Archive for the 'engine' Category
Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008
Roughing it
Ripped out the sole, bought a bunch of crappy lumber from Home Depot to make stringer templates. I think that the Woody template looks good but isn’t exact enough for this sort of work. Looks like I’ll have to make another one with just the bare essentials to get proper alignment. One thing that’s irking me is that I don’t have all of my parts to do this job. I don’t know why I thought I didn’t need to have things like engine mounts or fuel filter to do the install.
While ripping out the sole I noticed a bit of popped glass tape by the mast step and decided to investigate. Off came a thing strip of glass and out came 6 sopping wet pieces of teak that make up the “breast hook” of the mast step (I might have that technically wrong…).
Monday, July 21st, 2008
Meet Woody
If I’m going to do this engine install I’m going to need a better engine mockup than my 10 minute cardboard and tape job. The ideal would to have arms “Ahnald” back in his pumping iron days and just use the 270 lb M4-30 as a template, but this is a rational world we live in (politics non withstanding of course) this just won’t work. So I built Woody as a scale wooden replica of the engine.
Wednesday, July 9th, 2008
To pun a propeller
I was going to title this post “A PROP-er Solution” but I decided not to. But it’s true, I finally found a good solution to my prop size dilema. The problem is a simple one. Hobyn came with an Atomic 4, 30 hp (wishfully) gas engine with a 1:1 transmission driving a tiny 12″ prop. This was fine because the engine ran at high revs so the prop could be small. But, now the A-4 is out and the M4-30 is moving in. Unlike the A-4, the M4-30 is a 24 hp (actual) diesel engine with a 2:1 reduction gear transmission ideally driving a 15″ prop. Ok, so I get bigger prop right? Sure, if I had one of the other “normal” boats, but I don’t, see.
Tuesday, July 8th, 2008
Engine mock up
Ok, it’s not a very good mock up, but after staring at my engine for a while I was suddenly panicked by the thought that maybe my engine was too big! Forget that on paper it is narrower and shorter than almost all of the diesels out there, forget that it weighs in at 60#’s less than the Atomic 4 it’s replacing, forget that it has the same bolting pattern as the Atomic 4. Forget it! This thing looks big when its on an engine stand. So I made this *lovely* cardboard mock up to relative scale (actually I made it a tiny bit over-sized).
Well, it fits, its big but not crazy big. I’m satisfied, the monster is quiet in my brain. That slab next to the box is the floor that was cut up. I’m still debating if I should ditch the current bronze shaft in favor of a Stainless one. Also, sorry about the crappy pictures, my trusty old digital camera died (Canon G3… yeah, ancient), my old phone died over the holiday (it went for a swim in my evidently leaky tent…) so all I have right now short of bringing my D-SLR to the worksite (not happening) is a camera phone on my new cell. Kind of crappy but I’m working on a replacement.
Wednesday, June 18th, 2008
Scratching the itch
With the outside pretty much ready for final fairing, priming, and painting, I decided to do the rest of the truly dirty work. What’s so dirty? Simple, the engine. Why is it dirty? Because the entire cabin sole needs (ok *needs* is a bit strong, its more like a 50/50 split between ‘need’ and ‘want’) to be ripped out proper stringer put in, new engine beds laid, and finally, a new sole that actually lets to get to the bilge. How’s this for bad bilge access, 3 cut outs in various parts of the sole 1 of which is directly over the hull and I can’t even get a hand into…
Right now, when someone walks on the sole, it’s not squishy per say, but it does flex. I don’t know about you, but I like my floors solid. This sole could have easily been stronger, all it needed were some floor beams, but since it was created with pan construction, beams would have been pretty damn hard to put in. So the solution is to take it out.
I’ve been wanting to do this since I got the boat. First day one Hobyn I had tried to clean the bilge but found that no matter how hard I tried, I could only get to about 25% of it. The openings were pretty badly placed and the area by the engine was completely inaccesable. That one little opening on the side is the one that looks right at the hull. I could probably snake a tube down it but that was it.
Wednesday, November 21st, 2007
I’ve got an engine in my basement
I built up the engine stand just before Thanksgiving and took advantage of the broad shoulders of my little brother visiting from college to move it. You never realize just how much something weighs until you need to get it down a flight of steps and through a narrow door. Thanks Andy.
Monday, November 19th, 2007
M4-30 Road trip! (Part 2)
Remember that trip I took to get the boat stands? Well the trip to Virgina was the direct opposite; no moments of severe indecision, no lonely grueling hours through rainy weather, no busted transmissions… you know, the little things.
The trip started off at 10 am with Yinna and I traveling from NY to NJ to pick up my car, pack some snacks and haul butt down the highway. Sadly due to over confidence in both of our abilities to actually get to places on time, the departure time was eventually moved to 11 am. We then spent almost another hour fiddling with the GPS. Final departure time: 12 noon. I really didn’t mind except that we would be traveling over the amazing Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel at night instead of the day. Bummer.
The ride down was entirely uneventful except for watching of increasing fuel prices through the states. It became a fascination of mine to keep track of the prices and compare them to the prices of the next state and ponder as to why the prices differed. The only one that really stumps me is the lack of a price gap between full and self service stations. Not only do self service stations not exist in NJ (*turns off car and sits wondering why no one is coming around to ask what kind and of how much gass I wanted*) but it seems that they make a ton more sense! Pump your own gas and leave, no waiting for the attendant to service the other 5 cars before coming back to you. NJ is weird sometimes.
Wednesday, November 14th, 2007
M4-30 Road trip!
Well, after talking with Duff about his M4-30, I’ve decided that it’s worth the 800 mile trip to Norfolk, Virginia to pick it up. Even better, It just happens that my friend Nikki lives just outside of Norfolk and it’s her birthday! I don’t think I could have planned it better if I tried. Yinna will be coming with me for this trip and we’ll be leaving on Friday. If all goes well (and it will), I’ll have a 24 hp fresh water cooled diesel by next Monday! Yay!
Sunday, November 11th, 2007
Diesel? Diesel!
The hunt for an engine is a thankless, arduous task. Not only is your quarry hard to find, but the methods of tracking it are full of pit falls. These include dishonest sellers, “trade only” sources, and my personal favorite “these things are for yachts and that’s what kind of price we’re going to charge for it”. A used car in decent condition costs 3-5 grand, so why does a used 20 hp diesel engine cost the the same? It really doesn’t make any sense except for supply and demand.
Since I’ve been sick for these past two weeks (yes I know, amazing health luck) I’ve been putting all of my energies toward locating parts that have been eluding me. The engine is at the top of the list (kerosene stove being a close second) so I combed the web, newspapers, and diesel rebuilders for some likely sources. Since my requirement of the entire package (engine, transmission, electrical controls and gauges) was for it to come out to no more than $1000 I had my work cut out for me. After a weeks of trying to go through common sources the best I could come up with was a well used 1972 2qm15 delivered halfway to NJ for $1000. Not exactly something to jump for joy about.