Monday, June 22, 2009
The Saga of the Conner J
In April we bought a wonderful 1974 36' Trojan Tri Cabin motor yacht. My friend Ray negotiated the purchase and sea trialed the boat towards the end of April. We took possession of the boat on April 28, and spent the first weekend emptying cupboards, lockers, drawers and closets of 5 years of stuff that accumulates when someone lives aboard a boat. It just happened that we both noticed that there was a dribble of water from the front of the boat, upon further investigation we found out that the forward automatic bilge pump had been incorrectly replaced with the wrong pump so there was a large restriction in the output hose. I fixed it.
On May 16 we took the Conner J from the Holland River Marina, on the (surprisingly) Holland river, which flows into Cook's Bay on the south end of Lake Simcoe to the Beaverton Yacht Club on the eastern side of Lake , a very enjoyable 4 hour cruise in light winds, hence flat seas. On the way over I noted that the starboard engine was emitting an excessive amount of steam. Ray did not seem overly concerned, his comment being that white smoke is good. We parked by the fuel dock for the next couple of weeks while Tom prepared our berth. Meanwhile, I asked questions and got a sense that white smoke,steam, is an indication of insufficient water flow. Don Cordingly gave me the best advice, compare the temperature of the exhaust manifolds by putting my hand on each of the four in turn, the result was I found both the starboard manifolds were significantly warmer than the port ones. I then decided to change the impellers in the water pump, a relatively easy job on the starboard engine because the pump is on the inboard front side of the engine and easily accessed. Don Cordingly told me where to get the impellers, Northland Marine (Bob) a very nice man on the south side of Keswick, but when I went the first time, he didn't tell me and I didn't check that the 2 impellers in each pump were not the same size, so I had to make a second trip to , but the operation was successful, we had a good flow of water from the exhaust ports at the waterline on the back of the boat.
So why not change the ones on the port engine, after all if one had failed on the starboard side it possibly could have failed or be very close to failure on the port side. This was not so easy. Because the engines are identical, what is inboard on one engine is outboard on the other, so this pump is wedged between the engine and the hull. I had to cut the water intake hoses and the hose from the pump to the thermostat housing on the engine in order to get he pump off. Once I made the decision to cut them off, the job became much easier, these hoses have probably been there for 30 plus years and because they are reinforced with steel wire when clamped they are very hard to remove from their respective nozzles which had rusted ridges at the end of them. This meant another trip to Northland Marince to get the "special reinforced marine" hoses.again I end up not checking thoroughly so I had to make a fourth trip because there were three different hose sizes not the two that I suspected, in the cooling maze setup, but once again after a period of time I was successful. This time however, because the boat lists slightly to the port side the exhaust discharge is just below the water and so you can not see the water flowing freely as I could from the starboard side, but the gauges and feeling the exhaust manifolds by hand in the respective engine compartments confirmed that both pumps were working as designed.
Now I thought the next thing I should do is change the oil in the engine, transmission and v-drive on both sides. I drove to Hamilton and picked up a recommended oil extraction system. I have changed oil in boats for many years and this was by far the easiest and cleanest system I have ever used. Well worth the drive.I started with the starboard engine, sucked out 7 litres of dirty dirty oil, changed the filter and refilled with 8 Litres of Penazoil 10w30, which I was lucky enough to pick up in sale at Canadian Tire. I then sucked out 2 litres of discoloured automatic transmission fluid from the transmission and replaced it with fresh automatic transmission fluid that I picked up from Carquest in Beaverton, this just left the V-drive, which only gave up a half litre brown oil. I replaced that with some 50 weight oil that I found underneath the V berth. I heard differing opinions as to what should be in the v-drive, the manual calls for 30 weight engine oil but Russ suggested that I use 80 or 90 weight gear oil, he claims that the v-drive will run a lot quieter, seems to make sense but since I found this litre of oil; destiny seemed to be telling me to compromise. With that completed I go up to the bridge, start the starboard engine and everything works as it is supposed to do, we have oil pressure immediately, so buoyed with the success of this operation I replace the boards on the top of the starboard engine compartment, which form the mattress boards for the rear starboard bunk.
