by'eck

By far the greater factors in disturbing a moored boat are depth of water its moored in and width of canal, allied to how well its moored. All this talk of engine idle speeds and passing on tickover needs to be tempered by these more relevant factors. Just observing your wake on the canals bank will give a good indication, and may be much greater with engine at idle than at normal crusing speed on many occasions.

Lister FR3

Well it certainly held septic contents at some time or other, but they are generally known as holding or waste tanks on boats. Septic tank is a more commonly used term for household waste storage in areas where mains drainage is not locally available.

I agree that delaying engine warm up is far from ideal. It must be considered though that wherever you plumb a calorifier, it will add to the heat soak. By far the best automated method is to employ a twin thermostat system as mentioned at the end of this post, and as shown/described below. Many larger marine engines employ such including the whole Barrus Shire range now.

In this particular case just choose a day when it hasn't rained for a while. The current increases considerably as levels rise but quickly drop when the Mill owner opens the sluices on the bypass weir by Frouds Bridge marina, just downstream of Woolhampton. If not in a hurry tie up downstream of swing bridge and enjoy a few pints and maybe a meal in the adjacent Rowbarge pub. Thus will give you time to suss out your tactics. Suggest before moving you prepare the adjacent lock. Have someone then open the electrically operated swing bridge and power through. As you approach lock mouth turn bow into the stream coming from your left. Once bow has entered lock mouth, probably at a fair angle, you can push tiller the other way to line up boat for lock entry. If all goes wrong the permanently moored boat to right of lock mouth is well fendered If singe handing, choose a quiet time to least inconvenience motorists while swing bridge remains open.

Paul needs to check he has the higher temp thermostat fitted. If needed a suitable generic one of correct size shouldn't be too difficult to source. The lower temp one will likely be fitted to engines with direct salt water cooling as in seagoing boat. Too higher temp here can cause salt to crystallise in the water passages, blocking them.

Yes David's flow diagram is correct. The transmission cooler fits between skin tank outlet and pump inlet which also has the calorifier return T'd into it. The pump then pushes coolish water into the bottom of the engine block and hot water comes out at the top via cylinder heads, and into thermostat. What is not obvious in your diagram but shown in the top picture are the two connections to the thermostat housing, with the main stat outlet going to the skin tank inlet and the bypass immediately before thermostat, feeding the calorifier. Without the bypass water flow would be completely blocked whilst thermostat remained closed!

As suggested the common and sensible way to plumb in calorifier is to hook it into the thermostat bypass circuit. That way the water starts being heated as soon as engine starts. As well as heating delays in plumbing it into main circuit, there may be overheating issues with restrictions due to narrower bore pipework through calorifier. On this point, you will likely save having to use pipe reducers by doing it properly. The only downside of plumbing in a calorifier is the longer engine warm up period before thermostat opens. A manual changeover valve can optionally be added in the bypass circuit or even a second lower temp thermostat. Indeed many upmarket engine installations include dual thermostats for this very reason.

If the floor is rusted, pouring paint down the sides will, at best, just dry to a finish that isn't bonded and will simply trap water causing it to linger and likely accelerate the rusting. You will have to find a way to remove the tank and be free to treat the area properly by removing all loose rust, applying an inhibitor, applying suitable undercoat's (Primocon, Red oxide) followed by top coat's, Hammerite etc.

Surface proximity is just one of several reasons for this effect surely. Propshaft angle, proximity of hull to prop, size of prop, inequal forces on rudder due to helical wash etc. all contribute. Note that the effect is most noticeable in reverse as little prop wash over rudder, allowing less opportunity to correct. Also that narrow boats having a relatively shallow propshaft angle are less likely to exhibit the effect. Trying to explain the propshaft angle effect, consider the plane of rotation of the prop v motion through water. This means that the downgoing blade effectively travels further on a right hand prop whilst spinning in a forward direction. This creates more thrust on that side and moves the centre of it to starboard rather than being in line with the boat, so the stern moves to starboard, bow to port. Easily compensated by the rudder to the point you might not even be aware, but far more obvious in reverse. Note also that prop hand and direction of travel each reverse the effect. On my last boat a sailing yacht with left hand prop, the very handy kick of stern to starboard with a blast of reverse, allowed perfect alignment with dock after approaching obliquely. If you haven't seen it check out Captain Ron film clip earlier in this thread.

