.

So, a normal configuration would set each engine to supply and return from main or to set each engine to supply and return from the auxiliary tank as day tank.

But, I am obviously totally guessing. The good news is that it isn't terible to trace the hoses. Usually.

So, the last time I refueled topping off the tanks, I set all Selector switches to "main." I understood the stickers as meaning the "supply" and "return" to the "engines" "port" and "starboard" (as opposed to the "tanks" port and starboard). My understanding was that the "main" selection WAS/IS the "main" tank and "auxiliary" were the secondary (port and starboard) tanks to the "main" tank. My situation is that my Port tank is reading full, Starboard tank empty (gauge could be wrong, but when engines are turned off, gauge does increase a little bit, leading me to believe gauge is accurate) and the main tank 1/4.

I've tapped both port and starboard tanks and both sound pretty hollow...I haven't used the boat much since last filling the tanks. Would surprise greatly if both port and starboard engines are both empty (leading to the "port" engine gauge reading incorrectly) and the main tank the only fuel left at 1/4, this would mean that the main tank is feeding the "main" port and starboard tanks if they are both dry. Tried sticking a dowel down the spout of the starboard engine, seems like it goes sideways/horizontal (not helpful) quite a bit and then hits a barrier, doesn't show any fuel.

The above conundrum has led me to seek out a proper diagram of the tank/Selector switch setup (assuming tubes weren't swapped around).

Tracing hoses would be a bold and time consuming task...my concern here is if the hoses are labeled and connected properly.

Thanks for all of the input thus far.

 

[STB]

May I ask...
-- What is the size of each of your tanks? Either absolute, or relative to each other?
-- Where is each located?

Depending upon where they are located, you might be able to access the sender and look down into the tank or, even better, drop a yard stick in. My current boat has working gauges -- but I've still got the old owner's measuring stick! Those senders are usually really easy to remove and reinstall. Mine took seconds and a phillips head

As I understand it, many of these boats never had real manuals. It just wasn't something that they seem to have always done. It may have been because the model, at least for a good while, was for Marshall to rough in the boats, send them to the dealers, and let the dealers finish them from there. On one of these forums I remember someone seemingly knowledgeable saying that Marshall didn't do them for years, then did them for a little while, then stopped again. In 1987, the Californian line changed hands from Wellcraft to Marshall to Carver, so I wouldn't want to speculate about what did or didn't exist. I can just say that, personally, I haven't seen any 1980s era manuals floating around. I would have grabbed them, just for any bits applicabale to mine.

The upshot is, that we may just need to work though this, collecting as much information as we can, and then testing some theories with the gauges or measuring stick.

In my old 1977 42' Californian, I could easily trace the hoses from the laz in the back, along the sizes of the aft stateroom under the cabinets, and into the engine room. I did it as one person, but it would have been easier with a second to wiggle hoses.

In my newly purchased boat, a 1981 42' Hardin trawler, I have saddle tanks on the sides in the engine room. I'll rant about how much space is wasted in the back of the boat by not having them there and how much more difficult they make working on the engines -- in some other forum at some other time. I only mention them because my gauges didn't work and I didn't understand my own valves...and I had to trace everything.

Once I did, it all made sense and is nice. I fixed a couple of minor leaks at fittings along the way. Got the gauges working (just wire disconnected). And, life is good. It wasn't my most favorite day squirming through my much-shorter-than-yours engine room. But, it was totally worth it.

At any rate, if you can, let us know what you know about the sizes and locations of the tanks, and if you do physically look at the levels, what you find. And, we can try to help you puzzle through. Maybe we can then even make a diagram to post here for posterity.

 

[STB]

Oh, two more questions...

...after you filled up, what did the gauges read?
...how has the boat been used since that fill-up? How many hours of cruising or WOT or idling or whatever? Just to get a sense as to how much fuel was likely actually used.

And one more thought...

...gauges could be good (as indicated by the twitch as power-up), but the sender could be bad...stuck in one place by dirt, slime, corrosion, whatever. Taking it out and cleaning it might be helpful. You could also eyeball the level at the same time.

...another thing to do would be to fill up and see how it reads in that known state.

 

[STB]

I'm sorry. I'm not very organized. Another thing...

In my old boat the tank vents were located UNDER the swim platform and were very small. This was standard on, at the least, 1970s and early 1980s Californians. Don't know about later years like 1987.

They have drip loops, so water doesn't get into the tanks from them. But, they are barely above the water line and can get a ton of growth. When that happens, the tanks become really slow fills. And, it is easy to mistake the tank being filled for air burping out the fill (instead of the vent) and taking some fuel up with it, etc.

My diver, who was great, tried in vain to get them cleaned for me. And, he thought he had. But, I ended up having to go into the laz, disconnect the hoses, clean them at the vent side (and tank side, just because I was there), and then scrape the growth out of the inside of the vent fittings on the boat using wires, dental hooks, a packing corkscrew, whatever I had.

Only after I did that was I really able to get the tanks full in a reasonable way. It was like night and day. People really would make fun of me at the fuel dock behind my back (and sometimes not) until I did that.

 

[mcbanedg]

Californian Owner's Manual

Cap'n Craig - You're awesome! Thank you so much