[AT] Oil Vacuum- Common sense solution?

charlie hill charliehill at embarqmail.com
Tue May 16 10:02:21 PDT 2017


Warren,  that is good news!
By the way,  I referred earlier to putting washing detergent in the
bilge.  Some of my friends leave some in their bilge all the time.
Either dry powdered detergent or something like Dawn Dish washing
detergent.  There are two reasons for that.  One it keeps your bilge
clean but also, down here on the coast at least, the Coast Guard
is always looking for oil sheens on the water around boats and
they WILL write you up for an "illegal" oil discharge if they see any
oil film at all.   If you happen to have some leakage in your bilge and
don't know it and your bilge pump comes on you will have an oil sheen
on the water.  The detergent breaks that oil up and prevents the sheen.
It's also common practice to keep a bottle of Dawn in the boat at all times.
If you do see a sheen a quick squirt of Dawn into the water will dissipate 
it
almost instantly.  No one wants to discharge oil into our water ways but
accidents do happen and Dawn is exactly what is used to clean up birds in
oil spills.

Charlie

-----Original Message----- 
From: Mogrits
Sent: Tuesday, May 16, 2017 11:18 AM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: Re: [AT] Oil Vacuum- Common sense solution?

Well, some good news...

I got down in the bilge and started pumping out the fluid with the HF pump
and it turned out it's mostly (98%) just water. We fired the engines off a
clean can hooked to carbs and the fuel pumps had pumped out the last
remaining fuel sludge into the bilge, which also picked up all the small
drips of oil that can wind up in a bilge and it resulted in a black,
iridescent film on top of otherwise clean water.

So, I now have a way to change engine oil and  my engines are actually in
as good a shape as I thought they were! That little pump has a lot of
suction.

Warren

On Mon, May 15, 2017 at 3:06 PM, Mogrits <mogrits at gmail.com> wrote:

> My engines do have the oil suction/drain tubes connected to the bottom of
> the sumps. Can't tell if they are in place of the plug or an accessory to
> them because I cannot get my noggin under there to see. I just got the
> engines running on a new (to me) boat with twin mercruiser 351,s. They 
> each
> cranked and purred like kittens then a couple hours later I noticed what
> looks like about a quart of foul something like oil collected in the 
> bilge.
> The nature of thru-hull fittings mean you can never drain a bilge
> completely dry because the tube and nut always stand above the hull
> surface.inside.
>
> Now, we went all over the engines without finding the source of oil, but
> one drain tube was secured high up while the other was lying loose, and I
> suspect that's the culprit.
>
> Anyway, the boats on stands in my driveway so I put a 5 gallon bucket
> below the drain. I'll suck the remaining oil up with the HF tool and
> discharge it straight through the thru-hull into the bucket. Then...I'll 
> do
> all the washing and scrubbing. As it is, the amount of oil is minimal, but
> too much for a rag to handle.
>
> Once I get everything cleaned out, I'll restart the engines and watch them
> running for an oil leak source.
>
> Thanks for all the great help, to all who responded.
>
> Warren
>
> On Mon, May 15, 2017 at 1:11 PM, charlie hill <charliehill at embarqmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Warren,  since it's your bilge you are cleaning,
>> dump some laundry detergent on top of the oil and let it soak,
>> Dump some water in the bilge and let it sit,
>> Use pressure from a water hose or some sort of brush that
>> will reach and mix it up.
>> Turn on the bilge pump and catch the water/oil that comes out in
>> a 5 gallon bucket or two.  Let the buckets sit and then skim the oil
>> off the top.  Oil gone, bilge clean.
>>
>> Charlie
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Mogrits
>> Sent: Sunday, May 14, 2017 10:38 PM
>> To: rlgoss at twc.com
>> Cc: Antique tractor email discussion group
>> Subject: Re: [AT] Oil Vacuum- Common sense solution?
>>
>> I just realised I was probably only replying individually to responses. I
>> apologize for that error.
>>
>> What prompted my question was a mystery leak of oil into the bilge of a
>> boat. It's less than what any of our engines would hold and I'll probably
>> try to get it out with the mighty-vac.
>>
>> I did search amazon etcin the meantime and see a lot of economical
>> solutions to do this task. I just thought someone might have a "farmer
>> approved" shortcut.
>>
>> Warren
>>
>> On Sun, May 14, 2017 at 10:13 PM, Rena Glover Goss <rlgoss at twc.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>> > Your Mighty-Vac will work, it's just slow.  Professional shops have an
>> > electric vacuum pump for doing this job.  The one we had at the shop I
>> > worked in had a 1-quart reservoir.  I presume the ones they have for
>> auto
>> > shops are larger.  I have one of the hand pumps from Harbor Freight for
>> > doing that on lawn mower engines.
>> >
>> > Larry
>> >
>> > ---- Mogrits <mogrits at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > > This is tractor related: Does anyone have a clever way to suck oil 
>> > > out
>> > of a
>> > > sump or other confined space where you cannot get to the drain plug?
>> > >
>> > > I saw a "Liquivac" device on the internet for 60.00, but I already
>> have
>> > > a
>> > > small "Mighty-Vac" system used for bleeding brakes and was wondering
>> if
>> > > I
>> > > could make that work.
>> > >
>> > > Anyone done this or something similar to evacuate oil? Possibly even
>> > using
>> > > a shop-vac?
>> > >
>> > > Warren
>> > > _______________________________________________
>> > > AT mailing list
>> > > http://www.antique-tractor.com/mailman/listinfo/at
>> >
>> >
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