With the fuel senders and gauge working properly, I started work on more complicated parts of the fuel system.
I’ve mentioned before that the only areas where my aluminum hull had any pitting was in the vicinity of copper and bronze, including the original fuel and water lines. There were actual lines of shallow pits directly under the copper fuel lines in the engine room, and I believe those were caused by copper oxide falling off the tubing and attacking the aluminum below. So I’m doing my best to avoid using copper or bronze on the refit. I don’t care what the American Boat and Yacht Council says. Hulls are expensive, so I will not use copper fuel lines.
ABYC standards also say you can use Type A1 fuel hose, but I was on a Pacemaker that had Type A1 fuel lines from the tank fittings all the way to the Detroit Diesel mains, and the hose failed, filling the bilge with diesel. I’ll use short sections of type A1 hose to isolate vibration, but I won’t go straight hose even though that would be by far the easiest way to get fuel from the tanks to the engines.
So my fuel plumbing material of choice is 1/2″ 304 annealed stainless tubing for the mains and 3/8″ for the returns and genset supply. This stuff is used in sanitary factory service (i.e. food and beverage manufacturing) all over, so I think it will be fine for my boat.
For connectors, I’m primarily using Swagelok 316 SS, though I do have some hose barb AN flare swivels in anodized aluminum.
And I’m making supply and return manifolds with valves so I can run the engines off of any of the three fuel tanks onboard. Normally, each engine will run on its corresponding tank (starboard to starboard, port to port, fwd tank to genset). But I’ve had bad fuel events happen, and the ability to choose which tanks you run on is well worth the added cost and complexity of manifolds.
Swapped out Cummins’ 5/16″ return fitting for 6AN (3/8″) flare
New Type A1 3/8″ hose will connect to 3/8″ return line tubing I’ll be bending
Cummins OE main lift pumps used 45° SAE flare, which I swapped out for 37° AN
NEW 8AN (1/2″) elbow attaches to 8AN swivel and 1/2″ Type A1 hose on the supply side
New main supply and return hoses are attached.
I repeated these steps on the port engine, so now (for the first time in ten years!) the engines have fuel hoses attached and ready to connect to supply tubing.
Now that I’m spending so much time in the engine room, I have to admit I’m a bit embarrassed by how filthy the engines are. Dust is one thing, but there’s oily residue, too, which is very odd considering that the engines haven’t run in nine years.
Look how bright and shiny they were in 2013!
I understand its something like an industry standard to paint everything white, but painting hoses and black plastic wire loom only looks good until you touch them. Then the paint flakes off because no paint sticks very well to rubber or plastic that flexes. You end up with an ugly loom like mine and paint flakes in your bilges.
But that still doesn’t explain where the oily residue is coming from… Or could it be that the seller spray painted over oily residue on the engines, and what I’m seeing now is just the oil that’s bled through the pretty white paint???
Anyway, for now my priority is to get the boat out of the tent and splashed. I can worry about aesthetics later.
Next up in our 1969 Chris Craft Roamer 46 Refit: Fuel Supply Manifold
1969chriscraftroamer46 
Again, very nice work and well thought out. Recommend you consider a fuel manifold that has five settings: 1, 2, 3, all and shut off. Perhaps the shut off before the manifold at the tank discharge. As an old diesel power plant man I like maximum flexibility. How are you handling the generator fuel supply?
Thanks, Julian! I’ll be writing about the manifolds soon. I will be able to pull from any of the tanks, and each tank has it’s own shut-off valves. As an old diesel power plant man, I’m sure you’ll laugh at my rank amateur tube bending and routing, but I’m doing the best I can! lol
On genset supply, the forward tank will supply it under normal conditions. If something goes wrong in my main tanks, I can draw from the genset tank, though the 3/8″ supply tubing will mean slow running.
Cheers,
Q
Q – I went another route with my 47 Commander repower with Caterpillar 3208TAs. I just ordered the USCG approved hoses from Seaboard this morning, custom lengths, went all the way from the original AC Delco filters on the aft engine room bulkheads to the engines and back with the returns. I figure going this route saved 2 joints per side per line (total of 8 joints) compared to the factory setup of copper tubing and flex hose. Considering how sensitive diesels seem to be to air leaks this justified the extra cost for me. Seaboard finished the hoses before the end of the day and have shipped, they weren’t cheap but they seem to have good customer service.
On another topic, I sent you an e-mail via the Hatteras forum, would love to speak to you about removing the muff couplers that join the factory Chris-Craft 2 piece shafts. I’m sure you had some info in a post but could not find it.
Hi Warren.
If mine was originally a diesel boat, my options would be very different than they are now. But since literally everything after my rechromed OEM fuel fills is new/custom and diesel rather than the OEM gas, I think it’s hard to fairly compare OEM diesel boats with full conversions like mine (presumably your Commander was a diesel boat originally).
On the muff couplings, the best advice I can offer is: get a really big mallet and properly sized drift and start judiciously beating the hell out of the pins. They’re bronze and so is the muff coupling, so they won’t stick together as badly as other metals. YMMV, but there’s no real magic to separating them…just big hammers and proper-sized punches.
Let me know how it works out.
Cheers,
Q