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I went away before the weekend, when the weather forecast didn't look so drastic. The water system wasn't drained and I worried plenty when it started getting cold. Fortunately when I got back today everything still seemed operational and no damage done. Phew.

Who bloody knows. I hope it's conclusive. The engineer recommends that if they show an inkling to accept culpability for the design of the coolant system, that I should seek compensation for some of the money I have spent on engine work.

I've been trying to think of a way of getting myself set up for flushing the skin tank. It definitely needs doing, the coolant has gone murky brown since last rebuild and this must be due to higher flow rate of water disturbing muck in the skin tank. The problem is that I am currently in the Bristol harbour and there is nowhere easy to flush the contents to. My bilge already has three lots of engine coolant swimming around it and the nearest drain is a way off. My current thinking is that either air is being sucked in during cooling, or as Chris Pink suggests, there isn't enough expansion space. GOOD NEWS! I spoke to Barrus Marine division today and they are sending an engineer to survey the engine next week. They said they have made modifications to their 04 45 models and are aware of overheating problems. This is the best news I have had for a while, someone who actually knows the engine and it's issues coming to actually look at it!!

The first time, when I did the job myself I just filled it through the expansion bottle. Since then, it has always been filled by removing the top hose to the skin tank, filling that and then reconnecting to do the rest.

I just wanted to say a massive thank you to everyone for taking the time to help with these problems. I haven't said that in a little while and I really appreciate it! Also I haven't been dishing out the well deserved greenies!

The engine is only fitted with an overheat warning light as standard. I have tested the bulb and it is functioning, but in three head gasket failures it has not come on once! Would the same test work for an overheat warning light? Edit: also if the sender was working, I'm guessing it would not be the same type that could send a temperature reading so would need replacing anyway.

I've just blurted out a load of stuff and wanted to focus on one thing that I would really like advice on. How do I find a matching temperature sender and gauge? This is priority 1 as Geoff rightly says. I spend this weekend selling belongings to try to raise the money to cover the costs of the ongoing work. It's getting to be pretty frustrating.

No.

I tried to test this hypothesis, but just as the coolant starting spitting out past the pressure cap I noticed the sheared off bolt. I think you might be onto something. I have also heeard of someone else who did exactly the same things on a Shanks 35. Head gasket went three times, they removed the thermostats and the engine kept cool but produced massive amounts of air and needed constant bleeding. I hope to find out if they reached a solution through RCR who said they would contact the contractors. I'm going to get on the phone to Barrus first thing tomorrow and see what I can find out. It's the filler tap, its used to bypass the thermostats to bleed the engine. It stays closed. Header tank: IMG_9748 by tim_warin, on Flickr Thermostat housing and header tank connections: IMG_9749 by tim_warin, on Flickr Skin tank inlet: IMG_9750 by tim_warin, on Flickr This was meant to be a photo of the skin tank, but the flash only illuminated the foreground!: IMG_9751 by tim_warin, on Flickr The skin tank seems to be sized ok according to the manual. Also the problem here isn't long term overheating from undercooling. The last two times it seems to have gone, it has done so by getting incredibly over a short period due to failure of the coolant system. The water coming out is not even very hot and is happening when the engine is barely warm. It seems far more like air being forced into the system, or as Chris mentioned, there not being enough expansion space.

If only I was that lucky. The stud has broken well inside the pump body. I will have to remove the pump housing to even see where the stud has broken off. Fingers crossed there is a little something to get pliers onto, but from the looks of it I won't be that lucky. IMG_9759 by tim_warin, on Flickr IMG_9758 by tim_warin, on Flickr One of the most important things going forward is to have a way of measuring the temperature of the engine. IMG_9757 by tim_warin, on Flickr The sender seems to be knackered and needs replacing, how do I go about sourcing a new one to match?

I have had that idea and it is a mighty fine one. It was holding part of the pump casing on, but there are a few bolts all the way round and when I pulled it out with my fingers it didn't start a leak. The water pump was indeed changed by the engineers and I will have to tell them about it. They won't be happy!

I spoke to RCR today about the whole thing and they were really helpful. They have had another Barrus Shanks with exactly the same problem, constant overheating and blowing head gaskets, and then removal of thermostats and coolant system producing massive amounts of air. They are going to contact the contractors who were involved in the previous job and try to get a solution. They said that they refuse to fit these engines because of the known problems! I also found a sheared off bolt in the water pump housing!!!

I have the correct version of that. It's the 04 35 model. The bleed instructions are really unhelpful and the whole setup is pretty crap. It doesn't mention the necessary pressure for the cap in the manual. My only worry is that that a higher rated pressure cap could 'solve' the problem, whilst just hiding the issue.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I'm going to try a couple more things and take some pictures tomorrow to try and get some more symptoms. One of the first things is to try a new cap for the header tank. I have one that fits, but is a higher pressure (95kpa) than the one already on the tank (60 i think). Is there any harm in trying this replacement?

