Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you ...
02 November 2011 | Auckland, New Zealand
Steve
At 23 years old its time she had a little bit of attention. Poor old Polly Perkins (a.k.a. the big blue beast that lives under the stairs) is our auxiliary engine .... our insurance policy, our means of motive power when the glorious gods of the four winds can't be arsed getting out of bed. She's also a principal component in the generation of our daily electricity needs.
The survey conducted at the time of purchase identified at least one mushy engine mount. If one has gone bad, they're probably all a bit suspect and probably are original fitment. Time for replacement. To get to the engine mounts, all sorts of other bits need to be pulled off the engine and while we're doing that we might as well clean them up, service them, replace the bits that need replacing and give her a real birthday.
As is often the case, it's turned into more of a major than we first thought. The cooling system needed a good clean out with calcium deposits in the seawater side of things and sludge in the freshwater coolant system. The heat exchanger has been dismantled, cleaned, reassembled and tested. The fuel injector pump was rebuilt and the injectors cleaned and serviced and the lift pump replaced. The starter motor required replacement after it was dismantled and found to be very close to total failure. And the actual replacement of the engine mounts has proven to be a bitch of a job with the old ones stubbornly refusing to retire with diginity and allow some interlopers to take their place.
Sigh .... it's been a long, expensive and frustrating birthday party for Polly, but we're starting to see some progress. She should be much happier after all this has been sorted.