Quick Newbie Question

R

rich356

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exMember
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Apr 3, 2007
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25751
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OK, so this may be a dumb question, but can you switch which fuel tank and engine is drawing from while it's running or do you have to shut it down and restart?
 
You can switch while running. I would not do it in a bad situtation, engine could die but if all is plumbed right and working it won't die.
 
It's done in airplanes all the time. Used to make me nervous though!
 
as long as you dont' leave the valve in the off position too long, no problem.

never do it in a critical situation like right before running an inlet or anytime you really don't want the engine to stop... engine isn't going to die but what if the valve gets stuck or the tank you're swtiching to has a problem like a lot of dirt or water...
 
Interesting--air pressure is less as you gain altitude. I suspect some other explaination for the loss. Don't airplanes have fuel guages?
 
Our engine manual (diesel) recomends NOT switching the valves when the engine is running.

Fred
 
Fred,

What kind of diesels? I have Cat 3208TA's and I have switched tanks several times while they were running. It hasn't seemed to do any damage but maybe I've just been lucky. I wonder why they wouldn't want them switched. I will often use the return lines to transfer fuel from one tank to another while I'm running and this too has seemed to work fine. I'm always looking to get smarter, Lord knows, I need it. so please share.
 
Doesn't sound like Doug went by the book this time! Three most useless things to a pilot: Altitude above him, runway behind him and fuel in the truck!
 
Sure I have done so quite a few times. Make sure you open the one you want to switch first and then close the other off. Problem would be to have them all closed and then no fuel. I usually switch my genset from port to starboard to use the same amount out of each tank. If I am on the hook 2 days will switch it 1 night on one tank and the next on the other tank.
 
Here's something related to this that I don't understand. In my boat I cat have the engines either draw from the tanks on their respective sides of the boat or I can switch one or both the draw from my aux tank (I have three tanks). I just don't understand why Carver only allows the genset to draw from the port tank. There is no switch to change the tank it draws from. Is there any good reason for this? It would be great to have it draw from the aux tank while the engines drew from their tanks just to keep things level. Currently, if your running the generator with the port engine using that tank it obviously empties much faster. So I keep it that way for a little while, then switch the port engine to the aux tank while leaving the starboard engine drawing from the starboard tank. It works OK this way, but it would still seem to make more sense to have a switch to make the genny draw from the aux tank since it's bigger than both side tanks.
 
What Seahawk said. Switch the one being switched to "ON" first and then close the other.
 
Seahawk, Tangueray - It doesn't work that way on my boat. There are two switches; one for each engine. They can only be switched to draw from the tank on their side of the boat or from the aux tank. Or the fuel supply can be shut off on either. So there's nothing to close really. For example, to switch the port engine to draw from the aux tank all I'd have to do is move the switch from the port tank option to the aux tank option. I just wish the generator had a similar switch (I'm guessing that I could add one though right?).
 
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