Fuel Issue with Port Engine

[mrsparkj]

Running my engines the other day and noticed that my port engine had a white milky foam coming out of the water discharge / exhaust pipe. After about 15 minutes I noticed the engine started to lower in RPMs, needing more fuel. I increased my throttle and engine ran that died of what seemed to be fuel exhaustion. Tried to restart the engine, no joy. I checked the oil.....looked fine, no indications of water mixing with the oil. I let the engine sit, checked fuel filter to see if clogged and even swapped it out with good engine. Restarted engine....same milky discharge and engine died after 10 min...again, what seems to be fuel exhaustion. Ran good engine with swapped fuel filter...ran fine. So, I know it isn't a fuel filter issue. Thinking maybe fuel pump going bad or clogged fuel line? Any suggestions for a 1987 Carver Aft Cabin with Crusader engines?? Thanks!

[waybomb]

Is your transmission oil water cooled as well - check it.
You may have more than one issue going on here.

The foam you see - does it leave a sheen on the water, as oil would?

[mrsparkj]

There was no sheen in the water.

Yes, the oil is water cooled.....fresh water system. I checked the heat exchangers.....all antifreeze is in there...no signs of leaks!

[g36]

Sure you don't have more than 1 fuel filter on the engines?
I have a 97 mine's tbi not carb but there are 3 on each of my engines, that way from crusader.

[mjk1040]

My guess is an oil cooler has gone bad, white milky is most definitely oil and water mixing somewhere. Engine oil cooler or tranny oil cooler. The only other possibility is a bad head gasket or bad head. But either way white milky is definitely oil and water mixing. Check engine oil and transmission oils again. But you said you had antifreeze so I'm assuming you have a closed cooling system, thus bad head gasket or head would be out. Mike

[Viper]

Don't know what you mean by "fuel exhaustion." Are you sure it's not fuel you see coming out the exhaust? Cylinders not firing would dump fuel out the exhaust.

[mrsparkj]

So I did some trouble shooting with my neighbor, USCG type and we worked it down to a fuel issue. Some reason when we traced fuel flow and took off the main line to the splitter we found we are not able to get fuel out of main tank. Prior to all this I had put 3 bottles of Sea Foam to clean things out, wondering if I made it worse and actually clogged things in the main fuel tank. When I hooked up an external tank my starboard engine ran.....still having issues with the port. Learning a lot about my engines.....I did check oil on port engine that had white silky substance.....oil looks fine....no indications of water in oil. Will break things down next week.....appreciate tips as it is helping me to trouble shoot. Could be a fuel pump issue too??

[waybomb]

Check the anti siphon valves. Mounted on the tank. May look like a hose barb bit actually a lightly loaded spring check valve.

Check the vents. Sometimes bugs build nests in then and plug them up.

[mjk1040]

Seafoam is a great product, I put some in every fill up. If fuel was in the tanks for a long time and you added Seafoam, it will loosen all the stuff in your tanks and could plug up lines, valves and filters. But in the long run it will keep things clean in the fuel system once all the junk is out. Mike