jonesthenuke

Good news. Hope you have enjoyed the manuals and found them useful. Chris

I looked at Barby in October. It was a "work in progress". Chris

We did this in a hire boat about 2 years ago. It was drizzling with rain, so there was nobody around and consequently no trouble at all. Chris

Athy Gardners should run at either 45 psi or 35 (if later version) at normal temperature and at 1000 RPM. The pump delivers more than is needed to achieve this and the pressure is regulated to 45 by a valve attached to the oil filter. The excess oil lubricated other parts of the system (governor etc) whilst the 45 psi is directed to the bearings and so on. Some info from the General Directions book (the numbers are the book paragraph numbers):- 24.The pressure gauge should read not less than 45 psi after starting from cold while the engine is running at 1000 rpm. If this pressure not be registered stop the engine and investigate. 25. After starting the engine and interval of 10 to fifteen seconds is necessary for the pipe and filter system to become filled by the lubrication pump, consequently, during this period the gauge will not be expected to record any pressure. 47. On no account should the engine be run if the oil pressure is less than 40 psi at cruising speed. 48. Oil pressure too low, possible causes:- Delivery filter needs cleaning. Foreign matter under the seat of the pressure regulation valve. Fracture of the spring of the regulation valve. Sprayer pipe unions slack allowing fuel to reach the crankcase. The gauze filter over the sump is choked for want of attention. Shortage of oil in the sump A pipe fracture somewhere in the system. Worn bearings or bearing failure. Hope this is of use. Chris

Athy, I generally agree, any engine will run without an oil pressure guage but its a useful tool to indicate if anything is going adrift, though its best not to get over sensitive about any small changes. The pressure switches used for indicating low oil pressure are often set so low that they are of limited use if monitoring under cruising conditions. I guess this is really personal preference when it comes down to it? Chris

Hi Speedy. Sounds like the others have given you all you need but have you got a Gardner manual which should also help? If you need one try here http://www.internalfire.com/ifod/mantree.php but you will need to register and donate to their museum. I fully agree with this "5. Check for oil pressure. This does take quite a (disconcerting) while to establish with some engines.", my engine (3LW) is certailnly disconcerting in this respect but it does exactly what the manual says, which I recollect mentions 10 seconds to get normal oil pressure. I have just seen the reply re no gauge, Fit one asap, it goes on the pipe from the filter/regulator assembly where you should have an oil pressure switch. Chris PS I recently sent the Internal Fire team a pdf copy of the following Gardner info, which should eventually be available from them LW type General Directions for the management and care of Gardner Oil Engines, Book No 42.8 dated 1945. 57 pages. LW Type Workshop Tools, Equipment and Instructional Drawings Book No 48.1 dated approx 1945 (from the drawing dates), 70 pages. LW and LW20 Diesel Engines Spare Parts Catalogue, Book No 600.2, December 1969, 126 pages These are much too big to email but PM me if you want a copy and for the cost of a blank CD and postage....... Edited to add press guage comment, and again to correct my lousy typing!

If the thread size is 7/16 by 24 whit form then Tracy Tools have the taps and dies. Chris

I had not seen this before. Excellent piece of reporting. Chris

If you want dye there are commercial products, try "drain tracing dye" from BES ltd or any good plumbing stockist. Do not use much though, its normally for large volumes. The dye of choice used to be Fluorescein which can be best traced with a UV lamp so more sensitive on small leaks, buts its out of favour these days. Chris

Good find, we always seem to have spiders on the boat so checking the inverter occasionally sounds like an idea to have on the "to do" list. Once found a deceased mouse across the mains supply of the (house) dishwasher. Chris

Congratulations Chris

We bought a boat from Whilton this year. PM me if you want to discuss. You may need to post another couple of messages before you can PM though. Chris

Buying our first boat this autumn. The initial journey away from the marina was brilliant, not only in control but absolutely no constraints on where we could go or when we had to come back! Chris

Take care to get a truly independent survey even if it means paying a little extra to get someone in from outside the immediate area.

Having read the reply to my post, let me say I am not against Hurricanes and I was not trying to highlight the problem. We bought our boat via a brokerage and understand that it has stood basically unused for most of the time since it was built. This may be an issue for the aging of the compressor valve that I reported (it may have been stuck to the seat) or its simply the early failure of this type of compressor that Hurricane have now stopped using - I cannot tell. If the latter it would probably have failed in the warranty period rather than 7 years later. I would agree with some of the points that others have made, the Hurricane is simple to dismantle and service, which must be a good point. Chris

