Well, finally it is settled! The diesel techies, Glenn and James were able to identify the problem and fix it! This morning after three days of "well, maybe it's this or that" Fiu is fixed and ready for action! It was in the end more like a vapor lock! Here's the run-down: my original starter works just fine; when removing the fuel injectors water came streaming out of the supply lines instead of diesel fuel. After several attempts to drain all the water they realized it must be syphoning in from the raw water cooling system. A valve in the vent line was plugged (this happens sometimes) so instead of the pressure being released and the water stopped from building up and entering the engine, it was allowed to enter and since water doesn't compress the engine wouldn't turn over. This would be a symptom of a bad starter motor. They really should have checked it out before ordering a new one. Once the vent line was clear the water completely drained from the engine and diesel fuel replaced the water in the lines. It fired right up and I let the engine run for almost an hour to help dry it out. I thought at one point we would have to be towed, the engine removed and replaced with a new one! That worst case scenario didn't happen. We would have been unable to continue our trip!
The best part of all of this (besides a hard learned lesson) is that the yanmar dealer took back the new starter motor at no cost to me. Second, he only charged 7 1/4 hours of labor for the three days they worked on the engine! It seems to be running fine and they assured me it was good to go! No bent rods or other potential damage from trying to compress water in a diesel engine! We will see. I was very depressed over this whole issue because there was no warning. However, I will check this vent periodically. I could only imagine this happening while anchored out in the SC grasses where a tow would be required! Kind of like your car breaking down in the middle of the Adirondacks on a back road.
Our plan is to stay here until "Sandy" passes by. We will check conditions Sunday morning and if high wind warnings are still in effect then we will leave Monday AM. The staff here Lynn, Miles, Richard and Sherry has been most gracious and flexible. They have new boats coming in each day and yet they still manage to accommodate us with their limited open dock space.
Time to retire!
Captain Sid
1 comment:
Congratulations Fiu! You dodged a mega bullet! So glad you are up and running. I'm wondering if you will leave Monday am? We still have wind over 30mph in Beaufort. We'll hang out here another day or 2. We are also packed in like sardines, not sure how we could get out. We're thinking about you and super relieved all is well! See you down the road. Looking forward to a celebration reunion of vessels & crew! hugs, Tempest
Post a Comment