Iwantachaparral
Member
Do all Cuddys get a fuel Vapor smell after being closed up for a few days ? There’s no fuel leaks but when we uncover the boat and open the cuddy doors after it sits a few days it smells bad.
Fuel Vapor smell
- Thread starter Iwantachaparral
- Start date
Trust me, I talk from experience, you have a situation that needs to be looked at. Mine was the fill hose to the tank deteriorated and was like a wet sponge. Close things up there was an odor, open things up odor disappeared. Found it by pressurizing the fuel tank. It could be something very simple, but you need to find out what is causing the odor. Poke around, see the route your fill hose follows to the gas tank. Do you have a floor drain in your cudy, if so plug it up then close up your cudy. If there is no oder then it is possibly coming from under your deck floor and coming in from that drain .Do any of your cabinets have an odor and where are they located? Until you locate and repair it, first thing to do is open everything up and run the blower for at least 5 min, and never turn it off until you shut her down. I have always ran my blower 100% of the time, in fact sometimes I forget to turn it off. Did this just start or has it been going on from day one of geting her? If it has been there from the beginning, then the previous owner knew about it. Did you get her from a private owner or a dealer? What year is your girl? SST and I both experienced the same problem, it was a manufacturer defect, our girls are 2 yrs apart. Please keep us posted it could help others.
Iwantachaparral
Member
I bought it used from a dealer. As -is special. It’s a 2003. My friends has a 235ssi with the same smell in the cuddy after it sits a couple days. I can’t imagine trying to sleep in it yet with that smell so I’ll have to look into it more
Iwantachaparral
Member
I have a 215ss. My filler is at the rear just above the swim deck
Ok, see if you have a drain in the floor of the cabin. If you do smell the drain to see if the odor is stronger. Get a wet towel and put it over the drain and keep it there and keep it wet. Air it out the cabin then close it up to see if the odor comes back. Is the odor there all the time, or only after a fill up, and do you top it off?
Iwantachaparral
Member
No we can’t top off the fuel tank. The attendants fill it for us. It doesn’t matter how much is in the tank it always smells. Even when I open the cockpit cover it stinks till it’s opened up. Once at the sandbar I could get whiffs of it around the fuel fill cap area too
Can you see the fill hose, can you trace it to the tank? Also can you see and trace the vent hose? If that all looks good, then the next thing that I would do, is to pressurize the tank. Somewhere under the deck you have the odor of raw gas or raw gas itself. If you and your friend's boats are of the same vintage and design, except size, then I would lean towards manufactures design or parts quality.
SST
Active member
Can you access where your fuel sender is located beneath the floor? Is it sealed properly? Mine gave me a problem many years ago but whatever sealant I used, it is still working. Lucky me, the sending unit is still pretty accurate.
Denny and I swapped out the old filler line but we did it differently. I left the old line under the floor and rerouted the new fill line. Do you have access to your filler line and vent lines? Check the clamps for tightness? Sniff check? Sometimes I sit in wonderment that my fill line and vent line are only a few inches away from the fuse/switch panel and all those bundles of wiring.
Until you find the cause, take extraordinary effort to ventilate your entire boat before you attempt to start it. We don't want you to come back online and tell us you lost the boat.
Over the years I was getting kinda slack in running the blower prior to starting [always ran it after fueling]. I was very confident that there were no leaks. But last month, another boater didn't vent his boat thoroughly and it exploded and burned to the water line. I'm back at using the blower every time now.
The "NO SMOKING" lamp is on.
Denny and I swapped out the old filler line but we did it differently. I left the old line under the floor and rerouted the new fill line. Do you have access to your filler line and vent lines? Check the clamps for tightness? Sniff check? Sometimes I sit in wonderment that my fill line and vent line are only a few inches away from the fuse/switch panel and all those bundles of wiring.
Until you find the cause, take extraordinary effort to ventilate your entire boat before you attempt to start it. We don't want you to come back online and tell us you lost the boat.
Over the years I was getting kinda slack in running the blower prior to starting [always ran it after fueling]. I was very confident that there were no leaks. But last month, another boater didn't vent his boat thoroughly and it exploded and burned to the water line. I'm back at using the blower every time now.
The "NO SMOKING" lamp is on.