To the minimum mark every time. Edit: I agree, it doesn't really seem like a proper solution. More of an easy way out. Sorry. This whole conversation is getting a bit messy between the two threads. Probably best to keep it in the other one. http://5.77.47.171/~ggbqjfrf/forums/index.php?showtopic=52564&st=60

There are no bleed points on the skin tank. The system was bled by blowing through the skin tank pipes and topping up. The problem starts happening when the engine is not very hot, definitely not hot enough to boil the water.

I sourced a replacement header cap only to find that it has a higher pressure rating! Not sure how good an idea it is to try it as it could stop the coolant system working properly. Head was skimmed and had been pretty warped. I'll have a bit more of a play about with letting water come out and feeling the engine heat. The engine doesn't have a temperature gauge which doesn't help. Edit: another thing is that there are currently no thermostats, meaning a higher flow rate of water.

Hello This is a massive cross post from my other rather long thread and I apologise. I really need some advice and help and the other thread is four pages long and it would mean trawling all the way through it to give advice on this small thing. Basically, the backstory to this issue is massive, and I have had a massive headache with my engine for some time now, but I have a specific problem and am in a real bind. Even the engineers I employed are getting sick of my engine, imagine how I feel!. I have just had the head of my engine rebuilt for the fourth time. The latest problem is that when the engine gets up to temperature it starts pushing water past the expansion cap lid. If I remove the lid, water flows out readily and is a murky brown colour. I haven't properly discussed this issue with the engineers, but in a quick email he suggested that the murky brown colour was due to breakdown of crap in the skintank and that the leaking is due to a faulty header tank cap. I have been reading around this issue, and the most probable cause seems to be head gasket failure. This cannot be possible as the head gasket had only been on the head for around 40 minutes runtime and never hot. The engineers are continually asking me to pay the outstanding invoice, and although I have told them about this issue they state that "Keep running & monitoring, you'll get there in the end!". What should I do? I guess my first step should be to test for exhaust gases in the coolant using the cold rev technique, but what else could be the problem? Many thanks Tim

OK........ So the saga very much continues. Here's the latest: The engineers rebuilt the engine, they did a really good job of cleaning everything up and it all looked good when they put it back together. They ran it up to temperature whilst I was there, under load and in neutral and everything sounded right and the coolant system was working. I paid the bulk of the invoice and was happy everything was as it should be. And then..... I took the boat out for a short cruise in the docks. I had the deckboards up the whole time and was keeping an eye on things. Everything seemed fine, but then I noticed the head and block were getting very hot and that although the thermostat housing and some of the coolant pipes were hot, the skin tank wasn't getting hot at all. I turned the engine off and tried to bleed the engine a bit by opening the engine filler tap and taking the header tank cap off. I had to start the engine again because I was drifting. I ran for another ten minutes and everything was getting very hot and I got pretty stressed out. I managed to get the coolant system to kick in, but it had been running without cooling for around 20 minutes. I had all my fingers and toes crossed that it was ok, but the next day it was apparent that the engine had been cooked again, the engine wouldn't start and was hissing and blowing water past the head bolts. They came back straight away and stripped the engine again. they re-crack tested and level tested the engine and it was all still fine. Their diagnosis was that the engine overheating before the gasket had seated had caused it to lift slightly. They rebuilt the engine again, this time leaving the thermostats out. They didn't ask me about this prior to doing it, and although it seems to be an adequate solution, it's not perfect. It seems to make a big difference, the engine heats up very slowly and keeps nice and cool. There are now two new problems though and I need some advice on them: 1. When the engine got up to temperature this afternoon, it started pushing water past the pressure cap on the header tank. The coolant coming out was really murky brown. A fair amount of water came out, and this meant that the coolant level was well below minimum when I stopped the engine. 2. Completely different problem altogether, but the engine starting has gone funny. It manifested itself by dying back after firing up and the problem seems to be with the electric fuel line opener on startup. In order to start the engine, you have to turn the key a quarter, disconnect the electric fuel line mechanism and then crank the engine to get it started. The engineers think this could be solved by improving the battery connection. I still owe them a couple of hundred quid and plan to hold off paying until I'm happy with everything, I can tell they're getting pretty sick of continually working on my engine! But there are still some word things going on. What do people advise? What's with the water pushing past the header tank cap? Am I being reasonable withholding the money? Tim

And probably why Keble should have said quite clearly 'JOKE' on his post.

There was a thread about this a little while back. Answer was that boats are exempt if I remember. Edit: tried to find it. Search function on this forum is awful, sorry.

Looks like a copycat of one of the Shoreham boats. It has a Reliant Robin on the other side.

Spoke to Trevor today. He said the if all gors to plan, Hanham lock should be open in around a month. Hopefully before April.