Generator leak

[Bryant]

Last weekend I noticed I was pumping red fluid overboard. I immediately shut off my bilge pump. When I got back to the slip my generator was dripping fluid and my bilge had 80 gals of what I initially thought was antifreeze but turned out to be diesel. Has anyone experienced something like those?

 

[ksanders]

My guess is that you broke a return line from an injector.

Saw it happen once on a Cummins 330 Caught it using a floscan meter. Noticed one engine burning 5 gallons more than the other one.

 

[Lepke]

Yes. Broken main fuel line. There may be a recycler that will pump out the fuel. You can reclaim the fuel if the bilge was clean and mostly dry. Sorta like fuel polishing. Mine was 300 gallons in a wet wood bilge. I ran it thru a centrifuge and pumped into 55 gallon barrels. I sold it to a fuel company that dumped it into a 20,000 gallon diesel tank.
For cleanup, there are bilge cleaners that have enzymes that eat and render harmless the remaining fuel. Soap, especially high detergent like Super Clean will break it down, but has to be dumped 50 miles out. Maybe not even then.
It would have made a spectacular fire.