March 12, 2005

Cracking the Engines

We began dewinterizing the boat today. Based on an April launch date and an estimated 2-3 weeks to bring all the systems back online, we decided to begin with the dewinterizing despite the cold weather. It has been in the 30's and 40's for the last couple of weeks – still no warm weather in site. But, if you wait for the warm weather, you'll be out of the water for a couple of weeks while you work on the boat.

The focus for this weekend was to get the engines back online. The genset was the first order of business. After doing a thorough inspection of the engine, the coolant system, the battery, oil, and fuel, I decided to crank it up. My first task was to get the fuel back in the lines and to get the oil distributed in the heads. Both of them tend to settle during storage and can play havoc when trying to start, if not damage. After cycling the engine for awhile without permitting it to start, we were able to circulate the oil and fuel. Then we proceeded to let it start – and it started on the first try. Okay, that was a good sign.

The next order of business was the main diesels. I had to remove all of the packing in the vents, remove the covers on the bilge blowers, check the batteries, check the fuel lines, and ensure all the valves were open. Once again, I cycled the engines without allowing it to start to circulate the oil and fuel. Both engines were cycled and rechecked for leaks. After getting thumbs up, I fired up the port engine – started on the first crank. There was a little bit of smoke but not much. The engine tune-up and oil/fuel filter changes accomplished last December were paying off. I ran the engines for about 5 minutes and then shut it down for a system check. I rechecked the engine for leaks or other visible problems – nothing noted.

I went through the same drill on the starboard engine. No problems noted other than a bit more smoke. We did put a stabilizer in the tanks during winterization and added some more today. The fuel bowls were showing clean fuel – much better than last year. We probably accumulated some algae last year which required treatment and a thorough cleaning of the fuel filter system. Both engines were brought back online and allowed to run for about 15 minutes. After clearing the pink stuff out the exhaust, the discharge was clear and a solid flow. The engines were rechecked for leaks and vibrations – nothing noted.

Next weekend, we plan to dewinterize the A/C units and start our safety checks.

Posted by Jerry on March 12, 2005 03:48 PM

February 05, 2005

New Bridge Canvas

Today was beautiful. It was 60 degrees, blue skies, and a gentle breeze. It was boating weather. It was almost tempting to de-winterize and to take the boat out. Hmmm. Not just yet, that March snow storm still looms around the corner. Still, it was a nice day to install the new canvas for the bridge.

We went down to the boat today and tried to install the new canvas on the bridge. It was suppose to be a simple install – once you had all the tools in place. It was just a matter of locating the key snaps and working from there. We spent several hours collecting the right tools and then headed over to the boat. After removing the temporary tarp, we proceeded to install the new canvas. Hey, this was going to be simple, right? Not so fast.

The new canvas came with a bag of snaps – about a 1,000 of them, give or take a few. I tried to install the first snap – crack goes the snap tool. So, I grab the other snap tool, the one that looks like a pair of pliers. Snap! Maybe I squeezed too hard or something, but I don’t think tools like this should break in your hands. So, I grabbed the snap adapter kit that you use with Vise-Grips. Guess what? That one falls apart too. It must been the cold weather or something. So, we took a trip down to the local marina and picked up another snap toolset – actually we bought two of them.

Once we got back to the boat, everything fell into place. There were no problems and the whole installation took less than an hour. It’s all about the right tools. I must admit the new bridge canvas looks sharp. Just in time to unwrap the boat for this year’s boating season. It is just around the corner.

Posted by Jerry on February 5, 2005 05:45 PM

December 05, 2004

Diesel Winterization Continues

I went down to the boat today to continue winterizing the engines. At least, it started that way. The fuel and oil filters that I ordered last week did show up on Friday. My intention was to do an oil change on the genset and both diesels. I also wanted to finish up the heads and A/C units.

The first thing I did was to bring the diesels online to warm them up, charge the batteries, and to circulate the oil. I also started the genset and brought it under load to give it a workout. During this time, I pulled up all of the flooring in the salon to give full access to the engines. After about 15 minutes, I began bringing the engines off-line to allow for some cool down. During the cool down period, I decided to get the final pump out for the season. We had winterized the forward head a couple of weeks ago. We just had to finish the aft head. We have the luxury of doing a pump out in our slip. The hose is long enough to go from the gas dock to our slip. After getting a good evacuation and a couple of rinse cycles, we sealed off the head, added about 4 gallons of 50/50 solution and secured the power. Both holding tanks have about 5 gallons of 50/50 solution and should suffice throughout the winter.

Also during this time, Kimberly had prepared six gallons of 50/50 solution for the air conditioning units. My intent was to pull the single feed line from the seacock and feed the solution from this point. Yeah, fat chance. After loosening the hose clamps and moving them out of the way, I tried to remove the hose - it wasn't moving. It's not that it was stuck - it's just geometry and leverage. Carver engineers decided to put the A/C seacock right under the starboard engine with about four inches of clearance above the hose. The seacock is also set back about eight inches and is directly underneath the forward port engine mount. Due to the engine mount and various lines and hoses, it is near impossible to reach the seacock from the centerline or top. You can only get your hand (not hands) on it from underneath the front of the engine. The first length of tubing is about 12 inches long with two bends in it going from the seacock to the intake of the sea strainer. There isn't enough give in the hose to twist or lift up off the nipple on the seacock. Okay, on to Plan B.

I decided to replace the hose clamps and made sure the other three sets were secure. I did try briefly to remove the second line of hose aft of the sea strainer, but it is much shorter and definitely not going anywhere. I decided to attack the problem from the sea strainer. I pulled the strainer and did a complete evacuation of the strainer and the intake hose. Then I positioned the six gallons of 50/50 solution and proceeded to cycle each of the three units one by one. On the 444, there is one intake for all three units and one discharge port. I had Kimberly watch the discharge port and call on the walkie-talkie when the discharge was running pink. As each unit came online, I kept the sea strainer full of 50/50 solution - not an easy feat. This particular setup will gulp down a gallon of solution in about 30 seconds. After feeding six gallons through the system, we prepared two addition gallons to ensure the system was topped off. We cycled the units again and fed the two gallons through.

By now, it was starting to get late and I decided to forgo the genset and just concentrate on the diesels. I connected the hand pump and proceeding to pump out the oil through the dipstick. I thought it would be easy enough - nope. After pumping for about two minutes, I hadn't even gained a drop of oil. After playing with various hose combinations and set-ups, I decided that I needed to consult the manuals and see if there were any suggestions. Yep - Cummins suggests that you drain the oil through either the front or rear drain plugs. Hmmm...does anybody at Cummins own a boat? The front and rear drain plugs are less than eight inches from the hull and certainly not in reach or accessible. If the diesels were up on stands, it would be a no brainer. However, when they are mounted, it just is not going to work. After about hour of messing with this, I decided to call it quits and do some more research. I'm thinking that I might need a better pump and try using the dipstick like a big straw. Wait, didn't I try that in the beginning? Oh well, I will attack it on another day. Heck, we've got several more weeks before the first snow.

At least I winterized the ice maker without problems.

Posted by Jerry on December 5, 2004 08:34 PM