Cooker gas supply, maintenance and upgrade.

The rubber hose connecting the Campingaz cylinder had to be replaced because it was a few months from being time expired and when I last changed the cylinder the end was not looking to be in good condition. This was rather earlier than it should have been, it was replaced after I bought the boat it having been picked up on the survey as time expired, then I found that the new hose was already almost 2 years old so now it was almost out of life.

The gas regulator was also looking ropey and when I checked up it has a 6 year replacement life (5 years is more common). I couldn't see a date on it but as I have had the boat for 8 years it was clearly time to replace it, also the previous hose had been over ten years old when replaced and I would have thought you wouldn’t install a new premium regulator without replacing a cheap piece of rubber hose.

As both were in need of replacement I decided I might as well do the job properly and fit both an automatic shut off valve that closes if the gas flow it too high or pressure is low indicating a leak in the system and a remote gas valve close to the cylinder, both are in the vented gas locker so that when the cooker is not in use all of the pipe work inside of the boat and the cooker is isolated at the press of a button. 

The remote gas valve is only open when power is applied so that turning off the domestic power or CB will isolate the gas when leaving the boat even if the local "gas on" switch is left on. That switch is illuminated and clearly visible as a reminder to turn it off when not using the cooker. It also saves bending down to reach the manual gas cock. 

Not shown is the always on "Pilot" gas detector with the sensor
below the cooker or the CO detector in the cabin that is marginally
capable of detecting other gasses. I also have a hand held detector
for confirming and tracking down leaks.

Fitting the rather large Cleese valve in the locker was tricky as there is not a lot of room and it must be clear of the cylinder so that the knob can easily rotate but it just fits providing the cylinder is properly located in its holder. Also the hose needs a smooth curve off of the long hose tails to prevent kinking. Picture to follow as I forgot to take one.

The dreaded diesel bug. Part 2 - The fix (I hope)

I'm feeling rather please with the decision I made to replace the bladder tank, which would probably not have been cleanable and would certainly have been very hard to do if it was. Also how I fitted the replacement, I feared a very difficult job in cleaning the tank because I was not sure the access would be good enough and particularly getting the inspection hatch off with the pick up tube being quite long, it came with the pick up tube installed and I was not sure if it could easily be removed with the cover in place. Moving the tank is possible but a major job, even with over 30 Kg of fuel in it pumped out. 

The fuel tank on installation, the priming bulb didn't work and was
removed - the low pressure fuel pump not being strong enough to
open the non return valve. Note how close the top of the tank is to
the cockpit seat, the fuel pick up mounted on the inspection hatch
extends to within a few mm of the tank bottom.

I need not have worried, with the breather and fuel return pipe removed and after a struggle to slacken the fore and aft restraining strap the cover came off easily and I didn't even have to disconnect the fuel line which later saved a lot of pumping to get air out of the system.

When opened I could see the bottom of the tank on the outboard side and it looked pretty clean but when I took some pictures of the inboard side, that wasn't - it was awkward pressing the icon to take the shot whilst holding the phone and lamp, these are the best pics I could manage:

Dead diesel bug on the inboard side looking
forward. The fuel was largely white diesel with
some red and a small dash of green which made
looking through it much easier than if it had been
all red. A minor contamination compared to many
but still needing to be sorted.

And looking aft.

The bug had generally been broken down but not into small enough pieces, there was a couple of clumps an inch or so across and a few small strings (bottom right in the picture immediately above and on the next).

I pumped out the first 20 litres or so, filtering it into clean cans, and being careful not to disturb the debris. I then used the pump to suck up much of the gunk with the remainder of the fuel into a separate sacrificial spare can. This got rid of the majority of the rubbish but left some:

After pumping.

The rest of the fuel and dead bug were then mopped up with kitchen roll.

Almost done.

Finished, unfortunately the pic showing the cleaned
area around the fuel sensor was too blurred to be meaningful.

I then refilled the tank, gave it another "shock" dose of Fuelset and the engine started immediately running for close to an hour without needing to bleed the system, I'll be sure to run it for a bit longer next time I am down to the boat to make sure it is not going to conk out as I leave the marina and will change the filters after a few more hours running to give any remaining particles time to get to the filters.

Fortunately the marina would take the contaminated diesel into their hazardous waste facility, some don't, along with the oil from my last oil changes.

Job done. I hope.