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Oil in the bilge ... now what ?

Sven

Seglare
It isn't as bad as it sounds, but I want to take care of it so our bilge is as clean as Glyn claims Martin's is.

Our current marina and yard (Driscoll) is great so we want to give them our business rather than going outside. Because of that we went with their (sublease) diesel mechanic instead of one that Nancy got much better vibes from. Our mistake.

During the oil change the suction hose came apart where the thin hose joined the pump hose and of course the thin hose dropped down to siphon some of the crankcase oil straight into the bilge !!! I think the "mechanic" assumed I didn't see it and he was going to just leave us pumping crankcase oil into mission bay the next time the bilge pump came back on. Did I mention that we are about 100 yards from the coastguard station ?

I'm thinking I should set up something like a fuel polishing system to pump the bilge while spraying down the interior sides with some soap ... IOW pump internally into a bucket or something with oil absorption pads and drip the "cleaned" water back into the bilge until it looks ok. I'd even consider bringing down the power sprayer just to get a clean start.

One question other than the general "what would you do" is how do I get to the lowest point in the bilge of an E39-B and where is it ?

Any problem with having the engine running while we are power spraying (water spray possibly getting into the air intake) ?

Fortunately, the bilge is almost dust dry so there is no panic but I really want to take care of this.

We won't be using Joe the "mechanic" for the rest of the work.

Thanks,


-Sven (P.S. we got a wonderful 6-hour sail in between chores over the weekend !)
 

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treilley

Sustaining Partner
Talk to the yard manager. He should be responsible for the cleanup.
Soak/wipe up as much as you can with oil absorbers then use some bilge cleaner to clean locally where needed. If you cannot get to the low point in the bilge then you will just have to use bilge cleaner. Let it slosh around in the bilge while sailing. You will need to repeat this a few times and unfortunately may never get all the oil residue out.
 

Sven

Seglare
Thanks Tim,

Talk to the yard manager. He should be responsible for the cleanup.
Soak/wipe up as much as you can with oil absorbers then use some bilge cleaner to clean locally where needed. If you cannot get to the low point in the bilge then you will just have to use bilge cleaner. Let it slosh around in the bilge while sailing. You will need to repeat this a few times and unfortunately may never get all the oil residue out.

The diesel shop would probably send the same guy down and we don't want him aboard again so I'll try to do it myself. I just ordered one of these far reach tools http://tinyurl.com/9vwxoo and hope it will let me get pads in place and move them around. I'll pick up bilge cleaner too and at least a sprayer bottle and see how I do. Maybe bringing down the small wet/dry shop vac will let me pump it out under control.

Thanks,


-Sven
 

Dave Hussey

Member III
Simple Green

I've had a similarly oily bilge. An elder at our marina showed me a trick to get the oil out, by floating an absorbent paper towel on the surface of the emulsion which was in my bilge. It absorbed the oil, which was then placed in a plastic baggie and disposed of in the hazardous waste dumpster. The emulsion was created by scrubbing the bilge with Spic and Span, but I now use Simple Green, which is sweeter smelling, and I think it is more environmentally friendly than S and S.
 
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