We are Heading South

[WillieC]

Yes, great blog. I tried leaving a comment but it said, "Awaiting Moderation". I hardly used ANY cusswords and have never been a member of Congress so I don't know why I would be rejected! HA!
Fair winds, surf's up, good vibrations...All that and be safe, Ray.

Just checked out the SPOT thang. Don't EVEN tell the Starfleet Commander such a program exists! I could end up in big trouble!

[WillieC]

If I were doing the ditch, Biloxi would be high on the list. Good to hear from Beta Don.

[kerrye]

Just checked out the SPOT thang. Don't EVEN tell the Starfleet Commander such a program exists! I could end up in big trouble!

While the tracking feature of a SPOT is very cool, the most important feature of the SPOT as far as I am concerned is the SOS button. Press it and a signal is sent to Search and Rescue who will come to save you. Device is about $100. Yearly subscription is $150. I keep mine with me when hiking, canoeing and boating. I first bought it about 5 yrs ago when I was about to set out on a 10 day early season rafting trip in the most remote portion of the lower 48 on the Green River. I looked at the average age of the participants and figured a heart attack or other medical emergency was not improbable. With no cell signal, a SPOT which uses satellites could bring help if something went south. The device will also notify a pre-determined phone number and e-mail that you are ok. I'm actually surprised that more of my friends don't use one.

[kerrye]

I second the idea of a trip to the Dry Tortugas. We took the high speed ferry out there. Impressive place. Make sure you have plenty of water and a very good anchor as protection from the winds is almost non-existent in the anchorage.

[stxray]

No Key West for me , at least not this time.
Numerous issues have caused me to abandon my plans. See my blog athttp://www.doingtheditch.xyz/ for details.

[kerrye]

Well, that's not good news. Probably a wise move to cut things short. Did it show hot on the temperature gauge? A non-contact thermometer is good in these circumstances since you can get direct readings on different parts of the block and you can determine if one cylinder is running hotter than another. I'd suspect some kind of blockage in the cooling system reducing water flow so that it can't handle the higher temperatures of higher rpm's. Could be as simple as an old or broken impeller though. My experience has been that water tends to flow to the forward bilge when underway. I have a bilge pump with a float switch in my forward bilge but it's useless because the bilge is narrow and pump cocks sideways into the bilge and the float switch wont work when its on that angle.

[WillieC]

Glad you know when to fold 'em. So sorry to hear.
A couple years back, as we were making improvements to the WillieC, we contemplated making a longer run around the canal to Tacoma for a friend's 50th anniversary. The suspect component was the engine with almost 6000 hours on the meter, who knows the accuracy of that. The PO said the comfortable range was 1500-1600. The Handbook says WOT is 2600, I think. Then I started reading about how one needs to run these engines if you ever expect them to last. Clean that carbon out! Even read about "Italian Tune-ups", maybe here on the AOG.

In the safety of our close waters I started running the engine up. 2000, maybe 2200. It ran fine, but you could smell it wasn't used to such exercise. Which, in my dotage, I understand only too well. Fairly quickly we learned there was a reason for running it at 1500, and for short stretches at that. We were the perfect suckers to buy that boat. Oil started weeping out under the cylinder jackets at the crankcase joint and coolant kept mysteriously disappearing. All this is old information for those of you who have kindly followed my posts. I knew she couldn't handle it so we had to fix the engine.

All this to say, again, Ray I am sorry for the altered plans, but you live to tell about it. And now with further resolve and emptier pockets. In some ways I wish the spare "good " engine hadn't come with the WillieC. And I am cheap. A brand new Beta sure sounds good. Do keep us posted.

