Westerbeke quitting on me after 2 minutes +/-, thoughts??

[Stee6043]

My generator ran fine for me last weekend but this past weekend I started it up, ran fine for about 2-3 minutes and then quit. No load. Upon quitting it did not want to restart. After 10 minutes +/- it restarted fine, no issues, and then quit again in 2-3 minutes. I did this a third time as well with the same result.

I have good water flow from the exhaust, new impellor and belts last year. Oil changed last fall.

Any suggestions on where to start first? My first thought is to replace the fuel filter since it's been in my list to do anyway.

There are plenty of threads out there of similar issues though I can't seem to find anyone that has their rig stop quite so quickly. It's usually "after an hour" and then its the fuel pump? Or after 15 minutes and it's possibly the exhaust manifold/hx?

Hmmmm....

 

[NotHerDecision]

I'm guessing it's the temperature sending unit on the thermostat housing. The units will shut down if the overheat and the sending units sometimes go bad. First make sure it's not getting hot, if the thermostat is stuck then that could be the issue but if not I'm betting on the sending unit.


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[bahamabreisus]

Check coolant level and oil level. Westerbekes are very sensitive to oil level. If non of the above, most likely electric fuel pump, about $40 at NAPA etc.

 

[Boater420]

Here's my basic trouble shooting procedures:

1. Check all the basics...oil, water flow, coolant, fuel, governor oil, throttle linkage and choke.
2. Start the generator and let it run.
3. When the generator starts to die press and hold the "preheat" button and see if it continues to run. The preheat button disengages the sensors that kills the engine. If it continues to run with the button pressed you know it's one of these items (overheat, low oil pressure, or exhaust temp).
4. If pressing the preheat button doesn't keep it running restart the generator and when it starts to die this time press the "stop" button and release. This clears any "over-speed" fault and will allow the generator to run for another few seconds until it senses the over-speed condition again. If pressing the "stop" button allows the generator to run for a few more seconds you know you have a governor issue or something related to an over-speed condition.

Knowing what fault is shutting down the generator is the first step.

 

[Stee6043]

You guys are the best. I'm going to take these suggestions with me and see if I can walk through some of these sometime this week. Super helpful. Thank you!

 

[Stee6043]

Just to close this one out (hopefully) - I replaced the fuel filter and cleaned the arrestor. I assume the fuel filter was the problem but so far everything seems to be solved. Ran for 30 minutes today without a problem.