Fuel Burn

sbeer · Post by **sbeer** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 8:34 am

Good luck to you. Are you going south or east?

jcrootbeer · Post by **jcrootbeer** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 11:53 am

Hey All, We will be fishing the Cape May Shark Tourny too this comming weekend. Didn't do much in the South Jersey Tourny, but I think the water was a little chilly for the big guys. Plenty of bluefish on the Saturday fishing. Sean, hope to meet up at the captains meeting Thursday night at Sharky's.

smanni · Post by **smanni** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 1:28 pm

Jerry - looking forward to meeting you - it should be a great tourny - Chuck and Mary are great Mike, Not sure where we are going - but based on our pre-fishing we will probably be East on the first day, maybe run further south day 2 if that doesnt work out. Problem is I think everyone is going to fish the same 2-3 spots out of Cape May - so were are setting a few back up spots close by. We will not be the first to the spot, not with people running 40+ knots, But I think we have a good gameplan just in case.

Sean B · Post by **Sean B** » Wed Jun 20, 2007 4:05 am

quote:Originally posted by smanni Last weekend I burnt a lot of fuel compared to the prior 3 weeks and the prior 3 years. No major changes in weight or anything else and the week before I fished the same exact spot so the run was the same, but I burnt 30 more gallons, in only 4 hours. I have been all over boatdiesel but havent seen anything that would cause this. Any ideas - anyone else with the cat 3208 275hp ever have this happen. According to my records, this happened to me one time last year also - then just went away. Also- just in case it comes up - I fill up after every trip and I am absolutely sure the tank was equally full before each trip - so, unless someone stole fuel out of my tank (highly unlikely at my marina) I'm stumped. Extra smoke and soot means lack of air for the fuel being delivered. Try changing your air filters. If you have the same black foam cylinder-shaped ones I have, those things suddenly clog up like someone threw a switch. One day they're good, the next they're clogged. Extra smoke/soot is the best indicator I've found. Those little red pop-up indicators CAT put on don't tell you crap, I took mine out and plugged the holes. I can also get the same effect (soot) on my boat if the tabs aren't working correctly and the boat is plowing around. That is kind of hard to tell in the 19-20 knot speed range, unless you look at your wake and see a big rooster tail. You can also lean out and look over the transom and see where the tabs are while running. Still I'd start with the air filters. I've also gotten fuel from certain marinas that makes more smoke and soot for some reason, but never noticed any effect on WOT RPM or fuel burn. You should have a look at each of your turbos while the filter is off too. The blades should be shiny clean, and the turbos should spin freely. Also grab if and see if it'll move forward and rear at all (it shouldn't) to see if the bearings are wearing out. If the blades are oily or sooty you can try the dawn dish soap and DI water turbo wash bit, while running under load at WOT. It's not for the faint of heart. The method is all over boat diesel. If you do that, wear ear plugs and no loose clothing or jewelry, and make sure nothing loose is around to fly into those turbo vanes when the filter is off. The turbo would probably turn into a shrapnel grenade it something flew in there while it is screaming at full speed. Also make sure you do use DI water, don't introduce chlorine into the engine with tap water. You can also disassemble the turbo housing and clean everything that way, which I did last year and is probably a better way. Sean Burlingham "Island Time" 1987 Bertram 33 SF Melbourne, FL SBurlingham@cfl.rr.com [img]http://www.bertram33.com/photogallery/p ... d_Time.jpg[/img]

smanni · Post by **smanni** » Wed Jun 20, 2007 6:35 am

Sean, I changed the air filters and I'll see this weekend how that works out. I agree - the CAT filter meter is a POS. I check it weekly and it doesn't tell you crap. I always thought the filters didn't look bad - until I saw the new ones. Can you tell me where on Boat diesel to find that turbo cleaning method - I might try it.

sbeer · Post by **sbeer** » Wed Jun 20, 2007 7:15 am

Another thing to install is the CCV'S. I put them in 2 years ago with a crap can. Do not return them to the oil pan. I wash my filters with Dawn in a bucket of warm water. They come out like new. Been useing the same filters for 2 years now. Those babys cost to much to change every year. Another method to save on filter replacements is the K&N filter sock. Its a white cover that go,s over the filter. Adds alittle more filtering to the intake. As far as the turbo cleaning, if you have a build up from acouple of years it may not do anything. When I put in the CCV'S I took the turbos apart and had to use a scaper to get all the crap out. They look brand new after 2 years of useing the C.C.V's. Mike