I then transfer all my tools, lift the boards off the port engine and suck out the dirty oil from the port engine, again a very easy operation, I take off the filter, fill a new one with fresh Penzoil and reinstall it. I decide to change the transmission at the same time. Once these two tasks were completed I rush up to the bridge and start the port engine, instantly I am aware of not a flicker in the oil pressure gauge, so I shut the engine down, go and check the dipstick to confirm that I have put the right amount of oil in the engine and make sure that the filter is properly screwed on, and check to make sure that the wire from the oil pressure sending unit is properly connected. Everything seems right so I go and ask Dave if he has a manual pressure gauge. He says Russ does but it is at home and he will bring it from home the following morning.
I am at the Beaverton Marina bright and early the next morning and Russ comes over to the boat which is still at the fuel dock so is easily accessible, takes out the oil pressure sending unit and replaces it with his large manual gauge.
On May 16 we took the Conner J from the Holland River Marina, on the (surprisingly) Holland river, which flows into Cook's Bay on the south end of Lake Simcoe to the Beaverton Yacht Club on the eastern side of Lake , a very enjoyable 4 hour cruise in light winds, hence flat seas. On the way over I noted that the starboard engine was emitting an excessive amount of steam. Ray did not seem overly concerned, his comment being that white smoke is good. We parked by the fuel dock for the next couple of weeks while Tom prepared our berth. Meanwhile, I asked questions and got a sense that white smoke,steam, is an indication of insufficient water flow. Don Cordingly gave me the best advice, compare the temperature of the exhaust manifolds by putting my hand on each of the four in turn, the result was I found both the starboard manifolds were significantly warmer than the port ones. I then decided to change the impellers in the water pump, a relatively easy job on the starboard engine because the pump is on the inboard front side of the engine and easily accessed. Don Cordingly told me where to get the impellers, Northland Marine (Bob) a very nice man on the south side of Keswick, but when I went the first time, he didn't tell me and I didn't check that the 2 impellers in each pump were not the same size, so I had to make a second trip to , but the operation was successful, we had a good flow of water from the exhaust ports at the waterline on the back of the boat.
So why not change the ones on the port engine, after all if one had failed on the starboard side it possibly could have failed or be very close to failure on the port side. This was not so easy. Because the engines are identical, what is inboard on one engine is outboard on the other, so this pump is wedged between the engine and the hull. I had to cut the water intake hoses and the hose from the pump to the thermostat housing on the engine in order to get he pump off. Once I made the decision to cut them off, the job became much easier, these hoses have probably been there for 30 plus years and because they are reinforced with steel wire when clamped they are very hard to remove from their respective nozzles which had rusted ridges at the end of them. This meant another trip to Northland Marince to get the "special reinforced marine" hoses.again I end up not checking thoroughly so I had to make a fourth trip because there were three different hose sizes not the two that I suspected, in the cooling maze setup, but once again after a period of time I was successful. This time however, because the boat lists slightly to the port side the exhaust discharge is just below the water and so you can not see the water flowing freely as I could from the starboard side, but the gauges and feeling the exhaust manifolds by hand in the respective engine compartments confirmed that both pumps were working as designed.
Now I thought the next thing I should do is change the oil in the engine, transmission and v-drive on both sides. I drove to Hamilton and picked up a recommended oil extraction system. I have changed oil in boats for many years and this was by far the easiest and cleanest system I have ever used. Well worth the drive.I started with the starboard engine, sucked out 7 litres of dirty dirty oil, changed the filter and refilled with 8 Litres of Penazoil 10w30, which I was lucky enough to pick up in sale at Canadian Tire. I then sucked out 2 litres of discoloured automatic transmission fluid from the transmission and replaced it with fresh automatic transmission fluid that I picked up from Carquest in Beaverton, this just left the V-drive, which only gave up a half litre brown oil. I replaced that with some 50 weight oil that I found underneath the V berth. I heard differing opinions as to what should be in the v-drive, the manual calls for 30 weight engine oil but Russ suggested that I use 80 or 90 weight gear oil, he claims that the v-drive will run a lot quieter, seems to make sense but since I found this litre of oil; destiny seemed to be telling me to compromise. With that completed I go up to the bridge, start the starboard engine and everything works as it is supposed to do, we have oil pressure immediately, so buoyed with the success of this operation I replace the boards on the top of the starboard engine compartment, which form the mattress boards for the rear starboard bunk.