If you want to automate this (rather than a stop cock) with minimal plumbing changes, consider using a thermostatically controlled valve. Try a Danfoss MTCV, this automatically closes when its at the set temperature, and is adjustable in the range of 35-60C, though they fully close at 5C higher than the set point. It is designed for providing a constant return temperature from (for example) a ring supplying hot feed to a number of hotel rooms so that each user immediately gets hot water. They occasionally appear on Ebay. Fit the valve on the return from the calorifier, when its up to temperature it will shut down the flow and you will get all the flow to the rads Chris

Spent the weekend on the boat. As its unoccupied the rest of the week it was a little chilly so heating was bunged on. We have recently bought this boat (second hand), so do not have much experience of all the fixtures and fittings and we keep getting little surprises. The heating ran OK Friday Evening. Saturday evening, the heating was back running (hard to miss, the Hurricane is somewhat loud) but after about 30 mins the radiators were just luke warm and similar on the calorifier. No error codes on the control panel. Continuous running of the Hurricane. Still not much output. Flame bright and yellow when looking through the inspection window, though not uniform and looking "spluttery". It was dark at the time or I would have spotted the next bit earlier.... Outside with a torch and look at the exhaust. Considerable smoke and signs of unburnt fuel in the exhaust. D'Oh! So shut it down, and time to investigate. Not had this apart before. Find the 1000 hour service info on the web which was the best information I could find at the time.... The Hurricane is a fairly standard design air blown siphon nozzle diesel burner, so the nozzle seemed a likely problem. Compressor and fan all running, Air inlet hose not blocked, exhaust appeared clear of any blockage. Time to dismantle...... Nozzle out (Delavan 30609-2). Stripped nozzle and found small piece of what appeared to be brown rubber, about 2mm across, but nothing else, all very clean. Air hose to the nozzle checked and clear, compressor inlet filter looked brand new, fuel filter in the nozzle holder appeared clean. The hours counter on the heater has just got to 80, so very little use since new (2006). Rebuild it all and try again, though not very hopeful. Same result. Sunday morning. Still think its a nozzle/spray related issue, so take out the compressor. Standard diaphragm affair so take off the head. Fail to find any information on the web (its a "Thomas" compressor from the US). Obviously has an inlet valve, visible as a brown rubber mushroom head, but no sign of the discharge valve apart from some rubber sticking to the edges of the hole where it should be. The compressor head is a plastic affair and appears to be of two parts glued or molded together, with the head of the discharge valve inaccessible inside, so no chance of fixing it easily. Luckily the boat is at Calcutts who are Hurricane dealers. With no great expectation of success I head to the marina shop, discuss the issue and:- Yes these compressors are known to fail, especially early ones (like ours) No they did not have a direct spare in stock (Hurricane no longer supply them due to reliability issues) Yes there is a replacement, may have one in stock but £300++ needing various parts to make it fit. By now its lunchtime and I agree to come back after lunch when they will have had time to find the various parts. When I get back I find better news, they have a later version compressor head with stainless steel reed valves for a much better price of £40. Brilliant service from Calcutts! Back to the boat, rebuild compressor, fire it up and Yippee it all works ok. Thanks Calcutts, saved the day and my wallet. Chris

The temperature gauge on my Gardner 3LW is a modern electrical one (Faria) and is really the wrong range as the normal operating temperature is close to the bottom of the scale. Casting around for something better I found a pair of these and have been making an adapter to fit the first one. Chris

. My parts books have two different sizes, 3/8 BSF and 1/2 BSF depending on which stud on the head (long or short). Chris

Cunning! I has been thinking of a big bore version (28mm) to act as temperature control on the skin tank as the return temperature is so low. Thanks. Chris Just checked, I have an unused TMV bought for a solar heating project, its a 22mm Caleffi with 85C rating. Time to break out the plumbing gear ........

Pete Is your cooler in a vegetable garden, or am I missing something here (cauliflower?). I thought about a TMV, I have been looking for a reasonably large bore valve (say 28mm). Time to search auction sites again maybe. Chris

Thermostat now replaced with new 74C unit. The existing thermostat was already a 74C so I was not expecting a significant change. Both appear to be the same make, marked "Waxstat", however there is a noticeable difference in length from the main flange face to the bypass valve disc (about 2mm), not sure this made much difference and I did not have the time to measure the length at various temperatures to determine when the bypass port would open/shut. I will measure this properly next time. The new stat gives warmer running, about 77C on the outlet. I think I'll run like this before making any significant plumbing changes. Chris Edited to remove typos.

Thanks, I like the simplicity. I'll watch out for the wobble valve too. It will be coming apart this weekend with any luck. Chris

I have been looking for extinguishers and came across 2kG dry powder in the BES Ltd Plumbing catalogue. If you buy 3+ they are 14.74 each plus vat. They are to BS EN3-1996.. I routinely use BES for plumbing fittings, but have not tried these extinguishers Chris