A new approach to the Volvo Penta Fuel Cell - 5.0Gi

[Matt in Seattle]

Having read hundreds of forum posts on Volvo Penta Fuel Cell failures, it seemed that the primary approach was to test the pump (Thanks Don) and then spend $750 to replace the unit, hoping that it wouldn't crap out again next year. Here's my story on how I fixed my fuel cell.

I have a 2000 Regal 2150 with a Volvo Penta 5.0GIPEFS. At times under load, the engine would crap out, but never die. After testing the system per Don's instructions, I discovered that when the engine was craping out, the fuel pressure was dropping from 30psi down to as low as 10psi. With everything pointing to a bad fuel cell, I decided I had nothing to lose by taking it apart.

photo 1.jpg

The fuel cell only has a few screws and then it pulls apart. I discovered several problems. First, as has been reported elsewhere, the paint inside the fuel cell was peeling. This caused the screens on both pumps to plugs. After blasting the two screens clean, I discovered that the low pressure relief value was blocked open by what looked like a metal shaving. I think, but can not confirm, that between the pump screens being plugged and the low pressure valve being blocked open, the high pressure pump was starving for fuel.

photo 3.jpg

After cleaning everything out, I put it back together and took the boat out. After buring through 10-gallons of fuel at 55mph, I still had perfect fuel pressure and no problems. My advice to anyone with Volvo Penta Fuel Cell problems, you have nothing to lose by taking apart a faulty fuel cell to clean it. Worst case, you still have to buy a new one.

PLEASE BE WARNED: There is a ton of gas inside of this fuel cell. Be prepared to dispose of the gas and try not to blow yourself up when doing it in your garage. While this was easy for me, I was at one time an ASE certified mechanic, so it may not be so easy for you.

Here is one more picture of the corrosion inside of the fuel cell:
photo 5.jpg

P.S. Shame on Volvo Penta for designing such a terrible fuel cell and not making parts available to repair it!

[Thalasso]

Having read hundreds of forum posts on Volvo Penta Fuel Cell failures, it seemed that the primary approach was to test the pump (Thanks Don) and then spend $750 to replace the unit, hoping that it wouldn't crap out again next year. Here's my story on how I fixed my fuel cell.

I have a 2000 Regal 2150 with a Volvo Penta 5.0GIPEFS. At times under load, the engine would crap out, but never die. After testing the system per Don's instructions, I discovered that when the engine was craping out, the fuel pressure was dropping from 30psi down to as low as 10psi. With everything pointing to a bad fuel cell, I decided I had nothing to lose by taking it apart.

photo 1.jpg

The fuel cell only has a few screws and then it pulls apart. I discovered several problems. First, as has been reported elsewhere, the paint inside the fuel cell was peeling. This caused the screens on both pumps to plugs. After blasting the two screens clean, I discovered that the low pressure relief value was blocked open by what looked like a metal shaving. I think, but can not confirm, that between the pump screens being plugged and the low pressure valve being blocked open, the high pressure pump was starving for fuel.

photo 3.jpg

After cleaning everything out, I put it back together and took the boat out. After buring through 10-gallons of fuel at 55mph, I still had perfect fuel pressure and no problems. My advice to anyone with Volvo Penta Fuel Cell problems, you have nothing to lose by taking apart a faulty fuel cell to clean it. Worst case, you still have to buy a new one.

PLEASE BE WARNED: There is a ton of gas inside of this fuel cell. Be prepared to dispose of the gas and try not to blow yourself up when doing it in your garage. While this was easy for me, I was at one time an ASE certified mechanic, so it may not be so easy for you.

Here is one more picture of the corrosion inside of the fuel cell:
photo 5.jpg

P.S. Shame on Volvo Penta for designing such a terrible fuel cell and not making parts available to repair it!

Are there o rings in them and if so where do you get them, if they (Volvo) makes no replacement parts.

[Matt in Seattle]

Are there o rings in them and if so where do you get them, if they (Volvo) makes no replacement parts.

I keep a box of assorted o-rings in my tool box. You will need six smaller o-rings for the pumps and two larger o-rings for the vapor seperator (assuming you only pull apart the bottom). Good Luck!

[Tail_Gunner]

Interesting its your opinion the paint inside was failing....Wonder whay they would paint a interior of a fuel cell. There has been quite a few fuel problems with GI's hmm might take a peak inside mine.

[dsiekman]

Interesting its your opinion the paint inside was failing....Wonder whay they would paint a interior of a fuel cell. There has been quite a few fuel problems with GI's hmm might take a peak inside mine.

That's the last thing I need. Doing new manifolds, risers, and circ pumps this year. Ouch. Port engine has always run a little rough but thought it was a bad injector...hmmm...wonder if it is clogged with paint???