I then transfer all my tools, lift the boards off the port engine and suck out the dirty oil from the port engine, again a very easy operation, I take off the filter, fill a new one with fresh Penzoil and reinstall it. I decide to change the transmission at the same time. Once these two tasks were completed I rush up to the bridge and start the port engine, instantly I am aware of not a flicker in the oil pressure gauge, so I shut the engine down, go and check the dipstick to confirm that I have put the right amount of oil in the engine and make sure that the filter is properly screwed on, and check to make sure that the wire from the oil pressure sending unit is properly connected. Everything seems right so I go and ask Dave if he has a manual pressure gauge. He says Russ does but it is at home and he will bring it from home the following morning.
I am at the Beaverton Marina bright and early the next morning and Russ comes over to the boat which is still at the fuel dock so is easily accessible, takes out the oil pressure sending unit and replaces it with his large manual gauge.
He then connects a remote starting switch to two terminals of the solenoid, and then a jumper wire from the positive terminal on an electrical panel on the engine to the positive on the coil. He starts the motor but alas no oil pressure. The motor only runs for a few seconds and then he removed the jumper wire, the motor stops and then he ponders for a moment. He tells me that based on what he heard one of the hydraulic lifters failed and that I should take off the valve covers to see which one it is. A moderately easy job.
I do, he comes back, jiggles the lifters and tells me yes this is the problem, until he cranks the motor and finds that the previously very loose lifter is now tight, and another is loose. I get the feeling that he is loosing confidence in the failed hydraulic lifter theory and is thinking it has to be the oil pump. He then removes then distributor thinking that he can turn the oil pump manually with a screwdriver. No luck. (I found out later that this is possible but you have to take out the gear that turns the oil pump and distributor and is connected to the cam shaft) He says I will have to lift the motor so that we can get enough clearance between the keel of the boat and then engine to take the oil pan off the bottom of the engine and replace the oil pump, a daunting task. My thoughts are that prior to doing this I might as well get some new valve cover gaskets and put the valve covers back on before I start to lose those bolts. I get new gaskets form CarQuest in Beaverton , $45 not cheap, and replace them, one job finished so before I start on the bigger job I take a break.
Thank God for small mercies, Ray has kept on and on about the friend of his good friend Bill Bennett that is the Canadian authority on Trojan boats, and has got hold of some guy in some small town on Ontario that supplies parts for Chrysler engines. he tells me to call him, reluctantly I do and he tells me it is very rare for an oil pump to fail but if it does it is easy to change as it is on the side of the engine, and he can get one if we really need one. Suddenly the job is not so daunting, I tell Russ, and his response is yes that is right, the 383 Chrysler block has an external oil pump. He comes over to the boat and we take the pump off, he tells me that he will phone for parts. He does, but all these things take time, eventually he tells me that he has located a replacement pump, I should call them directly and pay for it, saving myself a fee that Beaverton Marina would charge. I do, It gets delivered, but in the mean time I take a much needed weeks vacation on San Francisco.
