This is a blog featuring my personal stories of food, gardening, yachting, photography, travel and life.

Thursday, January 31, 2019

Generator Working, BIG Engine Project Almost Done

It has been an unexpectedly expensive off season so far. The Honda generator went into the shop and came out ready to go for another season. Both engines are receiving expensive makeovers with some of their cooling parts.

Project #1--The Honda generator went into the shop as described in the previous entry. Hardware Sales turned it around quickly and it is home in the garage ready to go. I purchased a gallon of that expensive synthetic fuel to run through it in the off season.

What was the generator's problem? The same one that seems to afflict all small engines. The tiny injector that sends fuel to the cylinder (as I understand it) gets gummed up with impurities in the fuel and makes it difficult or impossible to start. My Honda 2 hp outboard has this same issue from time to time. I switched to better fuel but the problem remains. So, Hardware Sales says to drain the gas out of the device and run some of the synthetic fuel through the lines. It is a more stable fuel during long down times. So, hopefully, problem solved.

Project #2--As described previously, my twin Hino diesels turned out to be in need of some repairs and replacement parts.

My mechanic asked me if my manicoolers and exhaust risers had ever been inspected? I had to admit that as far as I knew, they never had. He suggested he open them up and take a look. I readily agreed. When he opened up the risers he discovered they were so corroded that the intakes were in seriously bad shape. He declared them DOA so we began looking into where and how to go about replacing them.

New ones were just not to be had which meant having new ones fabricated. Yikes! That's gonna cost ya'! We found a firm down in Texas, formerly from Tacoma, that knew exactly what we needed and they agreed to make them. I'd heard ceramic coating them would also add to their lifetime so I had that done, too. Once the finished new stainless steel risers were built, they were shipped to a firm in Auburn, Washington to receive their coating of ceramic. They arrived  on my doorstep a couple of weeks ago ready to install.

However, my mechanic also found the manicoolers to be in questionable condition and recommended they be boiled out and pressure tested. That was done by Whatcom Radiator. The test came back that they had some leakage that needed to be repaired. They explained that if they were not repaired the engines would probably suffer a catastrophic failure within the coming year. Double Yikes! Yes, please fix it!

Those repairs were made and a couple of days ago, they called to say they were ready. About $400 was much better news than the tens of thousands I would have paid had I ignored my mechanic's advice.

So, this weekend, my mechanic will dive into the engine room and put things back together. Approximately $4, 000 later my cooling system will be like new. I am told I should see increased speed as a result and engines running at cooler temps. This I look forward to.

In the meantime, several other, more cosmetic projects will haveto be postponed until next season since so much had to unexpectedly be spent on the engine project. So, no new furniture for the flybridge this summer. My water and waste system monitors will have to wait too. Oh, well!