my friends lack of fume awareness is scaring me

[berk]

my buddy has a jetboat with enclosed hatch. he has a mechanical fuel pump with the bypass hose, which has been plugged off by him. he has an edelbrock carb which is not marine, with oldschool screen flame arrestor. he has no bilge blower and doesnt seem to want one.
heres the question: am i beng too critical by saying i dont feel safe in his boat or is it more of a burn or dont burn situation? also does a starter solenoid that is not part of the starter need to be coast guard approved, and also does the starter need certs as well?
can anyone give some stories or pictures which will back me up in my concern?
i usually like to let people learn their own lessons but this seems to dangerous. :clover:

[ddevore]

I was talking to Lakeland Marine in Lake Elsinore about automotive parts for my jet - I needed a fuel pump. He had a very nice 1/2 of a boat in the lot that a guy had recently blown the hatch on because he had a car fuel pump / starter in.... Needless to say I bought the Marine fuel pump.

[Oldsquirt]

......am i beng too critical by saying i dont feel safe in his boat...
No way! Maybe if people refuse to get in his boat he'll get the message.

[berk]

yeah he is new to boating and thinks i am full of chit becasue the riverpig that pulled him over so many times hasnt said anything about it. he hasnt been nailed by the cop i was obviously, that dikk wanted to check my underpants for uscg approval.
Dragboats, you didnt mention the starter/solenoid needing to be spark resist? the starter is so low on my boat it would be in the fume zone bigtime.

[Squirtin Thunder]

I put out a fire on Lake Mohave with my jet. The hatch was blown clean off !!! There are alot of guys that run automotive stuff in enclosed hatches, but I do not recomend it one bit. I was a bit too buisy putting out the fire to take picks sorry !!!

[GUGS102]

I agree completey with the other posts. I saw a guy get blown from the back of a 21 foot carrera OVER the bow and into the water. 3rd degree burns on torso and legs.
Some conversions are easy. You can drill a hole in the top of the arrestor with a fuel fitting and re connect the fuel pump overflow. If the diaphram goes out on the pump the way he currently has it set up,he'll fill the bildge with vapor and raw fuel. It usually leaks for a while before quitting, even scarier!!
I run all marine electronics with necessary supression and I have an open covered engine.
If it were me and he was my boating buddy - I'd show up at his place with a blower set up at the least. Would not want my buddy/family/friends to get burned.
See if he'll read our posts and heed our advice.

[berk]

No way! Maybe if people refuse to get in his boat he'll get the message.
the problem is nobody knows what the fork i am talking about when i say this stuff. heres how stubborn he is: i have a leftover 600cfm edelbrock on the bench, one year old, marine version. his is a non marine same carb but 20 years older, and he isnt even interested in trading! i even took it down and left it in his kitchen, where it remains.

[berk]

I agree completey with the other posts. I saw a guy get blown from the back of a 21 foot carrera OVER the bow and into the water.
there we go! i need good stories like this! forget the friends and fam, that guy could have been me! :supp:
yeah you cant be too pushy though, every captain is the captain. now i am wondering about MY setup! i dont think my starter is spark arrested. also on the solenoid question, how to tell if it is sealed? becasue they look like they could be or might not be from the outside.

[berk]

also i thoght during operation was less worry becasue the air is all going in the engine and there isnt any sparking goin on from the starter?
also not mentioned, the alternator, does it get USCG stamps too?

[Oldsquirt]

...also not mentioned, the alternator, does it get USCG stamps too?
Yep, distributor, alternator and starter.

[Red Horse]

Unless you like riding a bomb, stay off that boat. Just a matter of time. Gas vapors settle in the lowest area. THe bilge, right by the starter and altenator, which both need to be marine approved. That is why that white hose is down there. So when you turn on the blower for 5 min, just like that sticker says in newer boats, you suck the fumes out of there. Go to the coast guard site and see if they have documentation of things like that. Print a few off, hand it to him, or better yet his wife, offer to help him fix it. If that doesnt work, ask him what he wants his funeral to be like. :hammerhea

[berk]

Unless you like riding a bomb, stay off that boat. Just a matter of time. Gas vapors settle in the lowest area. THe bilge, right by the starter and altenator, which both need to be marine approved. That is why that white hose is down there. So when you turn on the blower for 5 min, just like that sticker says in newer boats, you suck the fumes out of there. Go to the coast guard site and see if they have documentation of things like that. Print a few off, hand it to him, or better yet his wife, offer to help him fix it. If that doesnt work, ask him what he wants his funeral to be like. :hammerhea
hmmm, well i should tell him what my funeral should be like cuz my distributor isnt sealed either! come to think of it he may be safer than i am, well if he had a blower. as far as his wife goes, she doesnt listen to anyone! :redface:

