[alberg30] Westerbeke engines

[Gordon White]

     I have as you know a Westerbeke 21 diesel in my Alberg. I have been
basically happy with it, aside from an electrical problem which might
have been the alternator, not the engine itself. HOWEVER, Thursday
night, en route down the bay to Op Sail 2000, in an 18-knot southwest
wind, i.e. we were under power and fighting a three foot chop, we ran
out of fuel around 11 p.m., miles from any possible harbor. Based on
topping up the tanks before we left, that was fuel usage of  three
gallons an hour, three times the usual. We discovered most of the diesel
fuel was slopping in the bilges. Fortunately it was not gasoline!

    We were able to sail to an anchorage in Lynnhaven Roads, but against
wind and a 2-knot tide, no further. Friday morning we got a rather
expensive tow into Little Creek where we found a short steel fuel line
from the pump to the injectors had broken off at a fitting. There was no
way to repair it with tools I carry nor any quick lashup the way it was
broken. While the engine would run if I held it together by hand, the
spillage was too great to do that. I estimate it must have broken well
into the previous night and was going through fuel at about a 5 gph rate
if not more.

    We succeeded in having a welder tack it back together, fortunately,
but the idea of having such a thing let go in a dangerous or remote spot
gives me the shudders. I can replace a fuel line and make a lot of
temporary repairs, but this was not one of them.

    The design is terrible. One end of the short (6") 1/4" steel tubing
is attached to the fuel pump, which is mounted on rubber and is free to
flex. The other is attached to the injectors that are fixed to the
engine. This is a failure waiting to happen.

    None of six diesel engine shops I walked to in Little Creek had the
part. Apparently NorShipCo, 30 miles away in Suffolk, VA, could order
it. If the welder could not have fixed it we would still be in Little
Creek. (and welding quarter-inch steel tubing to a fitting accurately
enough that I could put it back on and without burning up the tubing,
took a very skilled welder with a low-amp wire-fed machine.)

    I consider this a design flaw. Anyone with a similar engine ought to
check their system. I have to believe it was leaking a little earlier,
as I could find a little fuel in the bilge for a number of months but
could not find the source, even though I ran the engine and tried to see
if I could see any leaks.

    If there was no other way to design this fitting, there should have
been a 360 degree loop made in the tubing to take up some of the
vibration.

    I am ordering the part and am going to keep the repaired connection
as a spare. With the weld buildup around the repair, it may be stronger
than the original, but the same situation of having a flex at one end
and a rigid attachment at the other, is still present. On a longer
tubing run there might be sufficient "give" in the tubing to absorb the
vibration, but obviously not in so short a piece.

                        - Gordon White A-275


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