Bad fuel pump?

[freshalaska]

I have a Westerbeke 3.8 genset that seems to be starving for fuel. Starts but seems to run out of fuel. Fuel in the tank, and filters okay. New fuel pump is $362.
Can I hook up a 12 volt electric pump to pump the engine fuel and how would I hook it up and what pressure would it need to be? Hoping to save a few dollars.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[Lepke]

12v will work on a lift pump. Low pressure is ok. Need higher volume for diesel so fuel circulates for injector pump cooling. I have them on my Detroit mains as backup and filter changes. They're inline, normally off, and engine mounted pump pulls thru ok. Pump 30 gallons/hour. About $16 on ebay.

 

[freshalaska]

Thanks Lepke, will the electric pump get the job done if the Westerbeke fuel pump is not working or barely pumping and still left online?

 

[Ski in NC]

Some pumps can pump through when dead, some can't. Why bother, just plumb new pump in directly and be done with it. Pretty much all little diesel gennies work fine with a 5psi lift pump available at autoparts stores for like 40-50bucks.

Lepke's kit should do just fine.

 

[freshalaska]

So Ski I leave the dead pump in place but plump in the new electric pump? Will the engine stock pump inject air in the system or how do I take the old pump off line? What do you suggest. Guess I can plumb the fuel line to the new pump and cap of the line into the old pump, seems like that should work. I'm kind of inexperienced in some of this stuff and would rather not learn the hard way.

 

[boatpoker]

Sticking new parts on without determining the issue can be a frustrating exercise.

Please describe what is happening.

I had a buddy that rebuilt the entire fuel system and still couldn't get it to run more than 3 minutes. It took me 20 seconds to check the oil ...... oil was low and the low sensor was shutting her down.

$1000 out of pocket cause he did not check the oil !

 

[freshalaska]

I first had an issue with the genset several years ago. I thought I'd stirred up the fuel tank in rough water and plugged the Racor filter. I changed the filter element and got her to run again. This year genset again seemed to be starving for fuel. Would run maybe 30 minutes and loose RPM's and then die. Would restart and run again for awhile then quite again and seemed each time it would stop sooner ( less time). I did change both fuel filters but didn't seem to make any difference. My thoughts where the lift pump was just getting more tired all the time and finally pretty much quit altogether. Runs maybe 10 seconds now then seems to run out of fuel. Thought I'd plumb in a $50 electric fuel pump and see what happen rather then buy expensive factory pump. Am I right that the Westerbeke pump is a mechanical diaphram type. Maybe diaphram has a small hole? I do know I can't afford to hire someone to fix it and I really need to learn this stuff myself.
I really appreciate everyone's help and trawler forum in general.

 

[freshalaska]

Another thought, maybe air is getting into the line and making a fuel block.

 

[Xsbank]

Take the pump out and take it apart. When I did that to mine the electric motor was full of fuel. I replaced it with a Walbro electric pump 1/3rd the price of a Cummins and its run fine since.

 

[Ski in NC]

Fuel starve can be caused by a number of things, only one being pump itself failing. Can also be air getting in somewhere between pump and tank, symptoms are very similar. Not enough time to type a detailed test plan, but it involves outboard squeeze bulb, testing pump flow into a bucket, bypassing with elec pump, clear fuel line to check for bubbles, etc.

 

[Russell Clifton]

Good advise what Boatpoker said. I spent over 3 years trying to fix a issue with what seemed like a fuel problem with a Cat diesel, only to find out that I needed to check the oil level with the engine running, and I was checking with the engine shut down. Made a difference of about 6 quarts. The governor kept trying to shut down the rpm's. Spent several thousand dollars trying to fix problem. The Cat mechanic couldn't even find the problem, stumbled across the fix myself.

 

[sdowney717]

Don't leave the old bad pump inline, who knows, it may be a future problem, or it is the problem. Those plungers in the pump can jam up.
All pump should have an inline filter right before the pump, just in case some crud gets into the lines, even if you have a filter somewhere before the pump, stuff happens.

 

[freshalaska]

Okay thanks everyone! I put a aux. pump inline and now genset runs fine. Problem was the stock Westerbeke pump gone bad. Genset is a 2002.