Tom Plummer
Member III
The saga of the stumbling Yanmar 3GM30F It all started about 5 years ago. For the first 10 years we owned Jessie I changed the Racor fuel filters regularly and life was good. I was unaware that there was a filter on the engine and had never fussed with it you see. Then came the load of very bad fuel from a fuel dock and life changed. While pleasantly motoring along with landlubber guests aboard the trusty Yanmar sputter to a stop. Now as luck would have it the Lord smiled down on me that day and at that precise moment a 10knt breeze sprang up and we happily sailed into Coronet Bay. Where to our good fortune was a fellow sailor who just happened to have the correct filter on board in quality so soon we were on our way again.
The rest of our cruise was blessed with wind and so we never ran the Yanmar for more that about an hour at a time so life was filled with bliss.
On our next trip the wind was dead calm so we cranked up the once trusty Yanmar only to have it misbehave. After about 1.5 hrs of running it would drop from 2800 rpm back to 1800 rpm then fluctuate between the two for about 15 seconds. Then it would operate normally at 2800 rpm for about 10 min and repeat the cycle. Occasionally it would just quit and then after about an hour it would just mysteriously restart when we spun it over. I replaced all of the filters to no avail. I had the tank polished to no gain. I check all of the fuel fittings, replaced the exhaust water injection elbow verified there was no blockage in the exhaust system, verified good cooling flow bout raw and fresh, and even ran with the fuel cap off but, nothing worked.
So for 5 long years this has been going on. Admiral Marilyn became less and less enthused about my beloved Jessie and there was even talk of replacing her with a trawler. So as I motored down to the PNW Rendez Vous and it happened again as it always does I figured that this would be my last trip in her.
But, once again the Lord was smiling on me and their on the dock was none other than Glen the Great of California E31 fame. While am relating my sad tale of woe before I can identify the manufacture of the miserable hunk of iron that was giving me such pain he states you have a Yanmar don’t you. He then asks if I had seen his post about the primary filter bowl installation process for the Yanmar. I had not so he proceeded to enlighten me on the proper means of reinstalling the filter canister on a Yanmar.
His instructions were quite simple loosen the locking collar shake the canister slightly to wet the o-ring with fuel rotate the canister to insure that it is not going back in the exact same position. Then while gently Appling a polishing motion to the center of the bottom of the canister tighten the locking collar with you other hand.
I am happy to report that the engine ran like a top all the way from Port Townsend to Anacortes never missing a beat.
The rest of our cruise was blessed with wind and so we never ran the Yanmar for more that about an hour at a time so life was filled with bliss.
On our next trip the wind was dead calm so we cranked up the once trusty Yanmar only to have it misbehave. After about 1.5 hrs of running it would drop from 2800 rpm back to 1800 rpm then fluctuate between the two for about 15 seconds. Then it would operate normally at 2800 rpm for about 10 min and repeat the cycle. Occasionally it would just quit and then after about an hour it would just mysteriously restart when we spun it over. I replaced all of the filters to no avail. I had the tank polished to no gain. I check all of the fuel fittings, replaced the exhaust water injection elbow verified there was no blockage in the exhaust system, verified good cooling flow bout raw and fresh, and even ran with the fuel cap off but, nothing worked.
So for 5 long years this has been going on. Admiral Marilyn became less and less enthused about my beloved Jessie and there was even talk of replacing her with a trawler. So as I motored down to the PNW Rendez Vous and it happened again as it always does I figured that this would be my last trip in her.
But, once again the Lord was smiling on me and their on the dock was none other than Glen the Great of California E31 fame. While am relating my sad tale of woe before I can identify the manufacture of the miserable hunk of iron that was giving me such pain he states you have a Yanmar don’t you. He then asks if I had seen his post about the primary filter bowl installation process for the Yanmar. I had not so he proceeded to enlighten me on the proper means of reinstalling the filter canister on a Yanmar.
His instructions were quite simple loosen the locking collar shake the canister slightly to wet the o-ring with fuel rotate the canister to insure that it is not going back in the exact same position. Then while gently Appling a polishing motion to the center of the bottom of the canister tighten the locking collar with you other hand.
I am happy to report that the engine ran like a top all the way from Port Townsend to Anacortes never missing a beat.