help- yanmar!

[Schrewsburyduo]

Hi everyone -- I finally got the yanmar (2gm20f) on my new to me 32-2 to work a few days ago. It involved changing the fuel completely with fresh fuel, and bleeding. It ran no problem. But then today I wanted to try it again -- and then nothing. The motor tried and tried to start -- it would try firing, but it was really rough. It eventually ran for 1 minute, but it was protesting and only ran begrudgingly. I tried to bleed the fuel system again -- but no luck. The fuel was a bit frothy coming out of the bleed screw at the fuel pump on the motor. I am beginning to think that the primary filters designs are too old.... I never saw those types. I just changed them the other day so the cartridges are new... But the filter assembly itself seems prehistoric. They take two huge cartridges that are 10 microns each. The cartridges came with a gasket but the PO mentioned I should not use the gaskets as the cylinders are machined perfectly.... So maybe they are letting air in somehow...

I am leaning towards replacing the filters with a racor 500 fg with a 30 micron filter, which I have used before... Then bleeding the system again and pray for the best... Hopefully it's not something exotic like some copper gasket on the injectors that is letting air in.

When it ran today it was black exhaust, which prompted me to think it's air in the fuel lines.

Does anyone have any wisdom? I am used to Betamarine which ran so good and I am new to yammers -- no glow plugs, crappy engineering, expensive parts, and weird ghost problems that don't seem to go away.... I am trying to make this motor reliable -- hence the idea of the new racor. Here's a picture of the old racors. I never saw anything like this especially on a boat... I will try to upload a picture. I could use any help... I never installed a racor... have to find fittings etc. Is there anywhere I can find those at a brick and mortar store like napa parts?

Many thanks.

 

[Philip]

Most of what I have heard about yanmar is positive. Suspect installation problems. Couple of things come to mind; sounds like you have a leak in the fuel line prior to the pump and air is being sucked into the line. Second .... penny wise, pound foolish..... go to the expense of putting in a new engine and not install new fuel filter???? Could be that something got stuck in the injector??? Suggest you recheck that all the fittings are tight and the fuel line is sound.

 

[Philip]

oops--"new to me" not new yanmar..... still suspect air leak prior to pump

 

[Guy Stevens]

Put the gaskets in them

Ignore the previous owner, and put the gaskets in the fuel filters. They are there for a reason, use the manufactures recommendations not the previous owners.

You are getting a bunch of air, and it sounds like you may also have a bunch of dirt on a one way valve in the system...

Guy

 

[clp]

Guy is correct, and I will add that the previous owner is a nut. NO machined surface is so close as to preclude the gasket. I'm surprised it fired at all. Clean it all back up, and put in the gaskets. You're just sucking air, don't panic..

 

[Rocinante33]

Those look like Fram filters. They definitely need the gaskets. The gaskets are a b**** to get to stay in place while you seat the canister up and tighten the screw to hold it all in place. The gasket can easily be rolled or one part of the edge can drop out of position just as you try to seat the canister which will again allow an air leak. Maybe try some dabs of grease to hold the gasket up in there while you put the canister up.

 

[Alan Gomes]

I'd go with the Racor 500

If it were I, I'd go with your plan to replace it with a Racor 500. I had one of those on my previous boat and they are sweet. Easy to change without spilling fuel and the filter elements are cheap. If you ever did have to change it in a seaway you might be glad to have the Racor.

 

[Guy Stevens]

Those look like Fram filters. They definitely need the gaskets. The gaskets are a b**** to get to stay in place while you seat the canister up and tighten the screw to hold it all in place. The gasket can easily be rolled or one part of the edge can drop out of position just as you try to seat the canister which will again allow an air leak. Maybe try some dabs of grease to hold the gasket up in there while you put the canister up.

Take a little bit of standard rubber cement, the standard paper kind, apply to the housing, and to the ring, then put them together and it is easy.

Guy

 

[Schrewsburyduo]

Thank you everyone for the advice. I went with it and got a racor 500fg2 - threaded everything with the correct lock stuff, added a shutoff valve and new lines to and from the tank and engine. Everything seemed to be tight. I managed to get it started -- it coughed up a bit at beginning, but then whatever air was in the system worked itself out and it purrs now. The big test will be in 3-4 days -- if there's any small air leak anywhere that gets into the system, that's when it won't start up...

Too bad the engine "room" is so small -- I fiddled with a better place to put the racer that's in the compartment, but even the yanmar itself doesn't quite fit -- the companionway steps have had to be modified somewhat so the pulley for the engine block can rotate freely... So the only place the racor can live comfortably is in the aft lazarette.... which makes the lazarette somewhat useless for other stuff... Oh well.

Anyway hopefully that was it, so thank you everyone... We are planning to splash as soon as the boat can be moved to the marina via road movers. I'll take pictures and post here. It looks very pretty - newly awlgriped it and all.

 

[Jeff Asbury]

New to Yanmar? Here's a site that has helped me quite a bit over the years. I have a little 1GM10 and I have at one time or another was able to find answers to Yanmar mystery's here: http://www.yanmarhelp.com/index.htm

Although the site is a little unconventional to navigate by today's website standards because it was established back in 2001. I don't think it is really monitored or maintained anymore, but it's still online. Dick & Dave cover a lot of insights you won't find in the manuals.

http://www.yanmarhelp.com/about_us.htm

It's hard to tell exactly what kind of fuel line system your PO had set up for your boat without seeing it. Is your return line set up correctly?

Don't knock Yanmars, these are great engines and when set up and maintained properly are very reliable.

 

[Rocinante33]

Take a little bit of standard rubber cement, the standard paper kind, apply to the housing, and to the ring, then put them together and it is easy.

Guy

Thanks for the tip, Guy!

 

[frick]

yanmar 2gm20f

I repowered my E29 over ten years ago with a new 2gm20f. Not a lick of problems.
I did run lowb on fuel and sucked air into my lines.
It took a while to get the air out. With air in the injectors you will also get big knocks. Just throtled up and it went away quickly.

Recheck and tighten all your fuel line connection.

Big black smoke... might have put tomuch oil in the engine.

Rick