New Member: Mike

[Mike]

Strainer was clear and checked the impeller while we were floating. Mech says the wrong size ball was installed in the seacock. He states finding the source of an overheating engine is "trial and error" - which sounds $$EXPENSIVE$$ Also says he has no record of maintenance to the cooling system. Should there be with only 310 hours?

[RicM]

I'm no expert but..... I was told to change the impellor every year whether it needs it or not. 310 hours on a 12 year old boat? That boat sat a LOT. First thing I would check is obstruction in the salt water side of the cooling system. Marine growth, and scaling could be restricting the amount of salt water and the efficiency of the heat transfer. All boats run better if run often. Allowing stuff to grow in the heat exchanger or water passages can restrict heat transfer enough that it will run fine at the dock and for a short ride but when you go out and open it up for a long run the heat will build up, death to a diesel. There are chemical solutions for cleaning the gunk out. thats a relatively cheap and easy fix. If it helps in any measurable way that would lead you in that direction. Next would be a look at the heat exchanger. I don't know if the Pennisular had zincs in the heat exchanger, but they often do not get changed apparently in many boats. A boat with so little hours and no recorded maintainence has probably not been maintained as it should. Albins (and most boats) are better when run often.

[Mike]

Thanks for the help. When we get it figured out - I'll post it. Can't wait to get her up and running so we can use her.

[RicM]

With my previous boat (Proline251 Walk) I had several vexing problems that were difficult to pinpoint. One that haunted me for a whole season was the boat ran fine around the bay, trips of less than 2 hours. Going out to Block Island and back it would start to stall on the trip back, just die. You could then restart and it would run fine for 10 minutes and stop again, just like someone turned off the key. The interval would get shorter as I got closer to home, until it would only run at half throttle for 2 minutes and stall, but then restart & run.This often happened at bad moments, like in front of the Block Island Ferry.
Drove me and the boatyard nuts! Finally after many "fixes" talked them into pulling the takeup out of the fuel tank. Eureka! Instead of the screened cage that should have been on the end of the takeup (which they must have run out of that day), someone at the factory had taken a piece of screen, wrapped it over their finger and shoved it up into the takeup tube! On a long run enough debris would get sucked up into the hose and trapped by the screen then the boat would be starved for fuel and die. When restarting the fuel pump would refill the fuel injection system and the boat woul run fine until you drained the excess and it would stall again. When the boat sat at the dock the crap would dislodge and fall back into the tank. I won't tell you how much I spent on parts and labor for the other "fixes".
The moral of this story is...make a list of everything it could possibly be. Get and estimate for every possibility, and start with the cheapest, easiest one and work through the list. It's more often than not the cheapest thing that was hard for the previous owner to do.

[chiefrcd]

Disconnect the discharge side of your raw water cooling system....put a 5 gal. bucket to catch the flow and start the engine....have the mechanic watch to see how much water is actually coming out. This will give you a good idea if you have restricted flow. My Albin need to have the heat exchangers removed and cleaned out after just 6 years. I would imagine that my oil cooler and transmission cooler both will need the same work done soon. Lastly, temp. sensors are notorious for going bad. You might want to check that out too. As far as expense, I must be the unlucky one here, but I've never ever had a single repair made that was not very expensive....Not a single one.

[DougSea]

...As far as expense, I must be the unlucky one here, but I've never ever had a single repair made that was not very expensive....Not a single one.

Hey Chief,

You just need to define "expensive". Was it less than the cost of a whole new boat??

[Mariner]

I find that repairs are significantly less expensive when you make them yourself.

[Mike]

Wish I could bring her up to do repairs. She is about 115 miles, or a 3 1/2 hour trip down south to Irvington, Va. I am told that the gasket at the top of the fuel tank is crushed which is causing fuel to spill into the bilge and once this is fixed I'll be "in tall cotton" which I think is good thing. I am going to address these issues with the broker that sold us the boat. We never left the inlet before the troubles started and she's been in the shop for three weeks. When I called to ask the progress last week - they just asked for my credit card number - not a good sign....hopefully, I'll be an owner before the rendevous. Lesson learned: when you sea trial a boat - run it like you stole it!

[Mike]

Finally got to bring Time Out in on Thursday. Trip was mechanically uneventful and the boat is running well. The 115 miles from Cater Creek to Lake Ogleton took 61/2 hours at and average speed of 17.5 knots at 3000 rpm's and used 36.5 gallons of fuel. RicM was right when he said that the boat sat A LOT - won't be a problem from here on out! Here is the repair list:
Defective gasket on sea strainer
replaced seacock with 1 1/2"
replace water pump
clean and replace heat exchange
repair aft bilge pump (which stayed on due to defective switch)

Spent 2 great days on the water and one cleaning her up, organizing , and going over everything with a fine tooth comb - finding small irritating things the surveyor should have (cabin light out, port nav light not working - both repaired) Will be in Solomons now for sure.

[RicM]

Congratulations, we had very similar numbers on our transport from Stamford CT to Wickford RI. We did 3200RPM for 18-19 knots, 123 NM in about 7 hours. Along with about another 10 hours of fishing we burned 92 Gal for an average 5.11 Gal/hour.

So what was the final diagnosis? Some kind of restriction in the salt water flow?

[Mike]

Looks like a bad pumpas the number 1 cause