Check Your Fuel Fill Cap!
by Peter Cockle
I had a problem last season with a fuel bug which caused my engine to stop 15 miles out in a windless English Channel at dusk in the middle of the shipping lanes. Just what you need. I limped into a French port and temporarily fixed the problem. This was not the first time I'd had fuel contamination and on the previous occasion I had the laborious task of removing the tank and all its plumbing; having it cleansed, pressure tested, and treated with a biocide. No further problems for 2 years. This time when I check the primary filter, it was even more seriously gunged up. I also removed over a litre of water from the tank. So again I had to remove the tank and found that the fuel filler pipe from the deck had traces of water in it. After some while I traced the problem to a 2mm square hole in the deck filler cap, tucked in the edges where it was difficult to see. This was the root cause of the problem. The cap had rotted through and I've now replaced the whole assembly. The cap itself appears to made of a fibrous ABS type plastic and had probably objected to the forces occasionally necessary to open it after the winter - from now on I shall use a smear of silicon grease on the threads & 'O' ring! So the moral: once in a while make sure your filler cap's in good shape!
Peter Cockle
Osprey of Birdham #1076
Port Solent, Portsmouth