Time to get caught up again. Last time, we had let our mechanic go and were starting fresh with a new one. He showed up promptly at 0810 after clocking in at the main office and in he went. At our urging, we had him strip out everything that the last mechanic had put in. If something fails later, we want only one guy to blame. So in he went and out came the fly wheel, rods, pistons etc. We were back down to the bare block by the time he left at 1700. Wednesday, he showed up and started testing the connector rods that go to the pistons. Strangely, they wouldn't turn when he stuck a wrench to the back of the crankshaft. It ends up that the last mechanic didn't install them right and the new set of bearing are now ruined and we needed to order in another new set. So with that on the list we had him take the cylinder head that the last mechanic had rebuilt to check out the valves and the head itself. When he returned on Thursday morning, he told us there was valve grinding residue in with the valves. Not where you want left overs like that. Plus, the exhaust ports on it were still covered in carbon from the exhaust when the engine last ran. He hadn't cleaned them out! Heaven only knows what would have happened when we turned the key to start her. Probably nothing or worse.
As we went to bed Wednesday night, I set the alarm for 0100 Thursday morning so I could get on line and order in another set of bearings. It took about 45 minutes to get it all taken care of but the order was placed. Instead of waiting for the USPS to get them here(normally two weeks), we opted for Fed Ex and a bill of $135 to get them here faster. Given that I called them on Thursday our time which translates to early Wednesday morning their time, they went out that day. It's now Saturday and the parts are sitting in Guam and should be here Monday with luck. So if they arrive, we will start back in on the engine on Tuesday and see how far we get. There's lots to do to get us up and running. We even have to install new engine mounts as the last ones were shot.
Meanwhile, we have continued on with other small projects. We just glued some handles back on our dinghy. Polished the stainless steel around the boat and picked up 12 more boxes from the Post Office. To say we are crammed to the gills would be an understatement.
So again, stay tuned for more fun and games aboard SV Zephyr.