Exhaust/Carbon Monoxide Problem

[Craig]

I have a 1997 320 Tournament Convertible (Hunky-Dory). we just returned from a ten day trip from Connecticut to the upper MA coast and Merrimac River. The boat is in perfect mechanical condition as far as I can tell. I've owned her for three years now and have her maintained by the yard where I have her docked in Mystic CT. I've never compromised doing any recommended work because of cost.

Here's the problem: Every day during the trip, no mater what the wind direction or speed of travel we got CO alarms in the stateroom in the bow. Opening the bow hatch seemed to be effective. But with a lot of choppy water there was too much spray to contend with. The last day I covered the bed with a plastic table cloth and let the spray come in.

I tried running with the salon door open and with it closed and got alarms in both conditions.

Everything in the exhaust system seems to be in great condition. Here are my questions:

1. How can you tell if you have an elusive exhaust leak internal to the boat?
2. Has anyone else had this kind of problem? If so what did you find?
3. Is this a common problem with this model boat?
4. Has anyone installed a ventilator of some sort that will keep the cabin air clean but dry?

I really need help on this one, all responses will be greatly appreciated.

Craig

[Reel-Deals-1st]

I’m not sure if you were or not, but running with windows or hatches open along with the door can cause a vacuum into the salon. It sounds more to me like you may have a leak somewhere. You can take a look at all of your bulkheads to make sure there are no open chases into the engine room. My suggestion would be to have someone run a smoke machine in your engine room with everything closed up. You can look to see if you have any leaks into your interior spaces that may need to be addressed.

[Craig]

On Monday, 30 hours after our return from the boat trip my wife was brought to the hospital by ambulance. Her symptoms were severe headache, nausea and confusion. She said that the headache was much greater than the migranes that she suffered years ago. She thought that she was having a stroke or some such thing. After a whole battery of every test imaginable the only thing that was off normal was the CO level in her blood. Which was only slightly elevated (but at least 30 hours after the fact). I think this confirms that we had a dangerous level of CO in the boat. I have the marina mechanics going over the engines in attempt to find the sourse of CO. The only clue that I have is that the engine monitor said that the starboard engine was burning about 50% more fuel than the port engine. I asked the mechanics to look for a leaking head gasket or something. I'll keep you posted.
Craig

[Reel-Deals-1st]

Im sorry to here about your wife. Its a good thing you got her to the hospitol before it got too bad. I would assume that you currently dont have any CO monitors installed, but if you would like to give me a call I would be happy to send you a couple.

I would highly suggest having the boat smoke tested. Even if they find the source of the CO. The elevated fuel burn definantly seems to be suspect. If there is anything good to come out of this, with CO being a colorless odorless gas I think it could teach all of us a very important lesson to make sure that our CO monitors are up to date.

I hope she has a full recovery and you find the source of the problem. Keep us posted.

Jeff Holliday
Luhrs Customer Service
904-827-2011

[cmcallister]

Jeff, Thanks for your concern for my wife. She seems to be doing fine now.

I do have a CO sensor on the boat and it did work properly. I believe that I did take appropriate action when we got the alarm. I checked the wind direction with respect to the direction of travel. I made a course change to improve air flow across the stern. I also opened the bow hatch a notch to allow fresh air flow through the cabin. I also had the occupants come up to the bridge until I was able to reset the CO alarm. In retrospect I think that opening the bow hatch served to keep fresh air around the CO sensor but did not provide enough air flow to keep the salon flooded with fresh air. So, while the CO sensor was satisfied in the forward stateroom the salon still had pockets of exhaust gasses.

I have heard back from the mechanics who are trying to find a problem with the engines. They say that the starboard engine had the hose on the MAP sensor disconnected. This caused the engine to run extremely rich and it was exhausting unburned fuel. They believe that this was the problem since they couldn't find anything else wrong. I certainly would like to hear opinions on this. They think that the engine was running so bad that it was putting out a huge amount of CO. I did notice on the B&G engine monitor that the starboard was using much more fuel than the port. But, I can't say that I could notice any other difference in the way the engines were running.

Craig