[Matt in Seattle]

It doesn't take long to take the fuel cell apart, maybe 30-minutes round trip. I've heard, but never confirmed, that newer models of the fuel cell don't have the paint issue. I think the corosion is a by product of air/moisture in the top of the vapor seperation tank (VST). As the paint breaks loose (the entire top of my VST was peeling away), it plugs up both the high and low presure pump screens as the corosion comes after the fuel filter.

If it saves me $750 for a new fuel cell, I may make this part of my annual de-winterizing procedure.
Good Luck

[vball]

It doesn't take long to take the fuel cell apart, maybe 30-minutes round trip. I've heard, but never confirmed, that newer models of the fuel cell don't have the paint issue. I think the corosion is a by product of air/moisture in the top of the vapor seperation tank (VST). As the paint breaks loose (the entire top of my VST was peeling away), it plugs up both the high and low presure pump screens as the corosion comes after the fuel filter.

If it saves me $750 for a new fuel cell, I may make this part of my annual de-winterizing procedure.
Good Luck

Thanks for the info. I had a problem this weekend, first outing of the year. The 2006 5.0 Gxi ran for 5 mins, then started to starve and died. Never to start again. Thanks to my handy dandy paddle, I made it back to the ramp. I pulled the gas filter to find it half full of gas. Being a holiday weekend, no mechanics to be found, so here I am on Google. Due to this post I decided to pull the filter apart and while i didn't find a lot of black particles in the filter, i did find some and several spots on the inside where paint was chipping off. My question is how best to clean these out and is there anything special i need to know about reinstalling? Will it repressurize itself? And what do I need to know about the air valve?

[Rss]

Having read hundreds of forum posts on Volvo Penta Fuel Cell failures, it seemed that the primary approach was to test the pump (Thanks Don) and then spend $750 to replace the unit, hoping that it wouldn't crap out again next year. Here's my story on how I fixed my fuel cell.

I have a 2000 Regal 2150 with a Volvo Penta 5.0GIPEFS. At times under load, the engine would crap out, but never die. After testing the system per Don's instructions, I discovered that when the engine was craping out, the fuel pressure was dropping from 30psi down to as low as 10psi. With everything pointing to a bad fuel cell, I decided I had nothing to lose by taking it apart.

photo 1.jpg

The fuel cell only has a few screws and then it pulls apart. I discovered several problems. First, as has been reported elsewhere, the paint inside the fuel cell was peeling. This caused the screens on both pumps to plugs. After blasting the two screens clean, I discovered that the low pressure relief value was blocked open by what looked like a metal shaving. I think, but can not confirm, that between the pump screens being plugged and the low pressure valve being blocked open, the high pressure pump was starving for fuel.

photo 3.jpg

After cleaning everything out, I put it back together and took the boat out. After buring through 10-gallons of fuel at 55mph, I still had perfect fuel pressure and no problems. My advice to anyone with Volvo Penta Fuel Cell problems, you have nothing to lose by taking apart a faulty fuel cell to clean it. Worst case, you still have to buy a new one.

PLEASE BE WARNED: There is a ton of gas inside of this fuel cell. Be prepared to dispose of the gas and try not to blow yourself up when doing it in your garage. While this was easy for me, I was at one time an ASE certified mechanic, so it may not be so easy for you.

Here is one more picture of the corrosion inside of the fuel cell:
photo 5.jpg

P.S. Shame on Volvo Penta for designing such a terrible fuel cell and not making parts available to repair it!

I have the exact issue. When the engine actually runs for 20 seconds the pressure is at 30. Then it slowly starts to creep down until around 15 the engine starves and stalls. Did you check the low pressure pump? Mine is running around 3psi. The spec is 8 +- 4. That is quite a range of 50% each way. I just pulled the fuel cell off and before I start tearing into it I am doing one last search looking for validation.

Did you encounter any epoxy in the heads of the fasteners? It appears I have some. Again just being overly careful. $700 bucks is $700 bucks after all.

Thanks,

Randy

[Brent A.]

What i cam't figure out is why Volvo Penta is not standing behind these pumps due to the paint chipping and causing these problems. you would think there would be a recall.....

Someone on my dock had the same problems with his pump, and the factory replaced the pump free of charge and his boat was not under warranty. Maybe it takes some pressuring with the manufacturer (Volvo Penta)

Their might be something we, the consumer, can do to make this happen??

If I can't get them to replace mine (having same issues as above) under my extended warranty, I won't stop trying with upper management.

Hope it works out for everyone!

[vball]

What i cam't figure out is why Volvo Penta is not standing behind these pumps due to the paint chipping and causing these problems. you would think there would be a recall.....

