Size Does Matter!
When I had all those engine problems, I talked with Doug, the marina owner, about what size outboard to get to push me around. He suggested a 15 HP. Well, Steve N. had the outboard I’d sold him when I bought the boat and wasn’t using it, so he offered to let me use it until he was able to sell it, or until I got the inboard fixed, whichever came first. The outboard was a 9.9 HP Mercury Big Foot, a 4-stroke engine. It was what came off the boat, so of course it should be able to push it through the water.
And it did. When it was running. 🙁
Problem is, Steve hadn’t done anything with it since he bought it from me a couple years ago. Mind you, we did start it, with little trouble, in his back yard. Wanted to do that before hauling it all the way out and finding it didn’t work. Problem is, it wouldn’t stay running. And each time you tried, it would be harder to start.
So I changed out the spark plugs and the fuel filter. And, because the fuel line was falling apart as I tried to remove it from the filter, I replaced that, too. It still had problems. Which meant, I know, and had confirmed by others with much more wisdom than I, that the carburetor was going to need cleaning yet.
Ever see a diagram of a carburetor? It’s pretty scary! All those parts! I was paranoid that I’d get it apart and have a pieces left over when I tried putting it back together. So that I am leaving to Brent, the mechanic at the marina.
But I digress….
The engine would at least start. So I emailed the crew and told them we’d be participating in tonight’s race. As usual, I checked the weather and tides before heading out. The tides would be coming in, with high tide about the time we finished up. There was a small craft advisory, and the winds at the nearby buoys were showing winds in excess of 20 MPH. But hey, I’ve braved a gale. This would be something I could handle.
Right.
If I could only get the boat out of the marina and into the river!
I had some newbies on the boat tonight: one gal whose first time on a sailboat was the previous week when we just puttered around, since there was no wind and I didn’t want to come in after dark with a newbie, and two gals who this week was their first time on a sailboat.
Well, we had the usual problems getting the engine starting, but it would at least run. Problem is, that poor little thing couldn’t push the boat out of the marina. We steered one way; it moved the way the wind was blowing. We’d make a little progress, but not enough to even make it to the channel. We spent about 15 minutes trying to maneuver her out of the marina area and just couldn’t do it. And those poor newbies were helping us not hit the docks too hard, or hit the other boats parked at the end of the docks!
At that point, I decided we’d skip the race and just try to get back to the slip. No go. We couldn’t get that far: 200 yards maybe?
<sigh!>
We finally pulled over at the end of the pier and tied up. I went to Doug’s house, since I didn’t remember his cell number, and let him know where we were. I wanted to make sure that no one else was going to be expecting to tie up there. And tomorrow morning I’ll try again to start the engine so I can get moved back into my slip. Then Brent can get it fixed, which will at least let us get the thing started, if not moved out to the river, until the inboard is repaired.
(Un) Cranky Engine
Those of you who have been following these posts for awhile know that I had problems with the engine not starting last winter. Well this year I tried to avoid that problem by trying to turn it over every week or two. But it wouldn’t turn over.
Let me back up a bit, because there’s more to this story that I’ve not had time to share will you.
Back in November, during the last race of the year, the engine died on us on the way out of the marina. So along with getting stuck in the channel, I had a dead engine to contend with. The tank still had plenty in it, but I added the gallon I keep around for emergencies anyway. Now the engine worked fine, which made me suspect that the fuel was dirty. So I asked at the marina about having the tank cleaned out. I was told it would run about $300. Better to just try changing the filters first. So they did that. And their diesel expert, who changed the filters, suggested getting the tank cleaned out. No duh!
So the tank was cleaned.
But, if you’ve also kept an eye on the Mid-Atlantic weather, you’ve seen that we’re having quite a cold winter this year. And, when the mechanics were through, I still couldn’t start the engine.
Because it has been so cold, as per Nelson’s suggestion last winter, I’ve kept a light bulb on the engine to keep it from getting too cold. Apparently, though, that didn’t make it warm enough to get it started. Brent, the diesel mechanic, suggested I might want to get something to warm the engine and see if the thing just doesn’t like cold weather.
I have a sister who lives in New Hampshire. She told me years ago about dipstick heaters that they use in the winter up there. But when I tried to find one online, the ones I found either were oil pan heaters (which I was told weren’t the best to use on this engine) and dipstick heaters that didn’t warm the engine enough that it would be able to start.
Oh well!
Oh, the marina did try using a block heater. But apparently there isn’t enough flat surface on my engine to stick the thing on.
So, I talked to my engine guru, Dan. He suggested something that would warm the antifreeze instead. So I’m purchasing one of these:
It’s a Kim Hotstart coolant heater. I’ll let you know how it goes!
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Back in Business
I’m running again! Hooray! A big thanks to Doug Truston of Wormley Creek Marina. Nelson, the mechanic in his employ, pulled off the valve cover and found the rings stuck. Their guess is that it got so cold that the ring shrank, then got stuck. So they sprayed a lubricant on them. That freed them up and the engine was operational again. While they were at it, they checked the injectors which, they said, were in good shape.
