D44-260 gets air in fuel

[jswhal]

My Volvo 260 has started needing to be bled if it sits for a week or so. It will start and run for 15-20 seconds then stop. When I bleed it, the fuel is foamy. I take out about 1/2 cup and it clears. Restarts fine. Where is the air getting into the system. The fuel filters are tight.

 

[bob daily]

The most common area for air entering the fuel system is the fuel filter, I would start there by replacing all o-rings and gaskets and work outwards from there!
Note: some times a small amount of fuel around the drain or water sensor is a tell-tell sign.
Good luck on the fix. Bob

 

[Kevin Lamont]

My Volvo 260 has started needing to be bled if it sits for a week or so. It will start and run for 15-20 seconds then stop. When I bleed it, the fuel is foamy. I take out about 1/2 cup and it clears. Restarts fine. Where is the air getting into the system. The fuel filters are tight.

Hello,

What year is your boat? Also places where air can get in are at the fuel filter seals also hose connections, making sure all hoses clamps are tight from the tank to the engine would be a good thing to check. I rare cases I have seen ball valves leak air but super rare. Also the primer maybe losing prime due to a bad primer and once it is pumped up enough to run the engine keeps the fuel from bleeding off.

Thanks,

 

[ethanbarnett]

We too had a similar problem. Volvo finally determined it was the primary fuel filter, the large one with the primer plunger on top. That plunger was failing and letting in air. Factory replaced under warranty. Said they had a bad batch.

 

[jswhal]

It's a 2014 C28. Does the fact that it runs for 10 seconds or so suggest it's not the fuel filter, but somewhere upstream?

 

[Cutwater28GG]

a few years back if I stopped the engine when hot and let it sit, and then tried to restart it would run for a few seconds and then stop and only restart after a good amount of cranking. I concluded it was the o ring in the primary fuel filter that was letting air in when soaked with engine heat. replaced the o ring and the symptoms didnt return.

 

[Scuba Too]

We too had a similar problem. Volvo finally determined it was the primary fuel filter, the large one with the primer plunger on top. That plunger was failing and letting in air. Factory replaced under warranty. Said they had a bad batch.

Ethan,

I've been struggling with the exactly the same problem! There's even a few posts on this. What year R29S do you have? I have a 2017 R29 CB. Just to be clear, this is the fuel filter mounted on the engine and not the Racor filter mounted to the bulkhead? I'll contact my mechanic about this.

 

[ethanbarnett]

To clarify the factory in this case was Volvo Penta. Go to a certified VP guy and he can test and confirm. The volvo tech checked everything else first and then called the VP engineers that build these things. He said that they confirmed an issue exists. Swapped out and no problems.

 

[scross]

We are experiencing a similar issue with our 2017 C-28 right now. Boat starts fine and will run as expected up to 1500 rpm. Then it sputters - rpms won’t go past 1500. Somehow air enters the secondary spin on filter which you can then bleed off using the bleed fitting.
Bellingham Yachts is replacing a badly corroded VP (not Racor) first filter housing mounted to the bulkhead with a new Racor housing. Also replacing the 8 year old rubber fuel hoses. It has 2 new fuel filters and all o-rings have been double checked. There is no sign of water or fuel contamination. Just air getting in.
If the work being done today doesn’t solve the problem we will next replace the black rubber hand pump primer on top of the secondary spin on filter. Of course that’s a hard to find part.
Thanks to this thread I know that’s the next step.

PS: Problem solved! New Racor filter housing bolted to bulkhead and new fuel hoses fixed it!