Engine, tropical rain and cockpit floor
Most of my “wooden” neighbours are out of the winter storage: “Kaika” (Jim) is already floating at her mooring, “Staika” still standing at the slip with leaking hull, “Bimsy” (Lars) is already away. In wooden boat part of the shipyard there are only two kosters left: “Meritaten” and “Andrina” (Lennart is finishing installations and will go to water in coming days).
It became spacious with lots of light now! To my delight the temperature decreased a bit but it is still very dry. To protect “Meritaten” from excessive drying out I keep her winter dress on her bottom part. To keep her humid I’ve rigged sprinkler which is wetting the hull and soil underneath.
Anders promised to find time today to lift the engine back into my boat so I focused on preparing everything.
I have assembled renovated engine foundations.
To fit them back into engine room was a tricky business and lots of running back and forth to finally align everything to match screw holes in the hull.
All the screws are replaced with new, bronze screws. I’ve bedded them in Farm100 to seal them from water and as a lubricant for easier driving them into oak.
At last the foundation was in its place. A day before I hanged fuel lines (feed and return lines) and installed exhaust silencer. The engine compartment was hence ready to receive the engine so I went to check with Anders when he could come with the crane.
It turned out that we need to postpone this action till tomorrow. Well, that gave me more time to do some engine maintenance.
As a first job I fixed a leak in sea-water pump. Impeller was also in bad shape so I replaced it. New gasket, renovated cover, new screws - and the job was done.
Next went zinc cathode on cylinder head. As far as I know nobody ever replaced it on this engine so I was curious if there is anything left of it.
It turned out to be in pretty good shape - but covered with some kind of residue which might prove it ineffective. I replaced it together with new cover and the gasket. There was some fiddling with chisel and 220 sand paper to remove the old gasket.
Air filter was next in line. Previous owner used to just vacuum clean it and never changed it. Upon inspection it was a high time to replace it with a new part - which is dirt cheap anyhow.
Oil filter change followed. After last year’s engine failure - and oil release to bilge - there is new oil already since August so I left it in place.
Exhaust elbow is known in these engines to cause problems. I’ve removed it for inspection and indeed found substantial buildup inside. Cleaned - and with a new gasket - it was assembled back onto the engine.
Fuel filter, although the old one looked clean, got also a new insert.
Having all that done I could clean the entire engine and touch-up bare spots with Yanmar-grey enamel paint.
Cockpit structure was the next step. It is easier to assembly it without engine in place.
I’ve bedded all adjacent surfaces with Farm, to inhibit moisture accumulation and decay.
Wood screws were also bedded to prevent leaks.
It took me considerable time to bed all elements and to drive screws without breaking them in this hard oak.
In the end the entire cockpit floor was in place. What was left was to clean out (with kerosene) the excess bedding.
At last the cockpit is closed.
I positioned the hatches to check if they fit -indeed they do!
Screws with rubber seal will hold hatches tight but I have left this job for now. It can be fixed whenever,