Sorry not that Diesel...

After all our community college classes were canceled we finally got some knowledge! Our marina put on a 2 day seminar on Diesel Engines. The first day was at Herrington Harbour South from 9:30 - 4:30. It was all lecture and Q&A and was very informative. Probably the most information ive ever learned in one day. We took good notes and it all seemed to make sense. The seminar was held in their pavilion so we still got to enjoy the nice weather.



The second day was at Herrington Harbour North from 10 - 1 and was all hands on. We visited two mechanic shops and got to play around with actual engines. The first shop (Central Marine) showed us a huge diesel engine and ppl took turns bleeding the fuel lines and I got to change a water impellor. They also showed us the bench of shame which was a bunch of damaged engine parts and how they were caused. We got to look at the inside of the engine with a tiny camera and saw a "Detroit Diesel" engine.

The second shop (Maculy) was even better. When we walked in I got so excited to see our engine sitting right there! Well it was very similar. We have a 3 cylinder Yanmar and on display was a 2 cylinder Yanmar, but it looked almost identical. It was really great to see our engine from every possible view unobsrtucted. And we got to ask tons of questions, "Whats that?" and "How does that work?" were our favorite. We had our notes from the previous days lecture and were able to apply everything we had learned. It all made sense and that big ole engine doesn't look so scary anymore.





Ofcourse as soon as we got back to the boat, I jumped into our engine compartment with a flashlight and our notepad and applied what we had learned to our engine. I was able to identify all the things we learned. The only thing that still stumps me is the electrical part of it. There are soooo many wires running around our engine that its daunting. Maybe we can find an electrical systems class that will be as successful. I found 3 extra blocks of wires (not including the ones behind our AC and DC panel). Some of them had wires connected and some had chopped off wires connected to them, a real mess in there. But I guess thats a project for another day.




I look forward to working on the engine some more now and we will probably service it and take the boat out next weekend!

Nomy is eager to service the engine too!



For Pics of Big Blocks of Steel, CLICK HERE

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