[Alberg30] Re: diesel / fuel tank

[Gordon White]

    In the Westerbeke installation the A-4 tank was discarded and an 11
gallon plastic tank installed in the starboard cockpit locker. This was
fine except for the screen at the bottom of the pickup tube. It clogged
up in a 35 knot noreaster while returning to Annapolis several years ago
when the drawbridge was still across the Severn and would not open. It
was nip and tuck to get an anchor to hold and SeaTow to get to us before
we hit the bridge.
    I have since removed the pickup screen and installed parallel Racor
filters and a second, 10 gallon plastic tank, giving me plan "B" in two
directions. As well as more fuel. At about a gallon an hour I now have
21 hours or more than 125 miles radius under full power.

    BUT: the early Westerbekes had a rigid steel fuel line connecting
the fuel lift pump to the injectors. The pump is mounted on rubber and
vibrates, so one night last year  on the way to Op Sail the line cracked
from fatigue and although the engine still ran, it pumped the fuel into
the bilge. We missed Op Sail. Westerbeke has a retrofit flex fuel line.
If your engine does not have one, GET ONE.
                                         Gordon White A-275


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