I come back, refreshed, and arrange to have Russ put the new oil pump on. He does, we start the boat and instantly we have oil pressure. Now I have met a number of people who all had differing opinions of the problem and hence the solution, but again suffice it to say that I was now very happy with the result. Russ lets the engine run for a minute or so and then realizes that he has only hand tightened the pressure couplings to the oil cooler, so once again removes the jumper wire. The boat has now moved to our slip for the summer which is on the island, on the other side of the channel that leads from the Beaver Harbour, a federal government port, into the marina. It is quite a hike around to the maintenance shop, and even with the golf carts that Tom has to transport men and equipment it takes TIME. Well Russ needed a special wrench to tighten the fittings, and this time he can't tell me exactly where to find it so he has to go. He is easily distracted. Anyway he does eventually come back, tightens the fittings, goes to attach the jumper wire and there is an almighty spark that makes even me jump. Perplexed, he activates the remote starter. Touches the jumper wire again and this time just the normal little spark. The engine starts and we are both very happy. This time he removes the jumper wire, I attempt to start the engine from the bridge. Nothing!!!! He futzes around, I take the cover off in the back of the kitchen cupboards, he peeks in ponders and then tells me that he really doesn't know what can be wrong. He comes up into the bridge, and notices an ignition reset switch, presses it and bingo the engine starts. This is great we gather his tools and he disappears in a dust cloud from his golf cart. I ruminate about whether I should wait for lunch that Tom has invited me to share with him or whether I should go over to Thorah Island. I have been waiting months, for just his scenario; warm, sunny and calm winds. The dinghy is on the davits and the 2HP outboard is on board and finally running (another tribulation) so I crank up both the motors, warm them up, back out of the slip and over to the island I go. I anchor about 200 feet offshore and lower the dinghy, put on the motor and go over and have a very pleasant afternoon with Heinz and George. The engines start for the trip back home, everything goes smoothly. I even emailed Ray a picture of the boat at anchor, it looked magnificent. I dock back at the Beaverton Marina with the unnecessary assistance of our neighbours, but their thoughts were in the right place, as long as they don't think I am going to drop everything and run to assist them when they try to dock. It was a good day, except for one thing, the tachometer did not work on that engine. A problem for tomorrow.
I eagerly go down to the boat the next day to trouble shoot. The blower operates and sounds normal, but when I turn on the ignition switch, it slows down abnormally and when I engage the starter the ignition circuit breaker opens again. Hmmmm, I wait a few minutes, reset and then notice that when I turn on the ignition switch, the ammeter shows a draw of over 30 amps. Definitely not normal.
This is beyond my present knowledge base so I start to ask questions of "experts", opinions ranging from the condenser, the coil, a short in the tachometer, a short in the ignition s wiring harness. Since the problem first identified itself with the use of the jumper wire, which bypasses the ignition switch, I rule out the ignition switch. the wiring harness problem and a short in the tachometer. The cheapest fix is to replace the points and condenser, so off I go to Port Bolster. At Harding Auto Supply, Greg agrees that the points did need changing, but is convinced that the problem is a short in the tachometer. Once again there are as many ideas of the point gap setting as people I spoke to; I set the gap to the recommended setting in the engine manual that came with the boat. It started instantly, oh what a great feeling when something works. Not being able to leave well enogh alone I decide to time the engine, because Russ had the distributor out when he was troubleshooting the oil pump and I have enough knowledge to know that any time you change the points you should re time the engine. I was able to pick up a cheap timing light at Princess Auto in Newmarket but when I hooked it up the timing line on the crankis no where to be seen. The manual calls for the engine to be timed to fire the #1 spark plug when the crankshaft is at a 5 degree angle before the piston is at its highest point. I think to myself that the starboard engine is running just fine so why not check to see what it is timed at. To my surprise, I find that it is timed to 15 degress before top dead centre, but it works so I decide to time the port engine to the same setting. Bingo the engine still runs, but while I am rotating the distributor I notice that the resisitor on the top of the coil occasionally sparks. Back to Harding Autoparts. This was the easiest repair and after changing it the tachometer miraculously starts to work. Finally everything seems to be working, and I can envision the futon's in place, and if I really allow myself some future thoughts I iamgine myself actually sleeping there while the boat rocks gently.
Now that everything is working I decide to go for a little cruise into the lake and back. With both engines warmed up, I cast off, back into the centre of the harbour, put the port engine in forward and poof, it quits. It won't restart, so I limp forward on one engine back to the safety of our slip. I decide to increase the idle speed of the engine, let it run for a few minutes and try again. This time I make past the entrance to the harbour, inbto the Beaver River before it quits, but I decide to proceed out into the relative safety of the large lake on one engine figuring that was a more prudent move than trying to turn around in the narrow river on one engine. Once in the Lake I try changing the timing and eventually get the motor to run. I can't wait to get back into the slip and at this point am starting to doubt my technical abilities. Everything I seem to touch seems to go wrong. I do get back in with only one unscheduled port engine shutdown. All I want now is the peace and tranquility of 462 Simcoe st, and a beer.