I was talking to Earnie a couple of days ago and told him about what was going on. He asked if I’d had the engine fogged. Apparently, there’s something you can spray in the engine when you have it winterized that puts a thick lubricant inside and prevents just this type of problem. The other suggestion, from Doug, was that I might want to get a block warmer to put on the engine next year. I’ll have to check both those out when it gets cold again.
[Top]Nova
When one does business, it helps to learn one’s market. When one does business internationally, there are problems if one doesn’t understand the language or the culture of the foreign country in which one wants to sell a product. There’s just such a story about Chevrolet, who learned that they couldn’t sell a car called Nova within Spanish-speaking countries. Why? Because no va, in Spanish, is doesn’t go. Not exactly the best name for a car, right?
Well, I digress. It’s just I think of that story when I ponder the situation I find myself in.
My boat won’t move. Well, if I had wind, and pushed it out of the slip, it might. But, as it is now, it can’t be propelled.
The engine isn’t working. And it happened all of a sudden. Looking back at this blog, you can see that the last trip I took out was my solo adventure in October. At that time, the engine was working perfectly. But I went out to the boat about mid-January, on one of those rare sorta-warm days, when my children happened to be in town. And it wouldn’t start. It tried to turn over, but never caught.
So I had the mechanic at the marina take a look. He couldn’t get it to start either. The marina owner said he’d have a look. But, after about 3 weeks, he never got the opportunity, so I asked the guy who’d originally inspected the engine to take a look. Well, by misting it with oil, he got to start, but he said it made an awful racket when it did. He said the engine was dead. He said that he could turn the ?? (don’t remember what) and there was no resistance. He said that meant that there was not compression.
I called and talked to him. Told him that didn’t make any sense, since it had run perfectly the last time. So he said he’d take another look. His thoughts:
As we discussed, m opinion of why your engine is not starting is that there is insufficient compression to support diesel combustion. This condition is readily apparent when the engine is “barred’ through several revolutions at the flywheel and there is, virtually, no “push back” of the pistons as they roll through each compression stroke. I realize that the engine was starting without apparent problems before you laid the yacht up for winter. The contributing causes to lack of compression may be that the piston rings have retracted or seized into their lands (grooves) and are not sealing against the cylinder walls. I have seen this condition before when moisture has found its way into the engine and allowed light rust to “stick” the piston rings in place. From lookng at the engine, it’s also clear that a major overheating event occurred in the recent past. This may have also caused the piston rings to lose their temper or “spring” and contributed to this condition.
More than likely, since the engine has been sitting without starting for some months, any oil that served to seal the piston rings to the cylinder walls in the past has drained into the crakcase, again with associated loss of compression.
As we discussed, my prognosis for this engine is not promising. I suggest that you confirm my diagnosis with actual compression testing of each cylinder with a diesel compression gauge. Any diesel mechanic should be abe to do this for you. Removing the glow plugs and putting some oil into the cylinders via the glow plug holes may fee the rings if they are, in fact, mildly seized in their grooves. Oil may also seal the pistons against the cylinders to the point of improving comprssion to a level that will support diesel ignition. If this is the case, you may find that the engine will start with some reliability if done so every few days such that oil remains “captured” along the cylinder walls and piston rings. I had a Perkins like this that ran on for years but if we let it sit for longer than about a week without starting we would have to open the injectors and squire a few drops of oil into the cylinders.
My hope is that the rings in your engine are, simply mildly stuck in their grooves and that oil and rotation will free them. Of course, I could have complete misdiagnosed this situation and I’ll be happy to learn if this is the case when a mechanic can report back with actual compression reading on each cylinder. The should be about 390 PSI per cylinder.
So, I relayed my conversation to the marina owner. His response:
Before you spend any money on the engine let me think about other causes. I have never heard of all rings “STICKING” at the same time and I was hoping it was an air problem. If it started after misting the cylinders it should start with diesel. Some times the engine will allow cooling water to enter the cylinders through an exhaust valve during engine shutdown so removing the injectors and soaking the cylinders may be the best option now.
And, when lamenting my situation to Dan, he talked with his dad, who knows a thing or two about diesel engines, he, too, thought it presumptive to say the engine was dead. His ideas:
It seems very unlikely that all the rings would stick at once. And I’m not sure that would cause this problem. Now, if all the valves were stuck open, that would make more sense as that would cause a complete lack of compression. But that seems unlikely as well.
Later:
Hey, I talked to my dad and he agrees that it is most likely stuck valves. It should be pretty easy to check by pulling the valve cover and turning the engine over to see if they aren’t coming up all the way.
Dan offered to help me pull off the valve cover to take a look and see what was going on. And that would, I’m sure, save me a bit of money. My concern is that I’d have an engine apart that I really didn’t know how to repair, not that I don’t think I could figure it out. But, between school and work, I wouldn’t have time to do it.
So, for now, I’ll let the folks at the marina see if they can figure it out. They said the first thing they’d do is check the injectors. We’ll see what happens.
Worse comes to worse, I’ll get an outboard again and use that until I can get the engine fixed or 🙁 replaced.
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