Engines
12 May 2017 | hout bay
steve
And so we come to the 1st meeting of May. All the long weekends are finished, the NSRI boat Andrew has been under pressure with, has launched, so should be all systems go go go.
So 2 days before, I get hold of Andrew to confirm we all good, or if he wants to postpone to try catch up after the weekends etc. His reply sent cold shivers down the spine.....”all good to meet. We need to discuss the motors”......Oh F !!
So meeting day dawns cold and grey. I arrive to a yard that looks decidedly empty without the NSRI boat. And there on the side of our boat is a great big bloody hole. Ok maybe 1m x 1m.
One consolation is that there is no noise from needle chipping.
Andrew explains that it was deemed easier to cut the hole as opposed to trying to ‘patch’ numerous small ones in close proximity. Ok.
Once they have finished welding, welds will be ground done, colour tested and re welded.
Section by section, the exterior would receive a wire brush treatment followed immediately by primer.
As expected, not much has happened over the last few weeks due to the holidays and the NSRI deadline. Because they had focused on getting the NSRI boat into the drink, not much had happened on our boat.
And I was being led thro to the workshop area.......
They had opened up the motors, pulled the big end bearings, and had a little look around inside. It was at this point that they decided a chat was required.
There was some un-even wear on the bearings and crank. On the one engine, there was also some small pitting and scoring on the crank. Altho water was found in one of the pans, neither motor showed water in the oil. The one engine also showed shell rust.
It was obvious that both engines had been worked on altho not by a reputable shop.
Andrew suspects that at some stage previously, the engines were in water hence the internal shell rust. How there was water inside the pans, but no water in the oil......?
In his opinion, the engines were not maintained adequately and so the oil had broken down, or there was not enough oil, hence the bearing damage. It was in his opinion, still worthwhile to look at repairing these engines.
As an aside, his advice is that a good quality oil must be used, and lots of it.
Two options were available to us.
Firstly, to put it all back together and hope for the best. Andrew was not comfortable with this simply because the bearings would eventually fail, creating a bigger problem.
The second option was to strip the engine down, send heads for skim & test, mic the crank; and then decide from there.
Decided to go with the second option.
Starter motors and alternators have been sent for servicing. It is suspected that the starboard starter will require a rebuild.....
It continues !
For images, see ‘Favourites - Engines’