Westerbeke W52 stops suddenly and unexpectedly

[Nord Sal]

Thanks again.

I'm going to pull the solenoid from my spare pump and check if the plunger is ported and go from there.

The pump is a Japanese Diesel Kiki which I heard is a "Bosch style" injection pump.

The oil pressure and coolant temperature switches only power an alarm and should still function. The control of the solenoid operation is solely by the key switch.

[phorvati]

so whats safer

1. automatic shutdown and you risk losing and engine at some critical time where current or waves are about to disintegrate you against the bridge or rocks or a sandbar(like at any one of the many eastern US seaboard inlets),
or

2. engine keeps running and you have audible low oil/high temp warning which you have to hear and shut the engine off yourself.

[Nord Sal]

This happened to me with this engine which really opened my eyes about the fuel solenoid.

I was preparing to go on a trip in southeast Alaska from Craig, AK to Thomas Bay, on the mainland about ten miles north of Petersburg and back to Craig. With a side trip to Wrangell it was about 180 miles . This is in October and weather is not good at this time of year, the boat is slow, there's hardly any other boats, water is deep right up to the (rocky) shore in most places. I need reliability.

I was doing some routine engine maintenance a week or so before my planned departure and had the engine running at the dock to warm it up in preparation for changing the oil. While waiting for it to warm up, the engine suddenly shut down and all power was gone to the instrument panel. I was stunned to find the 20a breaker had tripped. I reset the breaker and everything worked okay and finished the oil change. My trip was still a few days away but I planned to cancel because I didn't know what caused that problem and couldn't have it repeat itself away from the dock.

I tried to find a problem in the circuit but didn't see anything that looked a short had occurred, e.g., bare wires, evidence of heat, burn marks, etc. I studied the wiring diagram over and over and kept thinking about the problem in the back of my head. A few days later I was walking to the boat and recalled I had removed a burnt-out bulb from the instrument panel intending to take it with me to see if I could find a match at the local auto parts store. I immediately looked at the panel and found the thin brass plate that services as the contact for the bulb had loosened and had a tiny burn mark where it had made contact with a terminal screw. I was so relieved to find the apparent cause of the short! I replaced the bulb and after running the engine a bit to feel confident in it, went on the trip.

While I was relieved to find the cause, I was not happy that this engine could unexpectedly shut down from simply having a small light bulb removed from its socket. What else could cause this? Clearly the solenoid itself could fail.

I honestly didn't know it was even a possibility to remove the solenoid/plunger assembly from the pump until this latest problem reared its head and my friend made the suggestion. While I can see merits of an automtic shutdown system on an unattended engine, it seems the same system installed on a propulsion engine could be disastrous. I'd rather risk losing an engine from running beyond shutdown parameters in an emergency than risk losing the boat after having the engine shutdown due to a minor electrical fault.