diesel under floor

[miq]

Hi all, I know this has been asked before but I can't find the thread in this years topics so here goes. Following a leak on the return to tank pipe of my common rail lombardini, the bilges became contaminated with diesel fuel. (about 10 gals of it!)

Although this has now been pumped out, the smell lingers on under the cabin floor. Does anyone out there know of a way of neutralising this smell? I am assuming that some of the woodwork may have taken up fuel, but I cannot verify this and I want to avoid at all costs having to take all the flooring up to find out. There is a connection between the outer parts of the engine space and the under floor bilges, and this amount of fuel of course overflowed the seperate engine bilge into these areas!

Help!

[Robin2]

Hi all, I know this has been asked before but I can't find the thread in this years topics so here goes. Following a leak on the return to tank pipe of my common rail lombardini, the bilges became contaminated with diesel fuel. (about 10 gals of it!)

Although this has now been pumped out, the smell lingers on under the cabin floor. Does anyone out there know of a way of neutralising this smell? I am assuming that some of the woodwork may have taken up fuel, but I cannot verify this and I want to avoid at all costs having to take all the flooring up to find out. There is a connection between the outer parts of the engine space and the under floor bilges, and this amount of fuel of course overflowed the seperate engine bilge into these areas!

Help!

 

A few dead fish, or a dead rabbit collected from the cut ?

[Ex- Member]

Hi all, I know this has been asked before but I can't find the thread in this years topics so here goes. Following a leak on the return to tank pipe of my common rail lombardini, the bilges became contaminated with diesel fuel. (about 10 gals of it!)

Although this has now been pumped out, the smell lingers on under the cabin floor. Does anyone out there know of a way of neutralising this smell? I am assuming that some of the woodwork may have taken up fuel, but I cannot verify this and I want to avoid at all costs having to take all the flooring up to find out. There is a connection between the outer parts of the engine space and the under floor bilges, and this amount of fuel of course overflowed the seperate engine bilge into these areas!

Help!

 

Hi

 

Very difficult to get rid, if you can arrange lots of air flow through the bilge it will make sure all is evaporated, problem is diesel trapped between ballast and base plate, this could take a very long time to dispurse, it takes long enough for water so diesel were talking months.

 

The how to site here has some tips on neutralising the smell. Keep your boat well ventilated when on board it Diesel fumes can make you quite ill at high levels.

 

http://www.ehow.com/...fuel-smell.html

 

And some good tips here

 

http://www.squidoo.com/Get-Rid-Of-Kerosene-Smell#module11100120

 

 

 

Edited July 10, 2011 by Julynian

[twbm]

What about one of the organic biodegradable bilge cleaners that are available - they work with the motion of the boat. A quick Google found this and the first one listed is pine scented.

 

http://www.boatersreport.com/Degreaser/bilge_cleaner_chart_descriptions.htm

[Ex- Member]

What about one of the organic biodegradable bilge cleaners that are available - they work with the motion of the boat. A quick Google found this and the first one listed is pine scented.

 

http://www.boatersre...escriptions.htm

 

Some of those might work if you're lucky, if you note though none of the remedy's actually mention Diesel in their blurb only the mention of oils and kerosene which are not exactly the same as Diesel.

 

I spilt some diesel in our warehouse about 3 months ago and it got under the office wall and contaminated the carpet. Ripped the carpet out cleaned up but still smells today. It's a bloody nightmare and was giving me headaches LOL It's a lot better now but you can still smell it, most annoying

 

 

 

[Dr Bradley]

Hope some of these ideas work. I spilt 25 litres of diesel in my camper van and have not yet been able to get rid. It's in the carpets which are laid under the non removable fittings so I can't just ditch the carpet. A nightmare.

[XAlan W]

Hi all, I know this has been asked before but I can't find the thread in this years topics so here goes. Following a leak on the return to tank pipe of my common rail lombardini, the bilges became contaminated with diesel fuel. (about 10 gals of it!)

Although this has now been pumped out, the smell lingers on under the cabin floor. Does anyone out there know of a way of neutralising this smell? I am assuming that some of the woodwork may have taken up fuel, but I cannot verify this and I want to avoid at all costs having to take all the flooring up to find out. There is a connection between the outer parts of the engine space and the under floor bilges, and this amount of fuel of course overflowed the seperate engine bilge into these areas!

