Diesel smell in the boat

[boatpoker]

for those that use ozone machines...do you turn them on and leave the boat for a few hours or can you stay on board?

In twenty years of living aboard and my wife having life threatening allergies to just about everything, out boat had to be kept immaculate. Every bilge compartment was painted high gloss white, washed regularly and bleached at the smallest hint of mildew, odor, fungus or bacterial growth. We ran two Heaven Fresh 300C air cleaners 24/7. This unit has HEPA filter, UV filter, charcoal filter, ion generation and ozone generation. The ozone generator has a separate switch as it should not be running when you are onboard. Ozone kills bacteria ..... even the good bacteria that we need in out bodies. Ozone will corrode some metals in heavy concentrations but remember there is ozone in the air anyway and all metals corrode with or without generating additional ozone. We ran the ozone once a week or so, when we were leaving the boat for an afternoon or a day. We never had an odor of any kind on the boat, our synthetic rubber did not disintegrate, our metals did not corrode and our children have ten toes and ten fingers.

 

[windmill29130]

Tracy, when I replaced the fuel tanks in your boat, we also replaced all the feed lines between the tanks and filters as well as all those going to the fuel manifolds. We did not replace the cooper lines from the Racors to the twins or to the genny as they looked good. Never had any problem with diesel smalls even before I replaced the tanks. I don't know how old the cooper lines are but I would start by running a Klennex along every where you have access, especially along where the fuel lines are very close to the battery boxes. Also check all the fittings around the injector pump and the engine mounted fuel filters. After thing about this, I would not be surprised if some of the cooper lines are original but I'm sure your surveyor gave them a good look.

Good luck

John, what about the vent lines? I am positive there are no leaks.

 

[Insequent]

Tracy

Any idea if the tank supports were replaced? If wood they could have become a bit saturated with diesel prior to the tank change out

+1

I had a noticeable diesel smell at the outset. The engines, bilges and ER generally had been thoroughly cleaned by the PO prior to sale and there were no visible leaks. So I was puzzled as to the source of the smell.

A few months later I realized one fuel tank had a 'weaping' type leak. When replacing the tanks it was very noticeable that a number of the tank supports were saturated with diesel. They were still structurally sound but all were replaced. No more diesel smells. At all. I do not agree with an earlier comment the some diesel smell is 'the nature of the beast' for a diesel powered boat. I have a gallon of Pure Ayre, but its still unopened.

 

[Adelaide]

I've got a "Bilge Buster" ozone generator and it really works. Not cheap but after a week or so no diesel.

Daddyo, I have had a different experience with my bilge buster...Good grief did it cause me problems. All the sound tiles above it turned to mush. I thought I was looking for a leak, it was the damn bilge buster. The ozonator turns anything that is made of rubber into mush, including hoses and sound tiles...... Never again.

 

[Flatsflyer]

I don't recall anything about vent lines except I 'm pretty sure Peter Sabo (Comanchee Yacht Harbor) would have check them, they rebuilt the "shelves" the bottoms of the tanks sit on and they put some rubberized material on the shelves. The bottom and 6" up on all the sides of the tanks where painted with black truck bed liner.
'

 

[mbevins]

I had a bilge buster, it worked great. Installed in the ER. Absolutely no diesel odour. Then the probe (don't know what it's called) burned out, the company closed and my sweet smelling ER went with them. I'd put another in in a minute.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Trawler

 

[gadenors]

So our previous owner seemed ok with having spilt some diesel in the bilge and just leaving it there for a few months. *He was also ok with just letting the leak @ the injector pump leak and not fix it. *He ALSO was ok it seems when he changed the oil to just dump it directly into the bilge (which is isolated beneath the engine) and then suck it up with a small 12v pump. *Crazy to say the least. *All those items were immediately corrected when I bought our boat. *What I am dealing with now though is the diesel smell in the cabin. *I have soaped out the bilge and given it a good cleaning. *No water is standing in the bilge (we have dripless shaft seals). *When I first bought the boat late this summer the smell was pretty strong. *Now, it is slight and doesn't bother me. *What I have noticed though is when I come home from a weekend of a few days on the boat that the clothes have a definite diesel smell to them. *I don't mind as it like it but it drives my wife nuts. *It's not so strong that if you put clothes on and walked down the dock or ate at a restaurant that someone would smell it, but none the less, I need to get rid of the odor. *I feel like I am battling a long period of time on the boat where the seller just let diesel sit in the bilge and the odor just permeated stuff. *I already removed all the beds and bedding when we bought the boat and the only interior softgoods that remained were the salon settee at the dinette. *I've also put a fresh coat of paint on all of the storage lockers (it was old looking anyway). *I air the boat out as much as possible (ok, hard to do that now that it is winter!). *We run the hvac to keep the air cycling. *I have some of the plug in air-freshners in the salon. *Still...that diesel smell is there. *I know obviously that most diesel boats are going to have a slight diesel smell- nature of the beast. *I want to try and eliminate it as much as possible though.Any other tips, ideas, suggestions, insight, on how to remedy this situation?


-- Edited by Woodsong on Thursday 16th of December 2010 04:18:38 PM

Try ordinary VINEGAR its an old remedy, best when spryed on...

 

[Peter B]

I say this slightly tongue in cheek, as I realise this is probably not possible for you, but in spite of cleaning our bilge as well as possible, just the very age of our boat (circa 1975), meant the faint diesel smell was always evident for a brief time when we first open her up to go out after a period of being all closed up. After a good airing it disappears - until the next time.

Then, just recently we put in new curtains, and had new hull liner material applied over the old and many-times-painted over ply ceiling material. Now, when we open her up she has a neat 'new car/boat' type of smell. My wife is lovin' it. It never bothered me that much. For me it was just a case of "ah, boat smell…"

 

[Marin]

Daddyo, I have had a different experience with my bilge buster...Good grief did it cause me problems. All the sound tiles above it turned to mush. I thought I was looking for a leak, it was the damn bilge buster. The ozonator turns anything that is made of rubber into mush, including hoses and sound tiles...... Never again.

Peggie Hall used to warn of this very thing when she was participating in forums. I'm sure a lot of the end effect will depend on the type of material being exposed to the ozone, but as I recall she was not a fan of this type of odor treatment.