Oil in Wood Bilge

We purchased a Monk design 48ft 1971 trawler built by Vic Franck last year before the winter I was in the process of changing the oil and noticed that there was a significant amount of oil in the bilge (not from me). Some floating but mostly caked on oil, soaking into the wood.

The photo with the vent pipe is what I found after lifting the engine room floor boards. The photo with the rag is after I sucked out all the water and oil and disposed of properly. I scraped the caked on oil that must have been from years of abuse and wiped up as much as I could with oil pads (photo with oily wood finish - rotated). The engines, transmissions, and V-drive all have oil pads under them as well as between each of the ribs and stringers.

I still have a noticeable oil smell in our salon area and looking for advice on next steps to take.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Daron

Can you keep the bilge dry? A normally wet bilge would require a different approach to avoid problems with the bilge pump(s).

Ted

O C Diver said:

Can you keep the bilge dry? A normally wet bilge would require a different approach to avoid problems with the bilge pump(s).

Ted

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since I have cleaned it out it has very little water and does not trigger the bilge pumps in that section.

I suspect that the oil has indeed soaked into the wood. Problem is how to get enough of the oil out of the wood in order to paint the bilge and seal up the wood. I have no idea how to get the oil out of the wood and if then it will even be possible to seal up the wood. Maybe someone that has a wood boat will know.

Maybe try to use oil absorbant pad on the wood until it dries a much as possible. I dried a carpet from oil that way while it was not wood I was surprise to see how much oil was absorbed.
After that if the paint is oil based it may not be an issue if not too oily.
Just guessing.

L

docvchulek said:

since I have cleaned it out it has very little water and does not trigger the bilge pumps in that section.

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Since it stays wet, unless someone offers a better plan, Simple Green or Dawn and a scrub brush, followed by vacuuming it out with a shop vac. This isn't going to be a quick process as oil will continue to seep out of the wood for a while. Maybe a weekly or monthly project.

Ted

Buy some oil absorbing pads or socks. They'll soak up all the oil floating in the water. Afterwards,to get the surface oil out, the easiest way is to add soap to bilge water and let it slosh for several days, preferably in open waters to agitate. As long as there's a film, add more soap. Then either go to a dump facility or outside US waters and pump it out.
There are systems to remove oil from bilge water, but the cheapest is $500-1000.

And there are bilge cleaners with an enzyme that breaks down oil. Maybe it's just soap with another name.

I have an 83' wood boat. Without venting, you'll always have a boat smell. I power vent my bilge areas with bilge blowers (turned down to a slow speed with a rheostat). They run all the time, summer and winter, and I live aboard. My boat smells like a house. Venting keeps the boat dryer and clothes, etc., smelling normal.

Lepke said:

I have an 83' wood boat. Without venting, you'll always have a boat smell. I power vent my bilge areas with bilge blowers (turned down to a slow speed with a rheostat). They run all the time, summer and winter, and I live aboard. My boat smells like a house. Venting keeps the boat dryer and clothes, etc., smelling normal.

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Thanks everyone! I found with my first round of treatment, I can take the water and oil from the bilge to a HAZMAT location in Seattle for free. I think I will add some soap and a little more elbow grease and pump it out again, then maybe paint.

I really like Interlux Bilge Kote as a paint for areas like the bilge. If I were going to take on a project like yours, I would call their support line and see what they recommend doing for preparing to paint. You want to do whatever you can to make it work and not have the paint peel off.

Painting the bilge looks nice, but keeping rock salt in a wet bilge preserves the wood. My boat was built in 1942. Almost always in salt water. From the waterline down, maybe not new but in great shape. Fresh water, usually from deck or cabin leaks is what causes dry rot.

Kerosene will penetrate well and lift the oil.
Then washing w soap (not much) should get most of the oil into the soapy water. Repeat. Suck up w a wet-dry vac. Find a place to dispose of the water.

Then I’d get serious about finding your oil leak.

I stumbled upon a solution for a similar problem, I bought a gallon of some purple cleaner, sloshed some in the bilge water , took it for a ride, pumped her out for some pretty good improvement. The key to getting the bilge really slick and span though, was the little hole that I had unknowingly punched in the bottom of the plastic jug that metered a very slow drip of cleaner into the bilge over the next six months!