Boat Maintenance for Idiots

San Carlos, Sonora, Mexico

Yesterday we officially moved onto the boat.  Up till then, we were still staying at the nearby Marinaterra hotel - we had prepaid the room on the assumption that the boat would not be back in the water until Monday afternoon.

As it turned out, getting launched on Saturday turned out to be a good decision.  On Monday afternoon, the winds started howling through the marina at a steady 20 to 25 knots - no way I would have been able to maneuver this beast in these tight quarters with that kind of wind.  As a bonus, I was able to accomplish a couple of tasks that were a lot easier without us trying to live on the boat at the same time.  My proudest achievement was being able to equalize the batteries.  For those of you who don't know what I am talking about, here is a quick lesson:

Boat batteries, especially those that operate primarily on solar power (as ours were for the entire summer and while sitting in the work yard for the last 5 months), suffer from a lack of opportunity to get a full charge.  This leads to a gradual loss of battery capacity, leading to premature failure.  To reverse this process, the batteries need to be given a blast of several hours of over-voltage charging to bring back that lost capacity.  This is know as equalization.  Unfortunately our shore-power charger does not support this function.  Our solar charge controller does have this feature, and our newly re-installed solar panels on our spiffy new stainless-steel rails were just begging for a trial run.

Since we were not on the boat and did not have any need to turn on an power-hungry devices such as the fridge, I was able to dedicate our full solar output to the equalization task.  In spite of the wind, we had a clear sky and were able fully equalize the batteries in about 4 hours.

Another plus was getting the dinghy pumped up.  I was able to jury-rig our kayak pump to work with the valves on the dinghy.  Since I am on such a roll, I decided to tackle one of the more important tasks on my to-do list...

A quick and easy oil change

Again, for those of you not familiar with how things work on a boat, here is a typical, routine oil change procedure:

Step 1 - Drain the oil from the engine.

Looks real pretty but doesn't actually do anything.

Slight complication on a full-keel boat such as ours since there is no access to the bottom of the engine.  Instead, we have a convenient hand pump plumbed into the drain plug which normally will allow me to get most of the oil out in as short a time as an hour of brisk pumping.  No today though!  Pump seals must have dried out or something since nothing I could do could get a single drop of oil out of it.  I tried, unsuccessfully, to take the pump apart.  I tried lowering the whole assembly into the bilge in hopes that the oil would run into the pump and prime it - no luck!

Maybe if I start the engine and get the oil a little hotter, it will flow better.  On goes the engine.  As long as I am running the engine, might as well make sure the transmission is OK - put it into forward and reverse - seems fine.  Now Susanne wants to know why there is a dripping sound coming from the engine compartment.  Hmmm!

Notice the pretty black stipes it leaves as it throws water
all over the engine compartment

OK, it appears that the dripless shaft seal is dripping.  I fixed this back before the summer but obviously it is at it again.  So out comes the Allen wrench to loosen the stainless steel slider and a couple of hammers and a crowbar to try and apply a little more compression on the slider while I tighten the Allen screw.  It sort of works - I get another 1/8 of an inch or so of compression - the water is stopped for now.  Wait a minute, what is that obviously broken hose clamp doing there?  Oh yeah, holding the non-moving (carbon) part of the shaft seal attached to the tunnel that the prop shaft runs through.  Not a big problem since it is double-clamped and not leaking as yet - but does need to be replaced.  There probably could be a more awkward place to try and put on a hose clamp but I can't think of one off-hand.  An hour later a new clamp is in place and all is well.

Now, where was I on the oil change procedure?
Oh yeah, step 1, getting the oil out of the engine.

While thinking about how I am going to do that, I decide to replace the engine zinc.  This is little piece of zinc attached to a brass bolt that is screwed into the raw water side of the heat exchanger to prevent the salt water from eating up all of the more important pieces of metal in the raw water system.  All I need to do is grab the right size wrench and back out the brass screw...  After a few attempts I have now nicely stripped the hex nut into a perfectly round piece, and it has not budged - even the vice grips don't seem to affect it.  Soak it in WD40 and come back to it later.  Put everything back together for the night and head for the Marina Cantina, where the draft beer is only 10 pesos (78 cents CDN) per mug.

Step 1A - Continue to drain the oil from the engine:

This morning, when we woke up and wandered out onto the dock, we were met by a beautiful white bird, which I took to be a sign of good luck.  Things have to go better today.

After a coffee and muffin at the coffee shop, I take a trip to the Star Marine chandler.  I find and buy a new oil-draining hand pump.  This pump uses a small hose plunged into the dip stick hole (that is the little hole hiding near the bottom of the engine - that round ring shown in this picture is the handle of the dip stick).  Basically, this pump works, although it seems to pump at a rate of about 5 drops per minute, requiring an immense amount of effort for very little gain.  It doesn't help that it seems to be impossible to keep the hose in the dip stick hole actually immersed in the oil.  Susanne is not happy with the drips and smears of oil I am leaving everywhere.  Still, after only about 4 hours of pumping, I had as much oil as I was apparently going to get - less than 4 liters of the 6 liter capacity - not great but better than nothing.

One of the nice things about spending so much time in the engine compartment is that you have a chance to look around.  That's odd - why is there a hole in that engine mount?  OMG, there is supposed to be bolt in that hole!  I swear I check these mounts every day when I check the oil, ever since our near disaster with broken engine mounts back in BC a couple of years ago.  How is it possible for the bolt to have come completely undone without me noticing?  And where is it?

Before

After

After no more than another hour of groping around under the engine with various sticks and such, I managed to find the bolt, lock washer, regular washer and the nut.  All appear to be completely normal and look like new - it just came undone.  A fairly simple matter to put the bolt back in and tighten it.  Checked the other bolts while I was at it.  2 of the other 3 bolts were loose on the front mounts.  The rear mounts were fine.  No harm done as far as I can tell.

And just like that, the draining of the engine is done!

Stop 2 - Replace oil filter:

Actually pretty simple.  This engine has a basic spin-on filter and, once you find it, it is pretty easy to take off and replace.  Of course, you have to do it by feel as you can't actually see it from above.  Note: Wrap everything in an oil absorbent rag to prevent an ecological disaster.

Oops, almost forgot about the engine zinc.  Try again with the vice grips - they work this time (thank you WD40).  Replaced with new zinc from the chandler.

Step 3 - Refill engine oil:

Again, pretty straight forward.  Things are going smoothly now.

Tested everything by running the engine for a while and checking the oil level.  Looks good!

Checked the dinghy.  The bottom does not appear to be holding air - so much for that repair!  Welcome to the wonderful world of boating.

{GMST}27|56.8825|N|111|03.3573|W|San Carlos, Sonora, Mexico|San Carlos,Sonora, Mexico{GEND}