Just 2 more sleeps!
Yesterday was another busy day in the boatyard. What did we accomplish?
- Installed new engine thermostat. Required “fabricating” a special wrench!
- Replaced hose between thermostat and heat exchanger
- Reinstalled newly repaired and cleaned heat exchanger core
- Refilled coolant
- Changed engine oil*
- Changed oil filter
- Checked belts
- Test ran engine for leaks**
- Changed generator oil*
- Changed generator oil filter
- Reinstalled generator heat exchanger
- Cleaned and reinstalled generator coolant overflow bottle
- Test ran generator
We needed to bend this especially thin wrench in order to reinstall the thermostat.
There’s an engineer somewhere who needs a slap!
The hull sanding has now been completed so in an hour or so, the boys will be moving Frost to the spot where she will rest while Rebecca and I are away. That’s right, in 48 hours we’ll be in Panama, getting ready to begin our Panama Canal adventure with Jason and Gail. Can’t wait!
*Made the mistake of purchasing normal engine oil instead of diesel oil, and we didn’t notice until after we had filled the generator, and partially filled the engine. Doh! Apparently, according to our mechanic, you can put diesel oil in a gasoline engine but not the other way around. Oh well, at least we noticed. It’s only money and time, right?
**I didn’t know this but by closing off the seacock and putting a garden hose into the seawater strainer, you can test run the engines while on the hard. Happy to say, we found no leaks!
Looking forward to reading all about your Panama adventure. Hope you both have a great time.
Thanks, Sis! It should be fun.
Working in an office full of engineers, I went around and randomly slapped 3 of them for you. They had nothing to do with your wrench issue, but it was satisfying! Best of luck in your travels.
haha… perfect!
Really looking forward to following your travels through the canal and on to the Galapagos. Both are definitely in our future plans, Much more so than Patagonia- way too cold for my taste!
I can certainly understand that. Most people feel that way too.
Mike,
I am not much of a reader but I thoroughly enjoyed reading, ” The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914Oct 15, 1978
by David McCullough”. Long but extremely interesting. Now I have it on my bucket list to go thru the Panama Canal. Have a great trip.
Bill
Agreed, the more you can read about the history of the canal, the more you will appreciate it. Your trip is one that I have on my bucket list also, and I look forward to vicariously living thru you two for the next few years!
I’ll look for it.
I’d love to go through the Canal, but doubt I’ll ever do so. One more thing that will stay in the bucket! Enjoy, and I’m looking forward to your sharing and pictures! And it sounds as though you got a LOT done, even if you had to do some of it twice! Live and learn. School of experience is not tuition free!
It sure isn’t! Learning from other people’s mistakes helps to keep the costs down though. On that note, I’m betting we have saved some of our readers some money with all the mistakes that I have shared over the years.
Mike – two years ago when in Curacao, I bought a jug of solution called something like “Barnacle Buster” at Budget Marine. The manufacturer proposed to run this stuff through on an annual basis in order to reduce the buildup that results from running sea water through your engine. What you just went through with your heat exchanger core “may” be avoided by using this stuff, or something equivalent on a routine basis. You could pass it through your sea water strainer. Now, I don’t have any personal experience with it yet, but its worth a try. Definitely don’t run muriatic acid through your system though. In my case, our Volvo heat exchanger has a bronze core but an aluminum housing. Why? I don’t know, but I do know that aluminum will fail dramatically and quickly if you cycle muriatic acid through it. At the least, if you’re going to lay up the engine for a few months or more, you can easily push fresh water through it, and that is bound to help.
I’ve heard of people setting up a loop with a pump to cycle that stuff through the heat exchanger. They did something similar on the AC units’ coils on the Leopard too.
Hey Mike,
I wish you the best of luck in your voyage to Panama canal. I heard a lot of pretty exciting things about that place and I’ll be planning my own trip soon. Let me know the ups and downs. I know I’ll be reading about your adventure. Have a safe trip.
Thanks! I’m sure will post the details sooner or later. 🙂