Bavaria Owners Forum

Member Forums => Bavaria Yacht Help! => Topic started by: SteveB62 on March 26 2026, 01:36

Title: Advice needed on rusty fuel pump and seawater intake valve
Post by: SteveB62 on March 26 2026, 01:36
Hello fellow Bavarians I need your advice/thoughts. I have a 2014 Bavaria 37 Cruiser which is experiencing some rust on the fuel pump bolts and I also have a "green" coloured seawater intake valve (see attached pictures). There have been some oxidisation issues on the starboard and stern engine mounts and the fuel pump itself which I cleaned up using a Dremel.
I recently had the boat out of the water and installed a new hull anode and sail drive anode, noting that the old anode was not worn at all. Perhaps the sail drive anode was not doing anything?
I am also concerned about the amount of rust on the rear (stern) of the sail drive, what are your thoughts on this? (see pictures) Should I just clean it up with the Dremel and monitor the situation?
Title: Re: Advice needed on rusty fuel pump and seawater intake valve
Post by: Yngmar on March 26 2026, 11:59
Rear saildrive mount: That's minimal corrosion. Wire brush it off, apply rust converter and some paint. Absolutely uncritical.

Hose tail on engine seawater intake from saildrive: Not severe, can clean up and monitor or just replace the hosetail, they're cheap enough. Probably it seeped a bit, causing that.

Fuel pump: That's not nice. Looks like seawater got there. Need to be very careful with that and keep your engine clean, especially since on a hot engine corrosion is accelerated. Apart from the heat exchanger, engines are car parts, not boat parts and they cannot handle seawater exposure. I'd carefully clean up the corrosion, probably removing the fuel lines (which means bleeding air out later) and then applying rust converter and paint on the rusty bits.

I'd also be concerned about the clamping ring on the saildrive rusting. Those things are notorious for pooling any seawater spill in the rubber ring, which doesn't harm the rubber but the clamping ring that holds it corrodes. It'll need sorting or replacing when the time to change the diaphragm comes, but until then I'd clean up around it and treat it too.