How Do You Control The Diesel Smell In Your Cabin.

[Terra Nova]

Originally Posted by Sandero

...I suppose pressure testing the tank makes sense... if I know how... I could pour soapy water over it and look for bubbles...

That is not a pressure test, for which you need a low pressure gauge.

Originally Posted by Sandero

...Maybe the fill connection is bad and that's at the bottom...

If your fill is truly at the bottom, you have an insanely F'd up tank installation that would never pass survey, and will always smell of diesel.

[wsmurdoch]

[QUOTE=Sandero;1829477I suppose pressure testing the tank makes sense... if I know how... I could pour soapy water over it and look for bubbles.[/QUOTE]

Our older daughter is a nurse practitioner. She took her blood pressure cuff apart and hooked the squeeze bulb and gauge to the fuel tank vent of their boat. After closing the fuel outlet valve, she then pumped up the tank to a few mmHg and watched the gauge. When it fell she turned to our son-in-law and said, "You've got a leak." and fixed herself a drink.

[Terra Nova]

Great story.

[a64pilot]

If you decided to pressure test, be very, very careful. There is a new Gulfstream G 650 sitting in the completion hangar in Savannah that a mechanic pressure tested the fuel tank, story is he mistook 6" of water column to be 6 PSI and 6 PSI is apparently enough to blow the tank and ruin the wing on a new 65 million dollar airplane. 6 PSI doesn't sound like much, but I guess over a large area its quite a lot of force.
To pressure test use something like a dinghy foot pump, or electric dinghy air pump etc., something not capable of much pressure. I'd use a manometer as a pressure gauge, very easy to make with just water and clear plastic tubing and it has the advantage of it will blow the water out of it and you can't over pressurize the tank.
It's just 6 ft or so of clear hose in the shape of a big U that you fill with water, pressure of course pushes the water up one side of the U, make a mark and see if the water level drops. It's so sensitive to pressure as the day warms up, you can see the water level rising.
Once you verify you have a leak with the manometer, soapy water can be in my opinion an excellent leak detector.


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[IdoraKeeper]

Gotta agree with the cleaning and de greasing notions. Some installations are easier to clean than others. There's a practical limit. My boat has a Newport heater..by its very nature fuel is exposed to air...Cheech mentioned ozone earlier. I have adopted this method as well. When the practical limit of cleaning is reached ozone knocks down what odor remains. That goes for cooking and head odors as well. It still smells like seawater and oakum...its a wood boat.

[Sandero]

A bit of an update in the my diesel mystery. I have tried the following:

I spread some talc power on the engine block near the accessible diesel tubing...
I wrapped all accessible diesel pluming connections (hoses) tubing etc... with paper towels

and I of course removed all the diesel from the bilge before these tests and ran the engine several hours including sailing with it on and both tacks.

The tank is not down about to about 2/3 full.

Observations:

Talc test showed perhaps one bleeder valve leaking a tiny bit and the nut was tightened. No other tubing connections showed any leaking.

Wrapped connections were all negative

The diesel leak... whatever it is definitely much less. But there continues to be a small amount of diesel floating on the little bilge water. The absorbent clothe under the engine showed diesel... I think the bilge under the block has a peak and slopes mostly aft but somewhat forward. The cloth held most of the diesel with may have leaked where the block is but "excess" would more likely run aft. I've changed this and the tell tale red diesel stains seem to be decreasing and more of less at the fuel filter... which FEELS dry and passed the paper towel test.

All in all there is very little diesel leaking, but any amount is too much!

Next Steps

Focus on fuel filter area, hose and connections /checking/replacing the absorbent cloth to more precisely identify where the source might be originating.

Top off tank and see repeat the tests above to see if the leak is the tank itself... near the top. The pressure test seems like another approach.

The fuel fill hose is at the top of the side... not leaks there found.