Help!

 

Back in our Hotel Boating days MORRIS oils did a product called IIRC [morendo]? which you mixed with fuel oil at a ratio of 400/1[fuel /product]It totally eliminated the diesel smell. {Have no idea if they still market it or similar[ It was marketed under Diesel Deodourant , Redex also had a DD but that smelled perfumey rather than no smell, again no idea if it`s still available

[stuart]

Would your boat insurance cover you to sort this out?

[bizzard]

Would your boat insurance cover you to sort this out?

How about scrubbing the area with ''Jizer'',engine cleaner.

You then rinse it off with water. But it will leave a slight smell,but much more pleasant than diesel fuel smell and will disappear after a while. Don't use Gunk the traditional one (nasty smell). Jizer can be bought at car spares shops or motor factors. bizzard.

[Chertsey]

We recently had a bad diesel leak on Chertsey. Easily fixed but not before a few gallons had gone into the engine bilge. Now... that has all been cleaned out, and there never was any under the cabin floor, but the smell is still there, really strong when I lift the floor. So what it must be like when you've got actual diesel under the floor and in your carpets and woodwork I can't imagine. It seems to smell completely different in large quantities than small and I've gone right off it! I do have reasonably good under floor ventilation but it's still there after a couple of weeks - how long do you reckon before it clears?

[bizzard]

We recently had a bad diesel leak on Chertsey. Easily fixed but not before a few gallons had gone into the engine bilge. Now... that has all been cleaned out, and there never was any under the cabin floor, but the smell is still there, really strong when I lift the floor. So what it must be like when you've got actual diesel under the floor and in your carpets and woodwork I can't imagine. It seems to smell completely different in large quantities than small and I've gone right off it! I do have reasonably good under floor ventilation but it's still there after a couple of weeks - how long do you reckon before it clears?

Very,very slowly,it has a very slow evaporation rate especially cool under the floor. bizzard.

[Chertsey]

Very,very slowly,it has a very slow evaporation rate especially cool under the floor. bizzard.

Oh dear.

 

And in my case it isn't even diesel under the floor, only vapour.

Edited July 12, 2011 by Chertsey

[Ex- Member]

Oh dear.

 

And in my case it isn't even diesel under the floor, only vapour.

 

You might still have some trapped somewhere, usually when diesel is fully cleaned up and evaporated the smell will go quite quickly several days maybe. Any rags lying around will hold the smell also, or if anything absorbent still has diesel in it, slightest bit of puddle anywhere and it'll keep giving off odour.

 

For those who do have a leak.

 

Dry coarse sawdust is the best way to clean up any you can't scoop up. Keep throwing sawdust on to the spill until it struggles to get wet so you end up with fluffy slightly damp sawdust, you will need a lot though. You can then hoover it up but only use a hoover with disposable bag as a reusable will get contaminated. Or just scoop up by hand in to a plastic bag, but you do need to remove every scrap of sawdust.

Edited July 12, 2011 by Julynian

[jamlin1]

This is not good news for you,our disaster was a lot worse than what you are experiencing, you have got nearly the same problem we had several years ago, our problem was lack of servicing by the previous owners. this caused the diesel tank to rot and burst sending 20 gallons of fuel into the bilge, but it did not stop there, the last owners did not know that if the water pump was running and nothing was coming out of the taps it was actually pumping water into the bilge, so they ended up with about 100/150 litres of water under the front bilge, which poured into the engine area bilge causing major flooding up to half way up the boat, obviously soaking the flooring woodwork and some side panels, but the main damage was to the concrete ballast, which soaked it up, unfortunately you are going to have to take drastic steps and get under the floor as diesel smells is one of the hardest things to get rid of.

This is how I fixed my own problem (do it yourself or it will cost you a fortune)

1-removed and destroyed all concrete ballast (at least 4 tonnes)

2-removed half of the floor

3- hand wash down and mop out hull with good detergent at least 5 times

4- when everything is dry paint hull with primer/undercoat/and then gloss

5- check all side panels for any discolouration at the bottom by the joint to the floor as this will most definitely be diesel soaked into the wood

6- very important check the insulation does not have any residue marks, as insulation will hold onto vapors like no tomorrow

7- try and get a warm air blower and leave it running under the bilge as long as possible

after doing all of above the boat is now smelling nicely and everything is fixed