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PeterDHS

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Everything posted by PeterDHS

  1. We moved home and relocated our 46 foot NB to Sawley. Not moved since Covid. The boat now needs blacking so asking for your recommendations in the Sawley area. Also the strakes (rubbing bars) are separating from the hull in places and will probably need welding down before blacking. Is this a difficult / expensive job ?
  2. Bought 2 metres of self adhesive from Seals Direct, probably cheaper than a tube of Sika. Also bought some 'U' section rubber for around the engine hole (cruiser stern)...amazed how much noise and rattle this has eliminated.
  3. I've been told that it is bad practise to use foam anywhere near cables as it 'eats' the cable insulation and makes it brittle. iId also change that cable for multistrand while you still have access.
  4. Terrific....crisis over....and you did right to flag the Forum instead of going to bed and waking up as another CO2 statistic ! Melodramatic perhaps, but this is how easily it happens. Happy boating Peter.
  5. Yes, sorry' I don't have a baffle on mine....take it out.
  6. That is so wrong......you look to have a 'straight' flue. Get outside and remove the chimney and look down from a safe distance. If you can't see the fire then the flue is blocked. If you don't have a flue brush just put the fire out then use a boat pole to scrape the crud out. Note however that if it is thick crud you risk a chimney fire if it catches so no real alternative but a proper clean asap. I assume you have a chimney and cowl fitted and not left the chimney cap in place ?
  7. Did you check for leaks with the engine running ? Some only weep with vibration. Also double check the PRV and it's run off pipe are functioning properly so eliminating leaks caused by high expansion pressure on the hot fittings. If those are fine my money is still on a shower leak.
  8. Agreed. My simple understanding is that the corrosion inhibitors decay at a faster rate than the antifreeze content. so cheap blue antifreeze might well protect from freezing for upwards of three years but your engine will be rotting from the insides. The inhibitors in pink antifreeze will last five years between changes, when you would probably want to flush the system anyway. As said, changing the AF, flushing and disposing is a pain. Fewer times the better,
  9. Excellent photo....shows exactly what is needed. Hope it has permanently cured the dreaded whine !!.
  10. Most isolators are easy to diy fit BUT most boats do not have clear/logical/safe wiring. We have all done a short-term fix at some time, forgetting the consequences. I would therefore strongly recommend that you get a competant marine sparks to fit it.
  11. PeterDHS