Sean B · Post by **Sean B** » Wed Jun 20, 2007 9:10 am

I did the CCV's too and my turbos stay shiny now. I also disassembled housing and cleaned everything well when doing the CCV's. Didn't have to scrape anything off, but took the housings to a buddy's auto shop to clean in their big solvent tank. The soak in that was what probably made the cleaning easy. The turbo vanes got clean with some engine cleaner I used on those. Racor is proud of their CCV filters though, were something like $600 each straight from Tony Athens. I did the puke bottles too but interestingly get very little deposited in there. The filters on the CCV's look oily but I'm told they are good for 1000 hours. Sean Burlingham "Island Time" 1987 Bertram 33 SF Melbourne, FL SBurlingham@cfl.rr.com [img]http://www.bertram33.com/photogallery/p ... d_Time.jpg[/img]

Sean B · Post by **Sean B** » Wed Jun 20, 2007 9:33 am

quote:Originally posted by smanni Sean, I changed the air filters and I'll see this weekend how that works out. I agree - the CAT filter meter is a POS. I check it weekly and it doesn't tell you crap. I always thought the filters didn't look bad - until I saw the new ones. Can you tell me where on Boat diesel to find that turbo cleaning method - I might try it. Turbo Cleaner Recipe: Spray bottle w/ 1 ounce of blue Dawn dish soap, 8 ounces of distilled water, (NO TAP WATER) stirred but not shaken (no bubbles). Engine/boat at minimum cruise RPM or better yet WOT, under a good load. Remove air cleaner and spray all of it through the turbo one squirt at a time, over maybe 2-4 minutes. Follow up w/ 8 ounces of pure distilled water, NO TAP WATER. Have read many guys swear that this does a great job of cleaning and keeping turbos clean. I agree, if they are really bad though an R&R cleaning might be the best bet. According to the gurus you should notice an increase in boost, a drop in pyro temp, and a decrease in fuel sheen/white smoke at idle. All that benefit seems like quite a claim to me... not sure if it is THAT marvelous a thing to do, but I suppose it could be if your turbos are really gunky. Have also read that it cleans the injectors too. I did notice clean turbos after I did mine which of course was the point. Vacuum up anything loose around the top of the engine and covers first. Wear earplugs and no loose clothes. Get two spray bottles, and mix up a double batch of the soap solution, half for each engine. Then have the double-shot of DI in the other bottle ready too. The worst part for me was the gasket on the air cleaner. If your CAT is the same as mine, then the filters wedge into place quite tightly, and you have to force the gasket past the housing it sets in. I worried about a piece of that gasket breaking off and flying into the turbo while it's screaming at however many millions of RPM's those things turn while at WOT. So... after the wash on one engine we dropped the boat down to idle, at which point I felt safe replacing the filter, and then throttled back up to do the other side. Sean Burlingham "Island Time" 1987 Bertram 33 SF Melbourne, FL SBurlingham@cfl.rr.com [img]http://www.bertram33.com/photogallery/p ... d_Time.jpg[/img]

Sean B · Post by **Sean B** » Wed Jun 20, 2007 9:40 am

Here are some pics of the CCV's. http://www.bertram33.com/forum/topic.as ... hTerms=CCV I never saw Frank's comment about my puke bottles until today Sean Burlingham "Island Time" 1987 Bertram 33 SF Melbourne, FL SBurlingham@cfl.rr.com [img]http://www.bertram33.com/photogallery/p ... d_Time.jpg[/img]

smanni · Post by **smanni** » Wed Jun 20, 2007 10:07 am

quote:Originally posted by Sean Burlingham Racor is proud of their CCV filters though, were something like $600 each straight from Tony Athens. I did the puke bottles too but interestingly get very little deposited in there. The filters on the CCV's look oily but I'm told they are good for 1000 hours. Sean Burlingham "Island Time" 1987 Bertram 33 SF Melbourne, FL SBurlingham@cfl.rr.com [img]http://www.bertram33.com/photogallery/p ... d_Time.jpg[/img] That is a nice way of putting it - you must be a politician. My turbos were professionally removed and cleaned 200 hrs ago so hopefully they are not to bad - I might try your boatdiesel method anyway just to be safe. I will get back to working on this next week - Now I have to get to Chart and Sat temp reading to prepare for this weekends shark hunting!!