Carver Owners Forum

My 406 with 7.4 MPI's has fuel filters mounted lower than the fuel in the fuel tanks. Can I just turn fuel valves off to avoid a fuel spill in the hull when changing filters, or do I need to take more measures and, if so, what?

Yes shut off the valves. While your anti siphon valves should prevent siphoning, even with the valves shut off, you may get some dripping from the fuel left in the lines. Get something under the filter assembly to catch dripping fuel after the filter is removed.

Fill the filters with fuel prior to reinstalling them to ensure there is indeed fuel in them when you fire up the engines. The fuel pumps are lubricated by the fuel and if they run dry for just a few seconds, you shorten their life drastically. Have everything ready before removing the filters. Rub some engine oil on the filter seal, this will make it easier to get it off the next time. Put the filter on hand tight only, do not use a tool.

Oh, and ventilate ventilate ventilate!!

Great. Thanks, Viper.

Shut off AC and DC power first.

Cut the top off a white plastic jug to dump the fuel out of the filters. When you do this, check what comes out. Any water, sediment, or discolouration will give you an indication of what's going on in your tank.

When you're done, open up your valves again, look for leaks, clean up any fuel that went into the bilge, get rid of anything that came in contact with fuel, leave the engine hatches open and turn on your blowers for at least 5 minutes or until you can't smell fuel anymore, then start your engines. After you've run the engines for a while, shut them down and look for leaks again.

I need to replace mine as well, I am getting the fuel polished tomorrow because the rpm is going wild and port engine cuts off, will come back online and after brief time does it again. All indications with everyone I spoke to said bad fuel. So figure I will replace the water separating fuel filter. The company cleaning the gas will not touch it. So where exactly is the fuel shut off valve for port engine? This is for 2000 356 carver aft cabin. Thanks

My 355 which should be the same as your 356 has the tank selector / shut off valves under the salon floor above the genny. Should have port / starboard/ aux and off for each engine.

You will lose a bit of fuel, so have bucket, rags and ventilation!!!!!

tomschauer, thanks. Well shutoff valve was easy to find. Unfortunately fuel cleaning did not go as planned. Clean Fuel technician came by. Got a hose into tank. Other technician went to get the gizmo to extract fuel. Unfortunately the dock manager stopped it, because the equipment he was using had tank like tracks, and was very heavy. There was concern the dock would be damaged. So we had to cancel to re-schedule, when I can pull the boat closer to parking lot so they can keep equipment off the dock. It was too windy to try anything today. So Saturday if I can reschedule them I will attempt to find a location closer to land on our dock. Also I thought I could use the aux tank with new gasoline, good test to see if that's the problem. Only to find out the aux tank has some fuel in it as well and have no idea how old it is and what shape it's in. this is turning into a night mare. 2 months into our purchase, can't enjoy it yet

cpoint wrote:Source of the post I need to replace mine as well, I am getting the fuel polished tomorrow because the rpm is going wild and port engine cuts off, will come back online and after brief time does it again. All indications with everyone I spoke to said bad fuel. So figure I will replace the water separating fuel filter. The company cleaning the gas will not touch it. So where exactly is the fuel shut off valve for port engine? This is for 2000 356 carver aft cabin. Thanks

Why bad fuel? Has the boat sat for years? Have you diagnosed properly yet before going through the trouble/expense of polishing? How much fuel are we talking about? What did the contents of the fuel filter look like when you replaced it? I'd be hooking up each engine one at a time to a remote fuel tank/jerry can first to see if you get the same symptom. If you do, it's at the engine end. If you don't, it's before the engine but it could be other things as well such as bad anti-siphon valves, clogged vents, clogged tank pick-ups.....

Would hate to see you go through the expense of polishing and still have the same problem.

Again, ventilate and don't keep the portable tank in the engine compartment while doing this.

Actually turns out they can dispose the fuel (clean fuel company). I did not know they did that until I talked to them. The problem is the mechanic worked on it mentioned bad fuel (mainly water in fuel) at the time I bought it. He had done a tune up, replaced the spark plug wires, the distributor, etc. He said he also put in some fresh gas to mix the bad gas to pass through the engine. If what I know know I would have have him dump it and start fresh. Also the cap was missing from the side of hull that goes over the fuel tank went. Boat was on land for about 2 years, rain water may have come in also. I do not have a perfect history of previous owners. I know boat was hardly used. has about 400 hours (2000 carver 356 aft cabin). So not going to polish it. Also I noticed aux tank has less than quarter tank gas in it. I have no idea how long that's been there. The switch valves were stuck on port and starboard tanks, as if they were not used for a long time. And most importantly I am no expert on the engine side, or boat side, and lack of time. I give in just want to pay and get it cleaned up and hopefully resolve the problem. If that don't work, put more money into the black hole and get a mechanic to take a look But all indications are water in tank I think. There may be 30 gallons on each tank give or take couple gallons. The ux tank like I said is about quarter tank. Need to figure out how many gallons that is.