[boater012]

I am in the marine undustry and recently made frineds with 25 year old that is handicapped (wheelchair bound for life) he was on his dads boat when he was 17. same situiation automotive parts closed hatch, no blower, needless to say they were going up river in norcal at about 70 when the boat exploded, the rear seat (where this young man was sitting) was blown completely out of the boat, including him, he landed in the water but the blast was so violent that it severed his spinal cord! to this day his father has not forgiven himself for this act of stupidity! need I say more? :confused: this young man who aspirations of going into the navy when he graduated now lives with his parents (and probably will for his entire life) btw his dad still owns a boat he one of my customers now and drops it off and says whatever it takes make it right! no questions asked never squabbles about the bill never squbbles if i take an extra day. just make it right. Why is it that it takes kind of an accident to wake people up to the reality and danger of this??? I guess i will never understand! if i cant afford the right parts i shouldnt own a boat!!
Ask your frined this question: would he use automotive parts on an airplane? and expect people to get in it and fly with him?

[Rexone]

my buddy has a jetboat with enclosed hatch. he has a mechanical fuel pump with the bypass hose, which has been plugged off by him. he has an edelbrock carb which is not marine, with oldschool screen flame arrestor. he has no bilge blower and doesnt seem to want one.
This is a bomb waiting for a detonator and a little fuel. Don't ride in this boat under ANY circumstances. That would be my thought on this subject.
And further if he's your buddy make it a point to get him "educated" on this before he kills himself and others.
There's a reason why new boat manufacturers aren't allowed to use non-marine parts in new boats. And it isn't because marine parts cost more so the makers are just out for more money as I've heard uneducated people suggest in the past.
contact Alan (boatcop) as he can probably steer you in a direction to provide your buddy with some meaningful and educational resources on this subject.

[berk]

thanks guys. these horror stories are good ways to show him what i was trying to get through. ignorance is bliss, but he has a 5 year old little dude that he probably doesnt want to ruin. this conversation has me thinking i need the once over in my bilge too. i just switched to an electric fool pump, are there any special considerations with this?
so if a boat can blow at 70 that means several things, first there needs to be a fuel leak, then the vapors ignite from either the alternator or the distributor, right? (excluding the odd hotwire/wrench left on the battery....) is it a god practice to run a blower the entire time you are underway?
also i usually dont communicate well wth boatcops, and my faith in them as a safety asset has been reduced even more since seeing the way they have fostered an unsafe attitude towards engine hatch safety in dans boat. to me this is a more important issue than having a whistle or even a fire extinguisher. doesnt matter if theres an extinguisher is the boat is dissintegrated!

[Devilman]

Hell, I've got the blower motor off my boat. He can have it if for the shipping. My boat doesn't have a hatch any more so the blower was pretty useless. It was working when I took it off, I just pulled it to clean up the area a bit.

[berk]

sweet thanks! :shift:

[Devilman]

sweet thanks! :shift:
just lemme know!!

[SmokinLowriderSS]

I have a covered engine on my Taylor SS. My boat came orriginally with marine dist, alt, bellhousing top-mount starter, and AUTO Holley carb. Everything is still orriginal with the exception of the alt which is temporarally an auto 1-wire as the old one crapped out at Broken Bow and I salvaged a weekend on a sat AM. The flame arrestor is now K&N (only other change). To accomodate the fuel pump safety drain, I researched holley carbs, drilled a hole in the top plate that they left as a thinly-closed casting, and installed a dump line, just as the marine ones do. I recently replaced my starter solenoid, yes, the remote solenoid is a sealed Marine one, at least IT was an inexpensive part.
I run my bilge fan ALMOST as religiously as I search for fuel leaks. Every morning, first start, the hood is open as I look all over for eveidence of ANY leaks, fuel or water. My bilge fan runs anytime we are at idle, before every start (even with the hood open) and is often still running on plane as I may forget to shut it off.
I can't see any reason to run it while on plane. Figure out the volume of your engine bay, then figure out the volume of air going through your engine at any speed. The engine empties the bilge every minuite (or less) and the fan is ridiculous trying to keep up. The bilge vents should be arranged so as to positively vent the bay while underway (1 foreward scooping in, 1 venting to the rear to suck out(the one with the fan in it)).
I wouldn't ride in your buddie's boat either. I plan on living a lot longer.

[DeputyDawg]

This system is probably pricey but it's pretty slick-- http://www.herculesmarine.com/