Rusty engines

[gus]

It is very common to hear the words engine and rust mentioned in the same sentence. From my experience it is quite common to see a boat gleaming on the outside but the engine is a rusty heap in the bilges. Does anyone care about their engine any more? Is it so difficult to spend a little time and effort to de-rust the engine and give it a nice shiny coat of paint as well. It is amazing the first impression you get about a boat if the engine is looking 'as good as new', rather than looking like it is about to expire at any moment. If any work or maintanance is required on the engine it is so much more pleasant if is not covered in rusty crud.
So can I prick your conscience and ask - 'How clean is your engine?' Do you really look after it or do you leave it to chance that it will always work in spite of the rust? When did you even really look at it properly?

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by gus on Sat Sep 8 01:32:58 2001 (server time).</FONT></P>

 

[steve_cronin]

Yep! I'm with you there. Although of course cosmetic sparkle and a quick whizz with the spraycan can hide a lot of neglect at sale time, generally what you say is true.

It amazes me how many sailors go to sea with an air of contempt for the engine. We have to be realistic these days of crowded waters and recognise that the engine apart from being a convenience and a method of maintaining our (in many cases if we are honest) primary means of navigation and calling for help is itself a safety device. It doesn't necessarily have to have a fresh coat of paint but it should look "cared for", with no lumps of rust around the head gasket or rusty screw heads all over theplace.

"High sailors" with their snooty disdain of anything mechanical (they can be recognised as referring to the engine as the "donk" or the "iron tops'l ) are a menace and a danger to themselves. I once got one of these "Morgan of Cowes" blue jacketed, pink trousered gents back into action in Barfleur who's drive belt was as slack as a tart's garters. He admitted that he never went into the "dark recesses where the nasty diesel lurked". With the wind blowing a good 4-5 straight into the harbour he would have been there to this day without assistance. Probably boasts in the bar of some "Royal" yacht club that he never goes near the dreaded donk but usually finds some chap "good with engines and greasy things like that" to get him out of trouble when necessary! These types give the impression of being very good around the cans (although I have my suspicions about that!) and drool over wooden spars & gaff rigged cutters but are they really "Rounded Seamen"? I would never go out of sight of land in something that I did not understand the workings of or knew how to fix - perhaps that's because I came to offshore cruising under sail from an 18ft motor boat that did 27 crossings to the CI's and Brittany, the majority without benefit of VHF.

Doesn't take a few minutes to check the essentials and give the engina a spray with light mineral oil (not silicone such as WD 40 as this dries too quickly in the gheat of an engine bay) 3 in 1 used to market a spray oil which was ideal for the purpose but it seems to have disappeared from the shelves recently.

When we sold Wild Horizon earlier this year the surveyor - the very exacting Mr Jim Pritchard - was amazed and thought it was a new engine. It was in fact 7 years old, had full compression, no blue smoke and a very shiney grey original paint finish.

Steve Cronin

 

[gus]

Well that's now two of us who confess to having a respect for our engines. Does no one else wish to add there name to the list or have I hit a raw nerve of truth?

 

[seahorse]

Yep! I recon u have!
It may be nice to be squeeky cleen throughout the boat but time/mainainence are a problem.
I still think I prefer an engine that works rather than just looks nice.

 

[johndf]

On my previous boat I had a small leak in the stern gland which I didn't get sorted for along time. I also did my own engine maintenance, but didn't always get round to doing it when I should have. The result was a fairly dirty engine with a bit of rust despite it being only four years old. When I finally got the shaft problem (poor engine alignment) sorted out, it turned intoavery expensive job due the labour costs dealing with seized engine mounts.

So I'm totally on Steve's side here. With my new boat I vowed to keep the engine in A1 condition. This morning I was cleaning the bilge underneath the engine, back to its pristine gelcoat whiteness - it'sclean enough to eat your dinner off now. Apart from looking better, if there is a problem such as an oil leak, I'll know straightaway. So, keep at it Steve, I'm right with you.

 

[david_bagshaw]

Add me to your list, I Submit my Engine room pic at

http://homepages.rya-online.net/resolution/resolution/gifs/engineroom2.jpg

It is hard work keeping it clean and even worse repainting the white, but we like it that way

David

David ps Take a look at my site www.yachtman.co.uk

 

[gus]

Very nice, although I was really meaning about something a bit smaller where a half inch paint brush would be appropriate - not a scaled down version of the QE2. I do like it though!. Nice lines. Is it steel, or plastic. I see that a little bit touching up is required centre photo.

 

[david_bagshaw]

All steel !!! and as we know , maintainance at fitting out is never finished, but always with a few small jobs just delayed to the end of the season!!!

David ps Take a look at my site www.yachtman.co.uk

 

[Mirelle]

The Youth of Today.....

My Volvo MD2 is 34 years old and I expect to use it next season too. It still hand starts.

However, I have now discontinued cosmetic maintenance; everyone assures me it is worthless and should be dumped, because spares have become, well, Volvo-esque!

The thing that will finish it is the water pump cover; with so many impeller changes, only two screws are screwing into anything, and a replacement pump body is over £200!

For the first 25 years of its life it had frequent oil changes, fresh water flush and inhibiting oil each winter and the occasional top and bottom overhaul. It has outlived three sucessor models. The replacement will be a throw away car engine.

If you pay attention to the water connections, they don't rust, I find.