Time for a Beer

The over temp alarm had not sounded, so we think we're safe. Checking the hoses is ok. The raw water filter is empty. Grrr. Another problem to troubleshoot. Off comes the raw water impeller cover. The impeller only has half of one blade attached. Several blades are wedged in the impeller housing and exit port. Sigh. The raw water system will need to be disassembled to find all the blades so that they don't block the cooling water flow. We start the disassembly and find a couple of blades in the hose that feeds the heat exchanger and can feel one of the blades in the heat exchanger end cap. The antifreeze is still hot, the engine is hot, so it is time to take a break and let everything cool. It's dinner time, so we break for the night, get cleaned up, and go to 1A1 restaurant for dinner. It is a micro-brewery and a beer is definitely on our list of refreshments.

June 2 starts with the continued disassembly of the heat exchanger, starting with draining the antifreeze into a container. Fortunately, we've been keeping the gallon water jugs and are able to recycle them for diesel and antifreeze catch basins. Cutting them up allows us to make funnels that fit into weird places, such as under the end of the heat exchanger, where the antifreeze comes out. The engine parts diagram shows a potential drain on the side of the engine, but ours doesn't have one.

Make sure all the impeller parts have been found

With the heat exchanger end cap off, we find the remaining impeller fins, checking them on the hub to make sure we've found them all. The heat exchanger core looks ok; no rubber parts wedged in any of the tubes. To make sure, we take a piece of flexible wire and run the length of each tube in the core, which is tedious, but goes reasonably quickly. Everything checks out ok and the heat exchanger is soon reassembled. We had two spare impellers on board as part of our engine spares kit. The impeller is installed and antifreeze poured back into the engine. Success! The engine now runs and pumps water. We think we're getting to the point where there aren't many more things to disassemble and repair on this engine.

By the way, the starboard engine continues to run fine. It is on a separate fuel tank and we keep reminding ourselves that we won't touch it until we have a reliable port engine.

Our new fuel system plumbing design

Now that we've demonstrated that the bulb hand pump pickup runs fine, it is time to devise a revision to the fuel system. Georgiana talks with Anthony, her brother, an ex-USCG Chief Engineer. He says that the plastic core of fuel lines tends to deteriorate over time and may collapse under pumping vacuum, causing fuel starvation. He also told of various sources of paper and towels in the fuel system. We'll let him comment on his experiences. So we decide to create a valve system that allows us to select either of the two pickups using a 3-way valve. We also consider an electric fuel pump to augment the mechanical pump. We've thought about more valves to allow connecting the port engine to the starboard fuel tank or to pump fuel from one tank into the other (going through a filter so that any contamination doesn't migrate). But we've not gone that far yet. If we do that, we'll probably also configure a fuel polishing system using the small electric fuel pump.

We've run out of time today to do any more. We had planned to eat on board tonight, but after all the engine work, bending upside down over the engine and contorting myself into the compartment, I declared that I wanted to go ashore for dinner and a beer. So we walked to Santa Maria restaurant, adjacent to the marina.

To Be Continued...