KenMcCulloch
Well-Known Member
... by what I found when I came to dismantle the engine water intake. There was a nice bronze combined seacock and water strainer with a big flange bolted to a plank, and a grille on the outside. I had it on the list of things to look at this refit, particularly because of my suspicions about the dodgy looking hose tail fitting screwed in the side of the strainer. I was right to be suspicious as it turned out to be one of those soft iron pipefittings.
Unscrewing said crumbly iron thing left some bits of rusty iron in the threaded hole so I decided to see if I could persuade the whole thing to come off to allow better access to said hole to clear out the remains. A slightly tedious quarter of an hour of spannering and the thing came free, to reveal....
.. a 1" hole in the midddle of the plank. No actual skinfitting as we know them, Jim, just an 'ole. The strainer flange was well sealed to the plank and the bolts through from the outside likewise, and most interestingly the timber appears perfectly sound.
From my knowledge of the boat's history a Stuart-Turner petrol engine was installed some time in the 1960s and the water intake looks as though it dates from then. The sides of the hole had been coated in sealant (which had unstuck and been mostly sucked into the bottom of the strainer) and the bolt heads covered by the grate screwed on outside. Does anyone know if this was a usual sort of fitment?
It certainly won't be being replaced; a nice new bronze through hull and various new plumbing will be installed in January once the old bolts are out and the holes well plugged. I'm just a bit worried that with the vastly improved water supply the engine will never actually reach operating temp /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif. The various restrictions in the flow that all this has revealed leaves me wondering how any water at all managed to get through.
Unscrewing said crumbly iron thing left some bits of rusty iron in the threaded hole so I decided to see if I could persuade the whole thing to come off to allow better access to said hole to clear out the remains. A slightly tedious quarter of an hour of spannering and the thing came free, to reveal....
.. a 1" hole in the midddle of the plank. No actual skinfitting as we know them, Jim, just an 'ole. The strainer flange was well sealed to the plank and the bolts through from the outside likewise, and most interestingly the timber appears perfectly sound.
From my knowledge of the boat's history a Stuart-Turner petrol engine was installed some time in the 1960s and the water intake looks as though it dates from then. The sides of the hole had been coated in sealant (which had unstuck and been mostly sucked into the bottom of the strainer) and the bolt heads covered by the grate screwed on outside. Does anyone know if this was a usual sort of fitment?
It certainly won't be being replaced; a nice new bronze through hull and various new plumbing will be installed in January once the old bolts are out and the holes well plugged. I'm just a bit worried that with the vastly improved water supply the engine will never actually reach operating temp /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif. The various restrictions in the flow that all this has revealed leaves me wondering how any water at all managed to get through.
