Ok all, I wiped down everything with simple green and changed out my sump diapers. Then we ran the engine while I watched, used an inspection mirror, and dabbed with a paper towel at the connections. We tried at high idle all the way up to 2400 rpms (in neutral as we are tied to a mooring currently). I couldn't find any smoking gun while checking all the areas mentioned. At best, a couple of the connections were "juicy" and couldn't positively identify the juice as diesel over simple green or some old oil or a mixture of the three. Also, we ran the diesel for about 20 minutes and no pink diesel stain made it down to any diaper.
So, either our totally soaked diapers were just because we are running the diesel more (50 hours since last diaper change) going up the ICW. Or, some event happened that leaked excess diesel then fixed itself (doesn't seem likely). I'm surprised that I didn't see anything obvious though but maybe the diesel on the diapers was less than it looked?
At any rate, I decided not to even tighten any connections yet thinking I didn't want to make anything worse if in fact the diesel leaks are the same as they have been for over 500 hours of our ownership with no running problems associated. We don't have a noticeable diesel smell, so it really is just a nuisance at this point. Going to monitor the diapers when we get underway toward Fernandina on Saturday. Any thoughts?
_________________ Zach Duncan SV Holiday Hull# 280
|