My fuel plug

markpierce said:

Yesterday, the boatyard mechanic couldn't get the Coot's engine to run after having serviced the engine (including valve adjustment and on-engine fuel filters.) Neither could I after showing up to answer the mechanic's call for help. Fuel wasn't getting to the engine and there was a lot of air in the fuel line. Normally use the fuel polisher pump to prime the engine. Had everyone puzzled until a fibrous blockage was found in the fuel line prior to the filters. Am looking forward to examining the fibrous mass.

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Examined the "mass." The first photo is how it came, the second after being pulled apart. The material was something like felt. It was found in the inlet to the fuel-polishing filter.





Comments welcome.

Have you seen your cat lately???

Mark: Did you or has someone gone in an looked/cleaned your tanks since you took delivery? I'd say that's "stuff" left over from when she was built.

Is there a filter upstream from this one that could have been deteriorating over time and sending these filter fragments into your fuel polishing inlet?

(I now have this image of someone with a felt pad buffer 'polishing' their fuel.)

I do believe I have seen something quite similar in the past. It was in a book entitled, Medicine for Mountaineering, and was the foreign object of interest in a line drawing depicting the digital removal of a fecal impaction.

MurrayM said:

...a line drawing depicting the digital removal of a fecal impaction.

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There's a drawing I don't ever want to see. Now if only I could get rid of the mental image...

Looks like a cat's hairball...

No cats ... No upstream filters ... Thinking like Larry that it is left-over construction stuff.

Greetings,
This is the guy they had welding the baffles inside the Coot's fuel tanks...

Thats what happens when you post this topic at "Happy Hour"

You guys are too much!

greysailor said:

Have you seen your cat lately???

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I just spit my morning coffee all over the paper!

Baggiolini said:

I just spit my morning coffee all over the paper!

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Sometimes the strangest and simple things cause the most hours spent troubleshooting problems.... I recently had a similar "ghost" when trying to find the loss of high speed power on a new goKart I have for the grandkids. First thought it was dirty carb. Tore it down and cleaned twice, double checked float height....nothing. Then noticed I was getting some blowback through the carb when I would increase revs. I adjusted the valves thinking something was leaking by there, but they were within tolerance. Was about to pull the head and check for bent/burned valves, when I thought I'd check the muffler for obstruction.....BINGO! A wad of fiberglass insulation had collected on the spark arrester screen (about 2" up inside the 3/4" tailpipe....knocked the treehugger screen out and everything was fine. Had more power than ever so I guess it was in there from manufacture, and slowly collected carbon on the fiberglass untill it affected power.... In 40 years of nuclear power technical troubleshooting work, it is usually the most simple things that are the hardest to find!

I've seen something similar with a string attached but it came out of a septic tank

Oh, gross!

So now I have to install another fuel line in parallel to the existing line?

The fuel system on the Eagle does allow the fuel to direct feed the engine, by passing the Racor filters. So what do you think the material is and where did it come from?

I recall seeing something similar long ago and it was a snake-oil product that you put in your rad to stop rad & coolant leaks. It had tiny fibers retained in a solution that supposedly would plug the leak but not the rad. I wonder if this might be a similar quack product a previous owner has used to plug a possible tank leak? Just a thought.....

I'm a wooden boat guy and there is a product called oakum I used to stuff inside the larger seam openings and it looks a lot like that. I just can't figure out why it would get inside your fuel tank.

https://www.google.com/search?q=oakum+stuffing+in+wood+boats&bav=on.2,or.r_cp.r_qf.&biw=1366&bih=600&bvm=pv.xjs.s.en_US.seW1cfrvSKg.O&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=8L7_UdC2KcSQiAK5kIHgBQ#facrc=_&imgrc=6BtJLU__DpLhWM%3A%3BBnUE7NKTZhi3EM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.loghomestore.com%252Fphotos%252Fchaps%252520and%252520oakum%252520008.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.loghomestore.com%252Fc213-oakum.php%3B576%3B286