Bloomsberry

When I bought my first narrowboat 6 years ago it had a BMC 1.5 engine and I decided to get it serviced before I picked it up. On the service report it stated that the oil pressure was low and to fix this they had to use SAE 30 oil. I enquired about this on here as I was a bit concerned and was told that there is a bit of debate about this but SAE 30 is the correct engine oil for this engine. So you may not have the correct engine oil which is causing the low pressures ?

i had a coolant leak but the point of leakage was on the outside of the boat. However if you had this issue then the level of the coolant would settle to the level of the canal outside but if yours keeps dropping then this is not the issue in your case.

Not sure if this has been posted before, hadn't they thought about using ropes

If you are in a marina environment then any bitumen product will probably be a waste of time due to oil/diesel slicks on the water surface which strips the bitumen from the waterline. I am in a marina environment and 3 times I have had my boat blacked with bitumen and 3 times I've had rust at the waterline within a few months. As an alternative I did a DIY epoxy blacking last year which so far , 10 months later is looking fine with no rust whatsoever at the waterline. The preperation was quite time consuming though but I think it was worth it.

I found scrapers to be useless , I eventually got an old 1/2 inch chissel and using 2 hands hacked into the blacking to get it off. The stubborn pieces I left but it got the loose stuff off ok. Took quite a while to do the whole of the boat though.

I did read where a dock stopped using interzone as it was getting bad results. It does beg the question that if interzone is designed to treat oil rig legs between tides but the dock can't get it to stick to bare metal in a dry dock then maybe the dock are doing something wrong.

Gritblasting is not allowed where I am moored so I had to do the prep by hand. I used a rotary tool in a drill called a Terco Blaster which is supposed to produce a finish like gritblasting. It is very time consuming so I concentrated on the vunerable areas ie. waterline, pitted areas then welding seams. Managed to treat them all but it took about 6 hours all in all (and it's only a 40ft boat).9 months on and there's no rust at the waterline and the blacking is still intact but only time will tell. I'll get the boat out again next year and see how it has performed and treat any areas showing signs of deterioration or not treated the first time. Not sure if this level of prep is necessary, I don't think the oil rig legs get this much treatment. Edit - just to add I've had the boat blacked using bitumen 3 times and each time there was clear rust at the waterline in under a year. I'm moored in a marina environment with lots of boats around me.

I used international interzone last year and this can cure underwater, it's used to treat offshore oil rig legs between tides apparently. 9 months on and it's still intact (more than the usual bitumen ever lasted on my boat)

If it's a non slip surface you are preping then I don't think flap discs will do it. I got some carbide discs to prep the gunwalle of my boat and they worked pretty well. They are quite brutal so you need to be careful. http://www.toolstation.com/shop/Power+Tool+Accessories/d80/Grinding+Discs/sd1770/Semi+Flexible+Disc/p57283

I'm not an expert in this field but I've used these in the past http://www.screwfix.com/p/erbauer-zirconium-flap-discs-115mm-4-piece-set/8800g Not sure how they compare to normal flap discs but they are pretty good at getting paint off down to bare metal. They also scar the metal surface giving a key for the paint primer. Not so good with pitting obviously but they did a good job for me. They are 4 for a tenner so maybe worth a try.

I read in a book once that boat engines last for between 10-20 years. It also states that more engines die due to well intentioned tinkering than ever wear out.

I get my jars from the local pound shop, as been mentioned the colour can easily be seen through the glass and the paint is kept in good nick. I store mine upside down so no air can get in although I make sure the lids are on tight or else it can get messy. An alternative is old coffee jars that have been cleaned out.

You're right, very similar titles which is very confusing !

Is it me or have some replys been removed from this post ?

http://www.burtonmail.co.uk/watch-bmw-crashes-into-canal-in-stenson-with-two-people-inside/story-30177097-detail/story.html

Could this be related to the fact that people now have early access to their pension pots ?

I always understood it as being a sellers market in spring prior to summer season and a buyers market in autumn after the summer season

Possible causes that I can think of Leaking skin tank - Canal water getting in the coolant, Is the head of the coolant at the same height of the canal water outside ? Leaking calorifier - Does the water pump keep coming on occasionally ? Is there a lot of pressure when releasing the coolant tank top Leaking heat exchanger - if the engine coolant provides heating for a CH system - If there's a header tank I would expect the level here to drop as water leaks to the engine coolant side. When was the coolant last changed ?

I also had some work done to my boat at Streethay a couple of years ago and they did a good job in good time that I was pleased with. I've also had a couple of jobs done by Justin at Aqua Narrowboats, Mercia and they couldn't have been more accomodating and I was very satisfied with the work done and in the time agreed.

If you can't change the antifreeze straight away then another option would be to get a low powered heater in the engine room. Run it when it is forecast to go cold or even get one with a thermostat to only come on when the temperature dips.

I've just tiled around my stove recently and included a 25mm calcium silicate board divider on one side to protect some local furniture. I've used ceramic tiles with standard adhesive/grout with no issues so far. Just tiled straight onto the board with no issues. It's early days yet but it seems to be holding well after a few firings so have no reason to think it will fail. On someone's advice on here I put some tin foil on the tile surface directly behind the stove and the difference in temperature is noticeable, the tiles are stone cold whereas normally they quite hot.

The local rag have posted a new article on the new Branston Locks development and have included some drone footage of the current progress for those interested. http://www.burtonmail.co.uk/watch-new-aerial-film-shows-the-ongoing-development-at-branston-locks/story-30006259-detail/story.html