notaminga

Or use the "rule of 9" - ie with number 1 fully down check number 8, number 7 fully down check number 2 - this saves an awful lot of cranking the engine.

Petrol genny running on the roof? It definitely would be a breach of a number of BSS requirements. Even if you decided to think sod the BSS, doing this would almost certainly invalidate your insurance, so when you set fire to your boat and damage others in the process you may find yourself in serious shit. As has been said, petrol gennys should only be run on the bank.

CART came out fairly pronto to have a look, but nothing so far from Severn Trent. The guy from CART said he would be chasing them up to come and sort it. And I was being tongue in cheek about slackening my mooring lines - no sense of humour some people.

I'm on the Staffs Worcs near Stewponey. Whilst walking the dogs this morning on the towpath I became aware of the sound of rushing water and a deep roaring sound - where there shouldn't be one! On investigation it seems there is 4 foot water main running adjacent to the towpath, which has burst. The roaring sound was deep under ground but there was a substantial gush of water coming out further down the embankment, which has flooded some woodland. Naturally I have reported the matter to both the water company and CART and wait to see if there is any urgency in their reactions. My concern is that the water main is close enough to the canal that a big burst could take out the towpath and lead to a breach... Should I slacken my mooring lines?

I moored up earlier on a stretch where the vegetation was higher than the boat. it took me bout an hour to cut it all down with a sickle - very satisfying!

I doubt it! I bought a much more expensive one (Freeloader) which does work, but takes about three days to charge up in this country and when charged will only half charge a Samsung Galaxy. The tiny solar panels are just not up to the job and the battery storage is usually far below that of a modern smart phone. I worked out that to get a realistic amount of solar to power a phone, you would need about four square feet of solar cells.

But not allowable under new BSS requirements - it must be welded or brazed.

I've been reading up on this material, which has been around for quite a while but is only now becoming commercially available for use as a building insulation. Apparently it has vastly superior performance to any other available insulation. Has anyone had any experience of it? http://www.earth.org.uk/superinsulating-our-living-room.html Ian

Notices removed again by yesterday morning - wierd, I wonder what that was all about.

Email sent to Tim Mountain at the aforementioned address. Perhaps everyone should email him with their views. "Sir, I wish to point out that your actions in complaining about the publication on Jim Sheads website of public information relating to the registration of boats on the inland waterways system is nothing short of selfish and misguided. Your actions have resulted in the withdrawal of a service which many people, myself included, found useful. It must now be obvious to you that you had no legal basis for your complaint. Will you be issuing a public apology? People such as yourself, sir, should practice thinking before you speak in future, as your selfish actions are not welcome by the rest of us. Ian Richards"

Notices were attached to Kinver top lock this afternoon to say that the canal going north was closed due to "bank erosion". Nothing on the waterscape site as yet. When we came down from Stewponey two days ago there had been a small landslip at Dunsley Tunnel - this may have got worse. Does anyone else know anything?

After doing all the above, check the prop shaft coupling nuts are tight, if loose, tighten them and see if that does the trick. Then undo them and uncouple the prop shaft. Run the engine in gear again and see if the noise is still there. If it is, the problem will be engine or gearbox related. If not it will be propshaft, coupling, stern gland, prop related. If the noise is there in gear, but not when run in neutral it's likely to be gearbox or driveplate. If after all this the noise seems to be engine or gearbox, bit the bullet and take the gearbox off - usually this allows lots of bits of broken metal to fall out of the housing! Ian

I'm pretty certain that if you had any kind of steam engine fitted inside the boat, you would need to have a boiler certificate to comply with the BSS - thus adding cost and complexity!

I've been researching on the net all evening and I think I have the answer. For a short period in the early 80's Land Rover changed their crankshafts from 3 bearings to 5 bearings, whilst keeping the capacity to 2.25. Shortly after they increased the capacity to 2.5. I think I have been sold a 5 bearing 2.25 crank - the difference in stroke between the two is just short of 1cm, which is what I am seeing! Tomorrow will tell, as I am back to the boat to start the long process of stripping it all down AGAIN!

I have a home made kit which consists of a high pressure pump, a centrifuge and a mesh prefilter - it cleans at a rate of 10 litres a minute - the centrifuge spins at 20,000 rpm and filters down to 0.1 microns, which will remove all water and pretty much any particulates. In response to the guy that says using waste engine oil is not possible, try telling that to Russell Newbery, who have designed an engine specifically to run on waste engine oil - it may even be the one in the video above.

