[AT] Oil Vacuum- Common sense solution?

Mogrits mogrits at gmail.com
Tue May 16 13:53:08 PDT 2017


Thanks Charlie.

I always have dawn for the reasons you mention. Also, on my trailered boat
I leave the plug in leaving the ramp and sometimes even add water. Then I
add Dawn and trailer the boat home. Towing sloshes the Dawn around nicely
and when I pull the plug I get a harmless suds out the drain.

Warren

(As to access to places, I have an inspection camera with a 20' cable and
it is LED lit at the tip. It was cheap from ebay or the like and since I'm
normally working alone I set the laptop to record, do all my probing and
filming, then take the laptop inside and watch the inspection while I enjoy
a cold one!)

On Tue, May 16, 2017 at 1:02 PM, charlie hill <charliehill at embarqmail.com>
wrote:

> 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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