[Sunsetrider]

Eager to follow the next installment! As for fuel issues, I had a free-floating baffle in the tank. But it doesn't sound like you have the same problem. I would love to follow your trail in the fall of 2018. As for your blog, for those of us who haven't really travelled in our 25s yet, any and all info, including such headings as: meals and cooking; entertainment; navigation gadgets and apps; anchoring/docking along the way; food storage and provisioning along the way; how to handle weather events; safety, tools, kitchen equipment . . . anything! LOL

[DesertAlbin736]

Oh, that's a shame. Sorry to hear that. But better to find out now while in sheltered waters relatively close to home than needing to declare a Mayday while on an "outside" segment of the ICW halfway down the coast. Maybe time to think about a repower project? Strongly recommend considering an AquaDrive or equivalent CV joint/thrust bearing in conjunction with repowering with Beta/Kubota or Yanmar engine. Yes it's $$$$$$$, but worth the peace of mind on the kind of trip you're considering. As for vibration, seems to be the norm with Volvos. Either that or it comes with the territory with direct coupling to the engine and solid mounts. Sunsetrider's MD17C vibrated noticeably more than our Yanmar 3GM30F/AquaDrive setup. With ours running at 2,200 RPM there's virtually no vibration and not much more noise than riding in a car, easy to hold conversation at normal voice levels.

[kerrye]

How many hours are on your Volvo? I doubt the problem is anything serious, just a routine boating diesel issue most likely. My motto is Shit Happens but Shit Happens More on Boats. It's part of the adventure.

[dkirsop]

Sounds to me like your piston rings are carbon clogged preventing oil from lubricating the cylinder walls. Enough oil gets through to keep things cool at low RPMs but once you speed up things get hot fast and the piston eventually seizes. It's going to be a tear down to check the rings and cylinder bore. Also, if you do take the engine apart, check the connecting rods to make sure they are still straight. Your problems are similar to those a friend of mine had with his Albin. He did not catch it in time and now has a new Beta engine. The fact you could limp into port is a good indication that your problem may not be catastrophic.

[kerrye]

There are decarbonizing products on the market if that turns out to be the problem. Some people use water. I’d use a non contact thermometer to compare temperatures between pistons

[WillieC]

Ah, I see you limped it back to safe harbor after a cooldown. I presumed the gunny sack. Stuck rings, one of the engines I tore apart definitely had that issue. If there is a simple chemical fix for that, (who mentioned water injection?) that would be heavenly. I spent untold hours at my own private Starbucks last winter scraping carbon out of the ring glands. Then, like a fool, I got out a jeweler's loupe and spent untold more hours.

Varying cylinder temperatures, the old 3B definitely had that issue. An old diesel mechanic mentioned that was not uncommon in his VP experiences, hotter to cooler front to back or vice versa, I forget. When I tore down the spare, spare engine to assess feasibilty, the water jackets were pretty uniformly clogged with rust and scale and the sleeves (on the 17C) were thoroughly coated with rust. Not much heat transfer going on there. I soaked and cleaned and scraped and wire brushed till it all shined then watched the first batch of antifreeze turn brown. Then I drained the whole thing and ran a load of dishwashing mixture through to get all the loose crap I couldn't and now the coolant is pristine (ish). An infrared gun would be helpful, but my fingers work pretty good still. When they're hot, they're hot...

Ray, I forget if you are using a heat exchanger. Originally, they were all raw water cooled so how well they were cleaned upon conversion is anybody's guess. There are methods to run descaler through the water jacket, better described elsewhere. The 3B cylinders are not sleeves, but are cast with the water jacket, making them difficult to clean as I described above. Live better with chemicals.

Looks like an interesting winter ahead for you. dkirsop mentioned checking the rods, something I didn't do, but this engine had not seized like yours. Cylinders can be over-bored, but replacement pistons are around $500 a pop if they are still available. I have all my receipts and the jury is still out, even though we had a flawless engine summer, even running one day 15 hours straight. Nary a hiccup, from the engine, that is.

The 3B is still mostly intact. Let me know if you need parts. It is out of the weather, covered, not too many rodents nests yet. Hour meter showed 5600 and I know compression is low, being able to spin easily by hand. Still ran like a champ, if you don't mind a little antifreeze in the oil. Decisions, decisions. Took me a couple years to make up my mind.