That's a thought, I'll check the throw before I take everything apart. Having said that, I have to take almost everything apart to change the pistons as the sump won't come off in situ. Am I right in thinking that the piston movement will be equivalent to twice the measurement from centreline of the crank to centreline of the big end? Yes to Steven Wilkinson, the rods are original, but the crank was sha**ed and the block needed a rebore.

Luckily the con rods are the originals, so can't be the culprits. Yes, I do have the old pistons and crankshaft for comparison. I am confused as to what I might have been given in error, as both the same crankshaft and pistons are fitted to the petrol version. Any older engine, such as the 2.25, only has three bearings on the crank, so would not fit. Does anyone know of any pistons or crank of other models that I might have ended up with by mistake?

Well, I had the head re-skimmed and checked over again at the machinists; they told me it was in perfect condition. So, I re-fitted it and guess what - no different. I went back to checking the compression again. This time I squirted some oil in to test out the piston rings - made no difference, I was still getting a steady 200 psi, which, as has been pointed out is far too low for dieseling to occur. Ok, head off time again. I took out all of the valves today and double checked them, lapped them back in again, but still couldn't see a problem. Then, as I was staring at the block, considering how much I would get for scrap, I realised that the pistons at TDC do not reach the top of the bores! I measured a 1cm shortfall in the stroke! The same on all cylinders. This would certainly account for my lack of compression. I know that the cylinder crowns on this engine should come flush with the top of the block. I've yet to strip down the engine again, which I know I will have to do, but I'm left wondering what could cause this problem - I can only come up with the possibility that I have got the wrong pistons or the wrong crankshaft. I've double checked the part numbers and they all check out. I'm completely puzzled by this. How come pistons and crankshaft both fit perfectly in every way except the stroke seems way to short?

I guess Sawley is cut off now then? BBC News

Pot menders I presume.

I don't think so, as it gives a measurement for both recession and protrusion. Eitherway, they will now be machined flush.

Thanks for all the replies. It's been helpful to know that I have been going through all the same sorts of issues that you have raised. I think I have found the problem. I could find absolutely nothing wrong except for the low compression, so I decided to bite the bullet and take the head off again. It does seem like a head gasket sealing problem. When I took the head off I found that there was a path for gas to escape between the cylinders. This was caused by the new hotspots that I had fitted. Now the manual states that maximum hotspot protusion is 0.76mm - I checked mine and they were 0.45mm, so I foolishly assumed that the head gasket would allow them to bed in - they did not. The gas escape was around the edges of the hotspots. I could kick myself now because I had the head skimmed before fitting new hotspots, now it will have to go back to the machinist to skim the hotspots down. I'll report back again when the head is fixed. Mari

I must admit I can't see any reason for the compression being low through error - the block was rebored to fit the new pistons, and they do in fact fit. There is no sign of any head gasket leakage. Indeed there is no sign of valve leakage or leakage around the injectors/glow plugs. Needless to say there was no sign of any cracks or damage in the head or block. I suppose a leakdown test would tell me more, but difficult to arrange in a boat moored in the middle of nowhere, and we don't have the equipment to do it. I even considered whether or not I had fitted the wrong crankshaft, but have confirmed that it is indeed the right one - at least the piston crowns do rise flush with top of the block.

The head gasket was standard for the engine and the head has been skimmed - you would think this would lead to higher compression. The hotspots were also replaced. The manual says the compression ratio is 21:1. By my reckoning multiplying this by air pressure at sea level (14.7 psi) suggests that compression should be over 300psi, but I have been hoping that the figure will be higher once the engine is running, hot and rings bedded in. The fuel pump is electric and maintains a good constant flow of fuel. The fuel system beyond the pump maintains positive pressure with no leaks. The stop solenoid checks out. My initial feeling was that it must be timing, so I have checked it right back to basics by making sure that crankshaft at TDC aligns with both the camshaft and the injector pump, through observation rather than relying on the timing marks. As it happens all the evidence points to the timing marks being correct and lining up properly. As RLWP said, the engine runs - albeit briefly. I'm back to the boat today armed with some new, clean, white diesel, a can of easy start, a blow torch and fingers crossed. Don't worry, the easy start and the blow torch won't be used in conjunction Thanks for all your suggestions - I'll report back later. Mari

It's a 12 j , as far as I can tell.