RickB wrote:
"And Gonzo's problem started soon/immediately after his latest primary filter change ..."
I think Mr. Gonzo should weigh in on that. I can't find any such statement anywhere under his name.
Then weigh-in, I shall... Oh, and please y'all... Call me Tom
Gonzo is an old nickname from my audio engineering days.
*
Ok... So... Where was I... Oh yea - There are a lot of unknowns on my part. I can't assume, confirm, or verify the specific time these little surges began. TBH, I just didn't make a mental note of it the first time it happened. I have been feeling them for a while, but as I am still sorta new to all of this and am still becoming "in tune" with the zen-like awareness of boating. Especially with diesel technology and what to look for, feel for, and listen for.
I know it's been going on for a while, but whether it has been 6 months, 8 months, or a year... I would be lying to you if I said I knew for sure. That was the purpose of this thread. It was to sniff around your brain stems to learn what I could about a problem that has finally made it to the top of my "ask-the-smart-guys-at-the-trawler-forums-list-about"
I can say that it DOES appear to be increasing in frequency. I think I was timing it last week at about seven minutes between surges. I can say that I use Bio-Side last year...* it was too long ago (August) that I topped off the tanks for the first time. Not too long after that, I replace the filter a couple of times and I had the injector pump cleaned and checked while chasing another unrelated problem that ended up being the starter. The most recent "change" was the unintentional move to the 2mic filter.
What does all this mean? Well, to me, nothing. It's just a pile of note-worthy things I have worked on in the past year. Do any of them REALLY point to the problem I am feeling? Perhaps none of them, or a combination of a few, or ALL do, but like I said, I can't point at a moment in time when it started happening for sure. Thus, it's time to ask my team for possible solutions and tests to try and find out where to start looking.
I certainly hope it's just a filter,* but with history as a barometer, I ain't holding my breath. I'll start looking... break something major in the process... figure out a way to throw hundreds of dollars at the problem... only to find out there was a kink in some line that I didn't see the first 25 times I looked. Still, I hope that the real fix will require a a big bottle of wine, a few strippers, some baby oil, silk sheets, and a trapeze.
Anyway, this is quickly turning into a Marin-length post, so I'll wrap it up.
I now have a good list to start on to try and work this problem out. My sincere thanks for that. Please keep the thread going if there is more to add. I am try to absorb information about marine diesels when I can. There ae so many systems I still need to learn about (san the waste tank and I loathe the day I have to go down THAT road). I really have to learn them AS they become problems because I would quickly get swamped if I tried to learn it all right now. So I live-and-learn. I still have the genset, reverse-cycle A/C, and like I said... the waste system to get on the radar. All part of the excitement of boating, it seems.
I know this was a lot of BS that didn't help any, but it was fun to write.