Someone on my dock had the same problems with his pump, and the factory replaced the pump free of charge and his boat was not under warranty. Maybe it takes some pressuring with the manufacturer (Volvo Penta)

Their might be something we, the consumer, can do to make this happen??

If I can't get them to replace mine (having same issues as above) under my extended warranty, I won't stop trying with upper management.

Hope it works out for everyone!

I'd love to have the number of the Volvo rep that they called. I did as M in Seattle suggested, took the pump apart, blew it out, and it works like a champ. My concern is the recurring clogging and most likely in inconvienient times. But for now, $700 stays in my pocket. One word or warning, make sure to grease the O-rings when reassembling. Sinc these are water cooled, you won't want water in the gas mix if you pinch a ring.

Good luck

[Matt in Seattle]

I have the exact issue. When the engine actually runs for 20 seconds the pressure is at 30. Then it slowly starts to creep down until around 15 the engine starves and stalls. Did you check the low pressure pump? Mine is running around 3psi. The spec is 8 +- 4. That is quite a range of 50% each way. I just pulled the fuel cell off and before I start tearing into it I am doing one last search looking for validation.

Did you encounter any epoxy in the heads of the fasteners? It appears I have some. Again just being overly careful. $700 bucks is $700 bucks after all.

Thanks,

Randy

Randy, 3PSI sounds a little weak. Be sure to run through the entire fuel cell diag process which includes checking the amount of vacum on your fuel supply line. The check valve in your fue tank may be restricted. Also, I run marine fuel additive in EVERY tank of fuel.

[Rss]

What i cam't figure out is why Volvo Penta is not standing behind these pumps due to the paint chipping and causing these problems. you would think there would be a recall.....

Someone on my dock had the same problems with his pump, and the factory replaced the pump free of charge and his boat was not under warranty. Maybe it takes some pressuring with the manufacturer (Volvo Penta)

Their might be something we, the consumer, can do to make this happen??

If I can't get them to replace mine (having same issues as above) under my extended warranty, I won't stop trying with upper management.

Hope it works out for everyone!

Any idea how long that guy had to fight with VP to get it replaced? My engine is 12 years old I bet they would not be so receptive to me.

[Brent A.]

I'll ask him how hard it was for him to get this done.
I think everyone needs to complain to VP, maybe force a recall due the paint chipping. Why would the paint the inside???
I'll keep you updated.
Thanks

[mdahm]

Does anyone know the size of the O rings? I am thinking of tearing my pump down because I have the same problem but because of time constraints I want to have the O rings before I do it.

[Tail_Gunner]

I'll ask him how hard it was for him to get this done.
I think everyone needs to complain to VP, maybe force a recall due the paint chipping. Why would the paint the inside???
I'll keep you updated.
Thanks

High alcohol content. Well i cannot say yep that's it...history is just repeating itself...in the late 70's it was a nightmare of huge preportion's

[mdahm]

removed, wrong thread

[Redpony]

I also had problems with the same fuel cell assembly. I also took mine apart and discovered the same debris that everyone has commented or shown. Sounds like a defect that Volvo should recall as it was a manufacturer defect. How can we raise this awareness to Volvo's management so they can do something? Thanks for posting the pics!

[Rss]

Update: I did the tear down and cleaned out all the paint and debris, there was a lot. Inside the separator is a float assembly. Be very careful of that guy, punch the float and you are $700 poorer instantly. The end result to date is I did get my LP pump back to 8psi but the HP was not holding. Replaced the HP and now everything is in good shape on the muffs. Will go to the lake this week and put it under a load.

Thanks.

Randy

[Matt in Seattle]

6 weeks, 15 trips to the lake and well over 100 gallons later, my rebuilt/cleaned out pump is still working great. My fuel pressure is great with no stalling or hesitation. I wakeboard like crazy so my boat sees plenty of hard/full throttle driving.

Good luck to all my fellow Volvo Penta Fuel P.O.S. Fuel Cell friends.

[Tail_Gunner]

Took a look at my cell..GI pefs class. Same condition paint had become rubbery and could be broken off quite easily

[DayDreamer France]

Hi there,
I am not a specialist, neither technical but I think that the problem with Fuel cell could be the cause of it. I just noted that I lost power (3800 rpm) max while I could reach 4500 last year. Do you think that the fuel pump or LP /HP could be the reason. I don't have any indicator to measure the pressure on the dashboard?
Thanks
Daydreamer France.

[Don S]

I am closing this thread. It's great information on what he found on his pump and what he did about it. But if you have a problem and this thread is not enough help, then it's time to start a new thread of your own with your particular engine and pump setup. Reference this thread as where you got the info if it helps. But this is not the place to ask for help on individual problems.