FV270 Isolating the engine room fumes and smells from the front cabin door void.

J3ff

Not sure what's going on with my boat, but I've now decided to try and figure out a way to isolate the engine room from the rest of the boat if possible.  I'm open to any and all suggestions on how to safely do so.  

The main drive behind this is I have a stinky engine room..and I don't want any of those fumes coming forward, which they do pretty badly at the moment. The ONLY place you can smell them is in the void between the cockpit door and the dashboard. 

Has anyone ever attempted this before? I imagine it should be possible somehow, no??

(I am in process of putting together a pump to get the water out, but at the same time I'd like to do this as well!)

J3ff

Here's the space these fumes come from...  even when the bilge is dry. If I leave the blower on, there is no smell

BellevilleMXZ

While mine smells ok, I noticed that both sides of the front of the engine compartment , in the corners, where wiring and plumbing come through, has large openings. That would be how smell gets forward I'm sure. I have the cooler opening out to put in a door, and I notice you can smell the engine compartment.

 I'm going to seal them with hard spray foam. Maybe  put in an ABS pipe  , I can cap, and run wiring through if I ever have to add anything. Should cut down on noise too.

aero3113

I would try to find the source of the smell, it shouldn't be like that. If for some reason you can't fix the issue you can probably install a rubber seal that would mount to the helm area and ride on the door to seal the gap.

aero3113

Hopefully it's not gas fumes your smelling!

J3ff

aero3113 said:

I would try to find the source of the smell, it shouldn't be like that. If for some reason you can't fix the issue you can probably install a rubber seal that would mount to the helm area and ride on the door to seal the gap.

Trust me, I've been ALL over it.. bunch of different cleaners, scrubbing it over the winter...   The boat is a 2004 boat, the only thing I can think of is at one point the waste water tank leaked and they didn't get it all out and now the stink is under the gas tank or something (because I've cleaned the **** out of anything that you can get to!! ) 

hard spray foam and a pipe that you can cap off sounds like a great idea, perfect! Let me know how it goes and I may be joining you on that one. 

[Deleted User]

When I hear the word "fumes" I think "fuel." and an urgent problem. But what you are describing sounds like a bad "smell." I don't have this problem at all, never have. I hope you get to the bottom of this.

Andy

J3ff

basically any time there's even a little bit of water back there, say from the AC or rain water...the thing stinks worse than a portapoti

gack

Don't know what would cause the smell if you cleaned as good as you say.  You sure there's no leaks in the holding tank or it's hoses?

J3ff

I think it needs something even more than what I can do.. needs engine out and gas tank removed and a good hard scrubbing.  When it's dry it's hardly noticeable but when there's any water in there for more than a few days it gets NASTY!

99270fv

way off track here but,,,my cockpit carpet got wet while trailering to the lake. 2 days later the odor coming off of the carpet was horrible. seemed to be most evident when you would enter and exit the cabin. if you have snap in carpet lift it up and smell the backing

reneechris14

The void behind the dash is open to the engine room as it goes behind the cooler and down.I have seen the spray foam back there,but there are a few air holes to cover up.good luck.

rasbury

Well, I had this exact same problem. I finally found a small, perfectly what looked like a drilled hole in the waste tank. I never was able to determine where it came from, it was not a crack. It was not visible and did not leak all the time- I was amazed how much crud was in the bottom of the tank that was not getting sucked up - point is the crud would "plug" the hole sometimes and other times it would leak. Drove me crazy plus it seems someone would have to have drilled that hole, it was not a crack or a puncture. Since fixed, I have zero smell and I know I did not get all the yuck out.

Aprice

Do you have a filter on your vent hose on the waste tank? I had a strong smell that went away after adding a vent filter. 
Have you checked the hole being the dash panel to see that it actually drains? I found on my 270 that the drain was filled with dead bugs and dirt and gave off an odor like dead fish anytime it rained or water got back there. I flushed it out and the debris that was in the hose was astonishingly disgusting.

You could alwas add a blower fan to try and reverse the flow of air back towards the engine compartment. 

J3ff

ah boy... sounds like another project coming up

J3ff

Might try to do this tomorrow.  Anyone else made any progress? 

BellevilleMXZ

I bought the foam today.....didn't get to ......next weekend. I did notice they spray foamed the pipe openings really well, but did nothing with wire pass through

J3ff

seems like the pipe openings aren't the only place on mine where air can get through. there seems to be a crack between the hull and the inside frame about an inch wide from the bottom to the top behind the cooler cut out

BellevilleMXZ

Ya, mine is the same.....I'm going to figure something out......probably foam it

J3ff

Just stuck a towel in there for today to test it out...seems better right off the bat, but will know if it's really working by end of day. 

Black_Diamond

Got to be waste tank venting.  

J3ff

Nah... when I suck All the water out with a vacuum the stank instantly goes away

Black_Diamond

If that is the case, then mold/mildew/stuff is growing in the water. If you were to vacuum out and fill with city water does the smell come back as fast?  

J3ff

No.. it takes four or five days

J3ff

And, it only takes a VERY light covering of moisture, there's hardly anything down there right now and it still makes it enough that you can smell it coming out of that door.. 

bazza

Moisture liberates smells, I put a air con condense pump down there and a timer run it for one hour each day it keeps lower bilge almost completely dry, I am on mains power at mooring.
Bazza

J3ff

yeah, I dont have power to do that... maybe someday  

Either way, I did this job today... not going to post finished pics until I have time to clean it up. I got some of the maximum expanding foam filler and went a little overboard, it looks like a mess right now!! 

Here are some before pics.

Sealed all of this up:


and of course all of this... as you can see, it's just a hole right to the engine bay.


now this does mean that the tray will not drain to the bilge anymore. I figure at the worst, it will overflow to the door drain.  

Sealed the big hole up. Did it from the top first and then from the engine bay. It did surprise me how far back I had to seal.. meaning I had to go about a foot forward from that notch in the tray before it was all sealed up. I guess we'll see tomorrow if it worked!! 

Ps. used 1.75 cans worth of stuff, had to do a first coat to just get stuff stuck to the walls and then ran over it again to fully seal everything. 

BellevilleMXZ

Pics no worky

J3ff

BellevilleMXZ

Ya, thats what mine looks like.....weird other side is foam sealed though. And I donr see much chance od water getting under in that trey anyway. Mines gettin sprayed this weekend.

rasbury

I went from hold your nose PU to no smell.....