While I was going out into the lake, even though my concentation is focused on the port engine I notice that the starboard engine collant temperature is at 200 and is still rising. Well isn't this just great, I am going to be in the lake with an engine that won't stay running and the other that I can either shutdown or wait for it to seize because of over heating. It does however peak and come back down to the normal temperature 160F,
Ray has the very good idea that we could simply run the port engine in reverse in the slip and then see if it quits. For some reason he starts both engines, something I am not averse to, I love the sound of marine engines, somehow the way the exhaust is ported always makes them seem very powerful. While we are sitting there enjoying a beer I notice that once again the starboard engine is at 200 degrees Fahrenheit and rising, but as happened in the mouth of the Beaverton Harbour, it seems to peak and then quickly returns to the normal temperture, 160. When I was younger, and being a tinkerer, I used to change thermostats in my car twice a year, a warmer one for the cold Alberta winters and a cooler one for the summers, so I self diagnosed that the thermostat was malfunctioning. The thermostat housing comes off very easily, but the thermostat is nothing that I am used to. Dave tells me that it is proprietry and that he will have to track one down and then get it couriered to the Marina, something that will take time, but not to worry I really don't need a thermostat, not an unreasonable suggestion, afterall we only boat in the summer. I hussle off back to the boat, happy in the knowledge that this little problem will be instantly cured and we can still boat on Canada Day. Again I was steered down the wrong path, when I put the thermostat housing back on the boat minus the thermostat and start the motor the temperature just keeps going up, past 200, past 210. At this point I chicken out and shut the engine down convinced that the newly installed impeller had disintegrated like the one I had just replaced. What other reason could there be, possibly we had sucked some weeds into the water pickup port, but that doesn't explain the engine repeatedly warming up to 200 and then without any intervention cooling back down to the n0rmal operating temperature. Thank goodness the water pump is very accessible, but to my complete surprise when I open it up both impellers are like new. Once again I am flumoxxed. So back to the drawing board.
On Canada Day it is raining so we are not that disappointed to not be able to go out on the lake, and actually the best place to watch the splendid Beaverton Fireworks was the on the boat in the slip. Something is just not right, there is no way the boat should overheat without a thermostat, UNLESS I have had the luck I am having so far, the bits from the original impeller have lodged themselves somewhere in the cooling system and are blocking the normal flow of coolant. I pay a visit to Kevin at Holt Garage on Holt Ontario to try and understand the plumbing involved in the cooling system, and after extensive conversation I come to the conclusion that this thermostat doesn't just restrict flow through the engine to aid in warm up, but once the engine is warm it extends and changes the direction of the water flow. The engine can not run without a thermostat.
Because it is going to take at least a week to get new thermostats, I decide to clean the old one, thinking that corrosion or a build up of deposits from the lake water may have prevented the thermostat functioning. Russ agreed with me, and so I clean it off with a wire brush and reinstall everything, start the engine up. This time it still gets hot but it does cool back down, the same problem, so I guess I will have to wait and see if a new thermostat fixes the problem.
On a very positive note, Russ has me start both engines, listens, ponders and smells the exhaust and then decides that the port engine, the one that stalls, is running too rich, he tinkers while I start and stop the engine on his command a number of times and then finally he pronounces it fixed, so perhaps we have solved the mystery of why it quits.
Sunday July 5 is another beautiful power boating day so Ray and I decide to try and go out into Lake Simcoe. We start both engines wait for them to overheat before they cool to their normal operating temperature and off we went on a flawless voyage, Hopefully the new thermostats will be here this week and we will be sleeping on the two bunks on top of the engines this weekend.
Next task is to change the oil in the Onan generator set, but that will have to wait for a later blog.
// posted by jhb @ 3:09 PM 
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