Plugged fuel filter starved my engine

[Saltdog]

I was going out across a very rough bar on the Columbia River Friday morning which had pretty thoroughly mixed up the contents of my fuel tank. Apparently there was some water and gunk in the tank which went to my racor filter and almost stopped the engine.

Once the boat had leveled out the fuel began to flow again, so we turned around and we turned around and ran home. The engine ran fine all the way back. At the dock I drained the inspection bulb of about 1/3 cup of water and other ugly stuff. I changed the filter which was black to within 3/4" of the top. It ran fine after that and we headed back out where we rocked and rolled for about six hours. When we returned I could see no additonal water in the bulb.

My fear is it is just a matter of time before this causes an additional problem so I hope to pick your collective brains.

A friend told me that the main purpose of the Racor is to make sure that NO water gets past it. He said that it will completely stop the flow of fuel before it will let water pass through. That is what it felt like may have happened. The questions of where this water came from in the first place is nagging at me.

Does anybody have a schematic of the fuel tank on a 28'?

I have heard that if you run these tanks dry there is still 5-8 gallons remaining that in effect cannot be accessed. If true I am afraid to think might be lurking in that bottom part of the tank.

Does anybody know where the fuel pickup is located in the tank?

If I remove the cockpit floor, will I find an access plate on the top of the tank and might I be able to completely pump it dry from there? Or is there an easier way to completely pumb the tank?

I suppose that since after running it another six hours in a fairly sloppy ocean and there was no additilonal water in the bulb that I am worrying for nothing and should get a few extra filters and just run it for a while to see what happens. Going fifty miles offshore for Tuna, though, will be a little unnerving until I know more about this.

Does anybody have any advice?

Thanks

TS

[RobS]

I deleted your identical post in Albin Maintenance to avoid confusiuon

Here are some shots with the cockpit floor lifted to access the tank on my 2000 engine box model.

[Saltdog]

Rob S, thank you that is very helpful. I can't tell which hatch it is. on my engine box it seems like I have a large retangular hatch right behind the box and a narrower hatch closer to the stern. Which is this?

Thanks

TS

[RobS]

You may have a different hatch configuration. "No two Albin's are alike" should be the motto of this site, it's true to the point of being scary at times.

My engine box and most that I have seen have a single rectangular removal deck from the engine box back to the transom and the full width of the cockpit. There are 3 hatches along the rear of the deck that are built into this section of the deck, a wide center hatch for rudder and bilge access, and 2 smaller hatches to each side for seacock access. I have seen a few engine box models with different hatch configuratiions. You should be able to see the tank walls in the bilge and figure out exactly what needs to be removed to access the top of the tank..

[DougSea]

...
My engine box and most that I have seen have a single rectangular removal deck from the engine box back to the transom and the full width of the cockpit. There are 3 hatches along the rear of the deck that are built into this section of the deck, a wide center hatch for rudder and bilge access, and 2 smaller hatches to each side for seacock access...

Our 1997 engine box model was the same as Rob describes here, and I believe the fuel tank configuration was the same as well.

[D.Gideon]

We had dual racors put on our previous trawler, and it came in very handy in a very tight spot once. I was able to swith to the second filter in no more than 30 seconds I'd say. I'm new to the 28TE - not sure if this would be a suitable modification, but I'm going to looik into it. D. Gideon.

[soundguy78]

Hey everyone! Quick question. I unfortunately have to remove the aft removable deck for tank maintenance. Any issues I should know about or pointers for ease or removal? Any tips would be appreciated!