Stranded in St Thomas.

[SVJourney]

Hey, there are worse places to be stranded but....

Wanted to pick your guy's brains as nobody here can figure out what's wrong with my engine.

My engine has 3k hours on it and purred like a kitten.  No smoke, easy starting, smooth running.   We picked up our hook the other day and started out of the harbor.  about 5 minutes after starting the engine died.  Just died, no noise, no smells, no rattles, no high temp indications.  Just dropped as if pole axed and would crank but not start.

Found nothing in the filters, but changed them anyways, bled and tried to start.  No go.

A shot of ether into the inlet will make the engine kickover, but not start.  So compression is good.  (I am unable to keep the compression in the cylinders with the injectors removed either.

Pulled the valve cover and all looks to be okay and turning nicely with the starter.

Pulled all injectors and pop tested them on the bench here.  They all passed with good pop pressures.

used a electric inline fuel pump to bleed system.  No go.

Sent my injection pump off to Florida to get rebuilt.  US postal service LOST it.  Arrgh!

Enter Ray & Wanda who saved me by giving me the injector from their old engine and sent it to the pump re-builder.  That pump was sent here, installed, bled and no help.

Hung a good injector off the side of the block on a injector line from the pump and cranked the engine.  No fuel sprayed from the nozzle.

Verified that there was rotation of the spline drive to the pump.

The injection repair center sent another pump out.  No spray from this one either

Checked that return fuel was flowing and not restricted.  By passed the return fuel to the Jerry can.

By passed lift pump and secondary fuel filter by running a line directly to the injector pump with an electric fuel pump from Jerry can of fresh fuel.

Is there something I am missing?  I used the bleed procedure from the Westerbeke service bulletin from my book. 

Its been 32 days we've been stranded here.  If I can't get some resolution by Sunday, I am going to sail engineless to Ft Lauderdale and miss cruising the Bahamas.  So any help or ideas you could offer would be awesome.

Btw, a public thanx to Ray!  I owe ya.  Somehow in this life or next, I will buy you a beer.

[S/V Deo Volente]

If I had to place a bet, it would be that the pump isn't turning, The drive gear may turn without a load but if something was sheared it may slip when loaded with the pump. Are you sure the pump spline shaft engages with the drive gear?
I made that trip last spring helping deliver a boat, didn't need the engine much for power, more for charging batteries.

[INCOMMUNICADO]

Wayne, Is the fuel shutoff open? I know that is to easy, so recheck. Allen

[SailingSeaDragon]

Wayne,

I will begin by saying I have found the W40 to be a little funny when it comes to being bled and they are not very forgiving if there is any air in the system.

When you bled the engine did you have a nice steady fuel flow from the low pressure side of the injector pump? What about the high pressure side?

My experience is that if the system is not completely bled to include the high pressure side you will never get fuel out of the injector pump to the injectors.....

So take your time and carefully bleed your injector pump...

About a third of the way down the following webpage is a section entitled "Bleeding the Red Beast" that contains several of the lessons I have learned over the years dealing with our Westerbeke.

http://www.sailingseadragon.com/winterize.htm

You maybe well beyond this - but I offer this as a suggestion. My feeling is that this is a long shot at best. It is more likely a problem with the drive on the pump as suggested before or an air leak in the fuel system.

Garner

[RayNWanda]

 Bleed the heck out of it with the procedure Garner has on his page. Close off the engine seacock first! If that doesn't do any good, pull the seawater pump and see if the drive for it turns when you crank the engine. It drives off the same gear that drives the injection pump.

[SVJourney]

Okay, finally got it running and what a comedy of errors it was!
We started the engine by running fuel directly to the injector pump and bleeding the snot out of it.  And you guys are right, it is a BEAST to get bled.  The thing that ended up working was to leave the upper bleed port open on the IP while bleeding at the enjectors.

When the engine initially died I changed both filters with filters that were left onboard by the previous owner.  It turns out that I put a slightly smaller O-ring on the secondary filter which totally occluded the filter journal which wouldn't let any fuel through it even though we could bleed it fine.  Fuel did get to the IP, but only through the return line.   

There was a small hole in the fuel line from the primary to the lift pump, which is what probably killed the engine in the first place. We replaced ALL of the fuel hoses.

Anyways, I am sure we changed the IP for no good reason.  My old IP, which I will assume is a good one, is now floating out somewhere in the US postal service. I hope to track it down someday as a spare to carry with me.

$2500 and 5 weeks later, we are sadly wiser, as I have learned a great deal about my engine.   But Dana and I are also very grateful to be back out and sailing today.

And once again, thank you very much for stepping up to help here.

Wayne