Fuel leak at 100 miles
During my first offshore trip this summer (8/10-8/12), I had planned to fish the bluefin at the 120 mile mark. I topped off the tank and trailered the boat down to MCRD for launch. Left around 10:00PM and motored south all night. At sun rise we were only 80 miles south, so I ran for a little over an hour. The radio reports were now coming in and guys ar reporting catching the 50lb models. With twenty miles to go I decided to lift the engine cover and just do a quick safety look. There was a couple gallons of fuel in the bilge! After pulling the side covers to assess the hoses and the sides of the tank nothing was apparent as being the source of fuel leakage. There was no fuel leaking from the fuel pump, injectors, or other area on the engine. I know my tank is 27 yrs old so, I'm thinking a hole somewhere in the tank. I soaked up all the fuel in the bilge and watched to see if more was coming into the bilge. As I watched fuel slowly trickle from the hole that seperates the two bilge areas (one under the tank), I get a crappy feeling. Meanwhile the radio reports are sounding real good. My buddy was pumped to hook into a big BF. Unfortunately, I made the call to turn north. My vessel assist is only good to 100 miles. As we continued north, fuel was still accumulating in the bilge but, at a much slower rate (about a pint an hour). Decided to continue north and fish paddies on the way home and if the fuel stopped flowing then anchor at the Coronados and fish locally the next day. The fuel did stop altogether. At home I pulled the bait tank and deck cover to assess the fuel tank and get a better look at the hoses. The main fill hose had a 2 inch crack in it and there were no signs of other leaks. To gain a little more confidence in my tank I decided to do a pressure test. Mike lent me a small compressor with the guages. Someone told me to place the tank under 12 lbs of pressure but, Mike said that was not a good idea as the tank is already old and it's aluminum. Mike recommended 1lb. I hooked the compressor up to the fuel vent hose and placed a balloon over the main fill outlet just to get a visual idea of how much pressure 1lb was. As usual, Mike was right. One 1lb was plenty. After finding a small air leak on the top of the sender and fixing it, the tank held 1lb of pressure for about 15 minutes. That was good enough for me. Slapped everything back together (with new fill hose), added 5200 to all gaps in the deck and around the bait tank and it's back in business for Tenacious. Past couple trips revealed no fuel leakage. So gentlemen, check those old hoses!
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