Boat Fuel Tank Vent
Boat Fuel Tank Vent
Service your boat engine
Replacing the filter is recommended at 200 hour intervals. Remember to close the fuel stopcock to prevent fuel from draining from the tank. Diesel can be messy and its best contained. Place a bowl below to catch any escapes or try hanging a plastic bag around the filter.
Checking and replacing the primary filter Clean filters are essential to keep water and particles out of your boats engine. Most marine engines have two filters, the primary filter in the fuel lines between the tank and the engine, and the secondary filter between the fuel lift pump and the injection pump.
You should check regularly throughout the season for collected water. It will be clearly visible and will require occasional draining. To drain the filter bowl, hold a container underneath the open cock. Once any water has passed through you will see a stream of clear fuel.
Replacing the filter is recommended at 200 hour intervals. Remember to close the fuel stopcock to prevent fuel from draining from the tank. Diesel can be messy and its best contained. Place a bowl below to catch any escapes or try hanging a plastic bag around the filter.
Check the seal between the bracket, canister and bowl. They won’t need replacing every time but as new filters come with seals you may still want to. To fit the filter, reverse the process. Assemble the base plate, bowl and filter as a single stack before inserting the bolt. A smear of oil on the sealing rings of fuel and oil filters help them to bed in smoothly when tightened.
Filling the primary filter with the lift pump can be tedious. Even if you have a dip pipe fuel system you can sometimes shortcut the process by opening the filter’s bleed screw and blowing down the fuel tank breather pipe to lightly pressurise the tank and drive fuel into the filter.
Replacing the secondary filter The secondary filter is usually one of two types – a spin-on filter, similar to car oil filters, or a type similar to the primary filter as described above. To replace a spin-on filter, unscrew the filter with a wrench, place a plastic bag around the filter and unscrew it allowing the fuel to drain into the bag.
Bleeding the system Changing the fuel filters allows air into the pipes. For the engine to run properly this must be bled by driving it out under slight pressure from high points in the fuel system. Some engines are self-bleeding, but most require you to carry out a few simple steps.
Firstly, make sure you have plenty of fuel and that all the valves are open. Try to operate the left pump lever – if it won’t move, hand turn the engine half a revolution to move the drive cam, then try again. If your primary filter is below the level of fuel in the tank, and your fuel is drawn directly from your bottom of the tank rather than via a dip pipe, you can fill the primary filter simply by cracking open the bleed screw on the top. You should see the bowl fill with fuel, and once clean, bubble-free fuel starts to starts to flow from around the bleed screw. There may still be air on the downstream side of the filter which will need to be vented using the method described below, but having already filled the primary filter accelerates the bleeding process.
In either case, the next stage is the secondary filter. Open the bleed screw and operate the lift pump. This may take several minutes, especially if you have to fill the primary filter this way. Fuel should start appearing around the bleed screw, once this is free of bubbles you can close the screw.
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1985 mariner 45 starts but dies?
Hi,this engine has been stored for last 2 years my friend has bought it for his day fisher.We have replaced all the fuel pipes,plugs,cleaned the carb bowls&filters and the main engine filter and replaced the boats fuel pipe and primer bulb.Once primed it starts easy and will run great if theres plenty of throttle on,if the throttle is eased of it dies.If you re-prime it with the bulb it starts straight back up but still only runs if you keep the revs up(too many to be putting it in gear) Its a 4cyl with twin carbs and i cant see a fuel pump anywhere,its definitely dying through fuel starvation but we cant see why ,it will run on slightly less throttle if the fuel tank is raised higher than the engine,its a new tank and yes we open the vent.any ideas would be very welcome,thanks.
I ask for help and cop for a d***head named tyler,whats this site attracting lately?
My listings show a 45 from ’86 – the 45 is a slightly detuned 50.
Doesn’t matter – there are two carbies very similar – these are links to them, http://www.crowleymarine.com/mercury_parts/275/70.cfm
http://www.crowleymarine.com/mercury_parts/275/60.cfm
The Tillotson seems to be 60 CFM compared to the Walbro 70 CFM so the Tillotson will likely be your carby.
The symptoms you report suggests blocked primary jets – these are very fine. The fuel pump is part of the Carby on this engine – look at the above links it’s very obvious – not on the side of the engine – a full carby and since you have it apart a pump kit may be useful if you cannot clear the blockage. If you reassemble the pump even slightly wrong it can malfunction – it can only go together one way!
Any engine that has sat for two or more years is a restoration, not a repair. You may find replacing the water pump impellor good preventative maintenance. Gear box oil should be replaced too, and seals checked if any milkiness in the oil. I bat on about this a lot I know – but a service manual is critical for every operation you can perform on your engine – it contains information you cannot learn more cheaply by muddling through and hoping for the best – I promise it pays for itself the first service you do!
No professional just starts ripping stuff off and ‘fixing’ any engine – you start with a parts diagram such as the link I have provided, and a service manual (that you have read!) and go looking for a specific problem and solution.
These are nice engines – quite smooth and reliable for the time. Iv’e done some two or three thousand hours on several of these engines starting from a long shaft eight back around 1980 odd, and used dual bigfoot 60′s (indestructable!) for commercial fishing. Only went to fourstrokes for the fuel economy, and found the Mercury I chose to be a cheap Yamaha. Despite my contempt and abuse found the Merc to be very strong after 3,400 hrs – but I digress.
The peanut comment is from someone who either has never used or owned one, or blames his own lack of maintenance and knowledge on the machine. Ignore them.
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