Whilst size of propellor and assymetric thrust due to proximity of surface/hull/canal bank explain prop walk on a canal boat, particularly in reverse where it cannot be so easily corrected by the rudder, I understand the greater propshaft angle contributes to this effect on sail or power boats. A righthand prop developing more thrust from the up going (starboard side) blade whilst in reverse and so yawing the stern to port. It may also explain why yachts with saildrives offer less propwalk. Expanding from this it seems submarines could exhibit propwalk at depth whilst an angle of attack existed between direction of travel and thrust line during diving/surfacing.

Cross-section of JP2M below which shows where water jackets are. Seem to remember draining down around 7-8 litres from my JP2M engine when working on thermostat, but that included header tank contents .

It can be used to great advantage as Captain Ron demonstrates

I had similar issue with hot air Webasto on a previous boat. Employing KISS rationale I just ran heavier gauge power cables to replace the equivalent ones in the loom - so much easier than the unnecessary complications of having a separate battery.

I would replace if they are broken otherwise not worry unless you have specific cause. They are not a regular service item, to this end no specific mention is made of them in the workshop manual. For sticking valves it just mentions cleaning valve stems and guides for example. I suppose if you were contemplating a complete engine overhaul including new valves, guides etc. they might be worth replacing.

The engine in my boat has run without an air filter for 80 years. My wild guess is that you will be ok for a day or two

As a student apprentice with the (as was) CEGB, part of our training (cheap labour) was working at our local power station, in this case Hull. We rotated around various shops including the instrument one. I remember taking apart all manner of gauges although mainly temperature and pressure. Typical overhaul included stripping down after removing glass and pointer (using similar extractor as linked above) , cleaning parts in solvent, maybe re-painting dial before re-assembly, testing and calibrating on a rig.

Sounds like as your battery capacity has dropped to a small fraction of original and they will need replacing. In current state they will be quick to charge to a relatively high voltage as you found. They will also hold this voltage for a while due to high surface charge until a substantial load (inverter) is placed on them, shortly after which the voltage wIll plummet due to lack of capacity to sustain load. What I find a little suspicious is that the engine alternator could not keep up with inverter demand. Wonder what it's current draw was v alternator output. ETA: just read your post re immersion being on and consequent voltage with this high inverter load, which is entirely to be expected. Nothing you have said therefore suggests anything amiss or unexpected, other than battery bank shot.

That should be more than enough capacity. Remember a leisure battery is not far removed from a starter one in terms of number of plates and will likely have a CCA rating indicating it's ability to start engines.

Are you saying that using the custom mode you set both absorb and float voltages to 14.4v? If so it will still drop into float mode after it's software has calculated the absorb mode cycle is complete and will/should indicate such. But whilst in this float mode the voltage should remain at the 14.4v you set. Can I suggest you first double check your custom settings. If all OK and issue persists then try a factory reset as explained in instructions, followed by re-entering your desired settings. If issue still persists, then a call to Sterling may be in order.

No issues as such, but to my mind a battery isolator should do just that, isolate the batteries completely. To do this effectively on a typical boat installation you need two. One to isolate batteries from main distribution panel and maybe used when boat left unattended. Another to isolate all other connections to batteries including mains chargers/combi's, alternators, bilge pumps etc, and typically left on except in emergency, when working on electrics or when changing batteries.

Brilliant unit - haven't even needed to change the batteries in over four years of use. It does of course have a frost stat mode kicking in around 3° C and off around 6°C

1954 Lister FR2 with 7.5 kW genset - not a bad price either.

Try removing tap after lowering coolant level, to check function. I would definately flush through with plain water before adding fresh anti-freeze/inhibitor. My rebuilt JP2M has same coolant in after four years and over 1500 hours. It's still has a clean green apperance although will be replacing this year with blue stuff.

The bleed valve as you suggest, is the tap at the top of the water cooled drum silencer. Filling the header tank to above the level of this valve should allow air to be purged. Are you suggesting it's blocked? Valve can be seen on this JS3M rebuild by MPS.