Oil loss through the banjo bolt in the oil pan.

[Dudley]

753 miles into a 1,753 mile trip from Maine to Sarasota, Florida the oil pressure started to go down. The red light never came on. I shut down the engine and checked the oil level. The oil did not reach the dip stick. I had 5 quarts of oil on board and added this. Although the pressure came up the oil still did not touch the dip stick. We went into Alligator River Marina and added 4 more quarts of oil which brought the oil level to full.

My 108 pound Swampset dorey had been on the engine box and this was my excuse for not checking the oil at every fuel stop. I had been running hard and thought that the oil had been used by the engine. In retrospect I should have known that it was not normal usage since in the previous 600 hours of engine usage I had never used a quart of oil.

After another 5 hours at 3,115 RPM I pulled in to a mooring field and anchored. The stuffing box was dripping and when I checked it I could see the oil dripping out of the bolt that holds the oil dip stick tube to the bottom of the oil pan. Again, the oil did not touch the dip stick. I was horrified and called Boat US. Although it was 8pm the tow boat arrived in 45 minutes and took us to its home marina which is also the site of the local Yanmar dealer.

At 11pm the owner was in the office doing his books and he printed out a picture of the oil pan with its attaching parts. The following morning the owner put his super mechanic on my job and found that it was a 10mm bolt that goes into the base of the oil pan. The bolt has a hole through the center almost to the head of the bolt and then an opening out the side into the oil dip stick tube. When my 6LPA-STP had been installed 8 years ago the offending boat yard had used an after market bolt that also had a separate port for a rubber hose that could be used to drain the engine oil. This bolt was not corrosion resistant and had rusted through.

The line man who had sold me 6 quarts of oil earlier never suggested we look in the bilge for oil. I blame myself for being too stupid to look. So now we had 10 quarts of black oil in the bilge. The dealer had the bolt but would not install it until we got a new dip stick tube because the one he removed was so corroded that he thought is unsafe. If I had known that there is a second oil dip stick which is on the starboard side of the 6LPA I would have used a solid 10mm bolt to plug the oil pan and continued on.

However, still in a state of shock I had evey drop of oil drained from the crank case, the boat put on a travel lift, the skeg plug removed and the bilge cleaned of all oil and the plug replaced. The following day the dip stick tube arrived and was installed. Three gallons of oil brought the level up to the dip stick. We had replaced the oil filter and another two quarts of oil brought the level to full. The oil was a clear yellow.

After running another 63 hours to complete the trip to Sarasota, at 20 knots, the oil is still clear, yellow and at the full level. This makes me wonder why every fall, for the past 8 years, when the oil was changed the engine oil was black after running the engine for only one hour.

[jleonard]

Luckily you dodged the bullet this time.
What I do instead of pulling hatches and inspecting the bilge is I foire the bilge pump off manually every time I go below for a "break" of some sort and lean over the side of the boat and look for what comes out of the thru hull. Usually it's nothing, but I have seen fuel, oil, etc in the past on my previous boat. Of course if it is not just bilgewater I shut it down and go do the real inspection.
But at least that is a quick sanity check.

[RobS]

Not all 6LP's were equipped with that additional dipstick on the starter side of the engine. Mine has it, but I do recall losing a bet with mhanna that he had it too.. Figured I would mention that before all 6LP owners who read this go in search of something that may or may not be there. Mine read differently from one another, likely due to the pitch (angle) of the engine. The starter side one reads higher, I keep this one to about 75% of the way btwn ADD & FULL. These engines can be several quarts under ADD but they do not have as much of a cushion for being over FULL.

Running from Shetler Isl to Block this summer my oil cooler cap cracked. While on plane at full cruise my rear bilge light came on which never does so I immediately investigated. I stayed on plane so as to not alter the conditions and possibly mask or stop the problem thus making it harder to diagnose. Inspection from the rear hatch revealed a heavy flow of saltwater (taste test) coming from somewhere foward. My 60lb daughter was sound asleep on the go-anywhere chair on the engine box. All that took was one good "GET UP, NOW!" I guess your dinghy would not listen so well

I keep a set of safety ear muffs aboard. As you know, the diesel is VERY LOUD when you open the hatches at cruise. They come in very handy for these situations. I originally brought them aboard for photo-taching at cruising speeds and WOT but decided to keep then aboard for times like these.

Do you think that how quickly your engine oil went from clear yellow to black is related to the bad banjo bolt?

(BTW: I broke your post down into several paragraphs for easier reading)

[jprohan]

It's a good idea to run your bilge and look over the side before a major trip. I was out in the bay one quiet evening; shut off the engine, had a beer or two. Before I fired it up, I ran the pump, and to my horror, saw mucho diesel fuel coming out into the water. I headed home, and later found the fitting on my fuel cooler had rusted thru; the hose was still fine. Had to have the yard replace it; did the cooler too as long as it was out. A good (and inexpensive) piece of equipment to have is a bilge counter. Every time my auto bilge comes on, the counter clicks. I can tell at a glance how many times, if any, my bilge pump has run while I've been away, or underway.

[Dudley]

The bilge pump cycle counter should be standard equipment on the Albin. Where can I find one?