Cabin Odor-smells like engine room

N

nanotech

New Member
Jun 30, 2008
5
Rapid City
Boat Info
1998 240 Sundancer 5.7L
Engines
5.7L 250HP Alpha I
Our 240 Sundancer has an odor in the cabin like oil/fuel. It's not strong, but it has permeated all of the carpet and upholstery and any clothes or bedding that are left in will begin to smell like it too. At first I thought it was just from leaving the canvas up and the cabin door open for weeks (previous owner stored it that way often), but after 2 months on the lake with the cabin door closed and canvas taken down, it still smells exactly the same. This leads me to believe that it's coming from the bilge area, or somehow the smell needs more than months to dissipate even when vented for days.

Is there a way the bilge area could vent into the cabin? If so, is there a solution? If it's just lingering odor from a previous episode, what is the best way to go about treating the upholstery to get rid of the smell? It's just unpleasant enough for me that it makes it difficult for me to sleep.

Thanks in advance!
 
nanotech said:
Our 240 Sundancer has an odor in the cabin like oil/fuel. It's not strong, but it has permeated all of the carpet and upholstery and any clothes or bedding that are left in will begin to smell like it too. At first I thought it was just from leaving the canvas up and the cabin door open for weeks (previous owner stored it that way often), but after 2 months on the lake with the cabin door closed and canvas taken down, it still smells exactly the same. This leads me to believe that it's coming from the bilge area, or somehow the smell needs more than months to dissipate even when vented for days.

Is there a way the bilge area could vent into the cabin? If so, is there a solution? If it's just lingering odor from a previous episode, what is the best way to go about treating the upholstery to get rid of the smell? It's just unpleasant enough for me that it makes it difficult for me to sleep.

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
Do you have a pump out head ? is the holding tank in the bildge ?
 
I'd start by giving the bilge a through cleaning and maybe use some citrus sented cleaner as a final rinse. You may have a limber hole connecting the bilge to the cabin sump/bilge that is allowing the odor to enter the cabin.
 
Another possibility for the smell working it's way into the cabin:

If you get down in your bilge, then turn and face forward you'll see the wall that separates the cabin from the engine room. All the way to the port side and all the way to the stbd side are "pass-throughs" for wires/hoses, etc. These open spaces are then filled up / closed off with about 16 large tubes-worth of silicone (OK, maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration :lol:). But look all along the vertical seam where that wall touches the hull sides and you'll see what I mean.
 
Do you have a sump/pump in your cabin floor for a shower and or sink drain? If so, clean it real good with a citrus cleaner.
 
I have not had that problem, but I can tell you the bilge is well sealed from the cabin or helm on my boat. Just try running a wire from the bilge into the cabin and you will know what I mean.

We tried every thing we could think of to get a new radio remote unit from the helm to the cabin. All kinds of fish tapes and fiberglass rods found no path whatsoever.

Only time my cabin smells like gas/oil is if I leave the door open when starting engines up, and even that is rare depending on wind conditions.
 
We had the EXACT same smell on my Dads 98 240 Sundancer! Took AGES to locate it! Hopefully you'll sort this quickly now ;)

What we did in the end was to take out the step that houses the garbage bin. If you disassemble the whole step you'll be able to see the blue water pipe which runs from the galley through to the engine bay where the water tank is located. Searay in their wisdom cut the hole large for this, but the pipe is relatively narros in size. there is therefore a gap of around an inch either side of the pipe. We found that the smell was coming from there! The engine had just had a service and was a bit fumey and when it was left the smell had permeated through that hole into the cabin. We used some expanding foam to seal all around the water pipe. Then we put a deodourising bomb into the boat and let it off for around an hour. We've NEVER had the smell back!
 
Thanks to everyone for your responses! Chatuge...your solution sounds like the first one I'll investigate being it's an identical problem. The boat is in indoor storage, but I'll try and get it done.

Lazy Daze, the way I read your post, you are suggesting the same thing as Chatuge, right? Also, like Just Me suggested, I do have a pumpout head with a holding tank in the bilge...maybe I need to seal where those hoses go as well better.

Thanks for the ideas! I look forward to getting to the bottom of this before the season starts...it always comes sooner than I think.
 
katricol said:
Do you have a sump/pump in your cabin floor for a shower and or sink drain? If so, clean it real good with a citrus cleaner.
Click to expand...

No drain or pump in the cabin, but I am going to citrus the heck out of the engine bay once I seal the lines between the bilge and cabin...can't hurt to have it smelling better down there.
 
SCORPIO said:
I'd start by giving the bilge a through cleaning and maybe use some citrus sented cleaner as a final rinse. You may have a limber hole connecting the bilge to the cabin sump/bilge that is allowing the odor to enter the cabin.
Click to expand...

Now I'm starting to second guess if there is a drain/bilge area in the cabin. I have no shower, and have never noticed one, but I'll have to get out to storage to tell.

I will, however, find any link between the bilge and cabin and clean and seal what I can. Then, deodorize like crazy and hope it was a success.:thumbsup:
 
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