    Tyres

    Top fix depends on whether you have rails or gutters. At the tyre end drill 8 to 10 mm holes once at top and two at bottom 75mm apart. Thread lorry rope down thru top hole, out thru one bottom hole' in thru other bottom hole and knot securely. This ensures that pressure/strain transfers to a wide and protected portion of tread whilst the knot is safely away from chaffes. Mine are still good at over five years, although the rubber (ex go-cart best) is perishing.
  12. Remove the filter. Put a scotchbrite green pad over intake, secured with elastic band. Marine engines do not live in the dust like car or tractor engines and only need a coarse filter to keep leaves out.
  13. Any tips for actually inflating/ measuring the accumulator pressure ? I find it very hit and miss. Awkward location etc and the very process of unscrewing the airline loses 10 psi so you never know the actual pressure.
  14. You should have a label on the calorifier which states the max operating pressure, and you 'should' know your pump cut-out pressure... or can find it easily from a web search. Add a bit to this for heat expansion. Almost invariably the answer is 3 bar.
  15. Alan talks about wearing the oil out, which I think is a bit of a misconception. Oil at 200 hours has (probably) got the same 'lubricity' and does the same job as new oil. What is different is the contaminants that it picks up and recirculates. In a gearbox the contaminants could only be bits of stripped cog through changing forward/reverse without counting to five. In an engine the contaminants could include shards (hence the filters) but also includes by-pass gases, emulsions etc. I've always understood that a sloppy engine passing gases quickly makes the oil acidic and the main reason for oil changes was to prevent internal corrosion. Perhaps someone should come up with a calibrated 'litmus' strip for testing the dipstick !!
  16. or download free software called Cute.pdf. This converts anything you can see as a printable image to a pdf.......including Autocad and other drawing software which tries to exclude recipients who have not coughed up several grand for the privelege.
  17. I had similar probs with my cruiser stern decking. A 'friend of a friend' put me in touch with a guy who 'lines out' flat bed lorries etc. Deal was I gave him dimensions and colour but had to wait while he had stock for other jobs. Delivered machine cut to sizes (I had the gas and front hatches out of the same sheet). Same issues re treating cut edges, needs epoxy then primer (not watery wood primer) then paint. Not been down a season yet so can't say if it will wear ok. But less than a third of the price of hex , looks much the same and non-slip. As with everything if you put the word 'marine' in front and it doubles the price.
  18. I have always avoided waxes etc in the belief (probably wrongly) that they would be a pain to remove prior to re-painting or touching-up. I'm not talking about a 'strip back to bare metal repaint here, just a tidy up and stop the rust job. With apologies for the slight hijack of the subject, what are the issues around removing waxes and glazes ?
  19. And as an afterthought for a second greenie..... Since a charged/fizzy VRLA is under pressure you would have to be a splatter faced numpty to undo the filler cap to see what was happening (might be last thing you did see). Message ends.
  20. Maintainance free wet batteries are called VRLA (valve regulated lead acid ) batteries. When a normal battery fizzes the gas escapes and eventually the lost content has to be replaced with purified water (I'm not up for arguing what is best). A VRLA however has a casing designed to withstand an amount of fizz up until the safety limit of the regulated valve. Under normal use this should very rarely happen and therefore the battery should be maintenance free.
  21. Hang on a moment. I'm pretty sure that good advice says to 'click' the PRV every few months to stop it from sticking and building up crud. Surely this is the same in efect as the valve opening and therefore your saying that most boats on the waterways are sailing about with u/s PRV's ???
  22. Just an update from a grateful OP- I modified the system as discussed, adding a pressure control valve and an expansion tank and everything is now fine. However the first time I ran the engine up to hot the calorifier PRV still weeped water.......so I checked the dial on the PCV and it said 2.2 bar pressure was leaking past a the 3 bar calorifier PRV.....obviously faulty (not gunged up ). So I changed that and now OK. Guess the moral is to check the basic things first rather than find over-engineered solutions to the symptoms. Thanks all, peter.
  23. Not elm if you want it hinged as per the photo.......it twists and warps horribly with changes in moisture content (although a lovely colour). I would try sapele for a reddish effect or tout around the timber yards for some reject oak and haggle. Peter.
  24. Ok. I have done my test albeit under unequal circumstances and the results are...........on the hot tap after a run of 4 hours I collected just short of a litre.....on the cold tap after just an hour moored 'battery charging' I collected 0.7 litres.(both from cold starts). Allowing for the different running times I am fairly confident that I have no NRV, or at least if there was an NRV there would have been a much bigger difference in volumes. I have estimated the calorifier capacity at a bit less than 55 litres and am told that water expands 2 percent over 50 degrees rise in temp so a litre expansion is in the ballpark. Bad news is I have fallen and jiggered my knee so the plumbing alterations are on hold............sod's law ! Peter.
  25. I've been thinking about what the Boilerman said regarding the importance of checking if a NRV is incorporated in the calorifier, or indeed elsewhere. The suggestion was that I disconnect at the tank and see how much water falls out !! My idea is that I simply (starting with a cold engine) open the cold sink tap but with the pump switched off. After the usual dribbles I put a container under the tap and then run the engine up to temp and measure how much water if any is in the container. I would then repeat the process from cold but using the hot tap. This should show whether I have an NRV preventing backflow of hot down the cold pipe and also the water in the container would show the amount of expansion in the system. Yes/No ? Peter
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