Captain B
New Member
- Nov 24, 2011
- 73
- Boat Info
- 1985 Sea Ray 300 Sedan Bridge
Just Purchased and can't wait for spring!
- Engines
- Twin 350 gasser's with Fresh Water Cooling. V-drives
Alright, so I am sitting in the lower Delaware Bay with only one engine running, the admiral in the berth resting and the BIG surprise is not going at all like I expected. I still had 90 miles to go to get to our new home port. I had only covered about 10 miles so far limping along on one engine at 5 mph hour. I had decided that if I didn't have both engines running strong by noon, I would have to turn around and abort the trip. Picking the story back up at 11:30 am...
So far I had emptied and changed the water seperating fuel filter about 3 times, thinking there was water in the tank and blocking the filter thus preventing enough fuel flow to keep the engine running at cruise speed. Each time I did it, the engine seemed to run a little bit better for a little bit longer. But by the last filter change, it was obvious there wasn't any water in the fuel filter any longer, only good clean fuel. Finally, I went to the flybridge and started running the engines at different RPM's to try and figure out what was going on. The engine would run great from 1000 rpm to 2700 rpm. Any continued running over 2700 rpm and the engine would start puttering and if pushed long enough, would stall out. Seemed to reinforce the idea that the engine was starving for fuel. Finally a light bulb went off, what if the tank pickup tube screen is partially clogged and that is preventing enough fuel to flow through the filters. I went down below and moved the engine fuel line to the spare pick up tube installed in the tank. This tube was mounted in the front of the tank and would be used for the generator. (there is no generator currently installed on the boat.) Capped off the pickup tube that I was using, and went back to the flybridge. Time check, 11:43 am. Alright, this was my last option and last chance to fix this before abort time. If this didn't take care of it, I didn't have the capability to fix it on the water and would have to turn back. Start up port engine and she fires to life and purrs right along at 1000 rpm just like before. Slowly increase throttles to 1500 rpm, running strong. Increase to 2000 rpm, now we are pushing alot of water, still running strong. 2500 rpm, trying to climb on plane, just not quite enough power, still running good. So far my switch didn't hurt anything! Okay, time for the test, 3000 rpm. Boat climbs onto plane, rpm's increase to 3500 and she is still running strong, no hesitation, no hiccup, nothing, just running strong! Pull back to 3200 rpm and cruise for 10 minutes keeping my eyes glued to the engine sync gauge as this would indicate the engine was starting to have trouble before the tach would. Never moved a bit! So the last ditch attempt fixed the problem and she ran strong all the way home!!!!!!! I was so relived!
Went down to the berth to get my wife and she rejoined me on the flybridge, at the helm. Now this is what I had planned the whole time. A perfect cruise back without any problems. She was a little hesitant at first expecting the engine to die again at any time. To be honest, I was wondering if the same thing would happen. But with each passing minute and mile, we both developed more confidence in the boat.
The water was perfect for the trip back, just as I was hoping and planned on, one thing going right! (Thanks for the advice Arks) The visibility was much better at this point, but you could still see the fog around in the distance threatening to close back in, but it wasn't to bad. Slowly by slowly, we kept passing the waypoints in the GPS and adding more marks, tracking our location on the charts. We were cruising at about 25 mph at 3100 rpm.
The following pictures are from the Delaware bay, from the mouth where it meets the Atlantic Ocean, all the way up to C&D Canal. Look how flat the water was!!!! That part did work as planned!
So far I had emptied and changed the water seperating fuel filter about 3 times, thinking there was water in the tank and blocking the filter thus preventing enough fuel flow to keep the engine running at cruise speed. Each time I did it, the engine seemed to run a little bit better for a little bit longer. But by the last filter change, it was obvious there wasn't any water in the fuel filter any longer, only good clean fuel. Finally, I went to the flybridge and started running the engines at different RPM's to try and figure out what was going on. The engine would run great from 1000 rpm to 2700 rpm. Any continued running over 2700 rpm and the engine would start puttering and if pushed long enough, would stall out. Seemed to reinforce the idea that the engine was starving for fuel. Finally a light bulb went off, what if the tank pickup tube screen is partially clogged and that is preventing enough fuel to flow through the filters. I went down below and moved the engine fuel line to the spare pick up tube installed in the tank. This tube was mounted in the front of the tank and would be used for the generator. (there is no generator currently installed on the boat.) Capped off the pickup tube that I was using, and went back to the flybridge. Time check, 11:43 am. Alright, this was my last option and last chance to fix this before abort time. If this didn't take care of it, I didn't have the capability to fix it on the water and would have to turn back. Start up port engine and she fires to life and purrs right along at 1000 rpm just like before. Slowly increase throttles to 1500 rpm, running strong. Increase to 2000 rpm, now we are pushing alot of water, still running strong. 2500 rpm, trying to climb on plane, just not quite enough power, still running good. So far my switch didn't hurt anything! Okay, time for the test, 3000 rpm. Boat climbs onto plane, rpm's increase to 3500 and she is still running strong, no hesitation, no hiccup, nothing, just running strong! Pull back to 3200 rpm and cruise for 10 minutes keeping my eyes glued to the engine sync gauge as this would indicate the engine was starting to have trouble before the tach would. Never moved a bit! So the last ditch attempt fixed the problem and she ran strong all the way home!!!!!!! I was so relived!
Went down to the berth to get my wife and she rejoined me on the flybridge, at the helm. Now this is what I had planned the whole time. A perfect cruise back without any problems. She was a little hesitant at first expecting the engine to die again at any time. To be honest, I was wondering if the same thing would happen. But with each passing minute and mile, we both developed more confidence in the boat.
The water was perfect for the trip back, just as I was hoping and planned on, one thing going right! (Thanks for the advice Arks) The visibility was much better at this point, but you could still see the fog around in the distance threatening to close back in, but it wasn't to bad. Slowly by slowly, we kept passing the waypoints in the GPS and adding more marks, tracking our location on the charts. We were cruising at about 25 mph at 3100 rpm.
The following pictures are from the Delaware bay, from the mouth where it meets the Atlantic Ocean, all the way up to C&D Canal. Look how flat the water was!!!! That part did work as planned!
