Karen Lea Rainey

Trent and mersey sounds great, ive heard of the tixall wides being a nice area to go to, thank you for your reply thats what i was hoping for with your knowledge, heres to a good cruising week for all.

Thank you both for your replies so far, i purchased the boat from hinckley marina on the ashby canal so the only direction ive been in is going west on the coventy canal from marston junction, this was an enjoyable route up through atherstone locks and beyond to tamworth. So i wanted to go a bit further afield hence the question about coventry basin, there are several historic posts about masses of rubbish, teles and trollies and mattresses etc from just under 12 months ago, but i am leaning to the route out to wards rugby. my wife though is saying whats beyond fradley junction towards stafford and is that within reach of 7 days i would welcome comments on either choices.

Hi everyone, weve got 7 days to explore the local area from tamworth, from the 16th of next month. i was planning a 2 1/2 day run to coventry basin and back taking it steady for mooring, resting chatting and eating, but i have just heard that the proximity to coventry basin used to throw up 1 or 2 ruffians that throw stones and undo mooring ropes for fun. does anyone have any recent experience or knowledge of recent incidents in that area? or should i look at a different route, say turning onto the grand union for a bit of a stretch. i would appreciate any comments you may have, i dont wont to be moving for more than 5 or 6 hours per day so whatever you can suggest i would be grateful.

If your going into Skipton, stop by the pie and mash shop its no 1 on tripadvisor for food in Skipton and i can vouch for the fantastic pies, chips (real ones) or mash and gravy. They taste fantastic and its good value for £6. Its right by the boat trip hire store in the centre of Skipton

Thats great news about the sooty carbon, no worries there now. replying to kebs comment about the amount of soot, my 3inch drill bit would only go in about 1/2 way before it stopped, i really do believe that there was about 1 inch of carbon surrounding the tips of the glow plug. I cant believe the last owner put up with it for so long, i would probably guess that it would have cost around 5 to 6 hours labour plus the plugs maybe £3-400 and no guarantee that it would work. The glow plugs came out without to much trouble so my guess is they changed the plugs fairly recently but didnt clear the carbon ,hence the new plugs still wouldnt work, by the way they were durite plugs for the 1.5 bmc cost £32 plus £3postage from Dorridge autos ebay trader.

Hi, I just wanted share some success with you, you never know it might be useful info for another keen boater. I purchased a 40ft 1989 springer in good shape 3 weeks ago, In the boat history file (quite a big one) when it was purchased in 2008 the advert by the Marina said needs easy start to get it going, but when its warm it will go easily, Having used the boat for a couple of journeys including picking it up from the marina, it was clear that it still had the problem 7 to 8 years later. There were 2 half empty cans of easy start on the boat, I reluctantly had to use it each time to get it going. Anyway New Glow plugs arrived so I set about changing them today. Having seen the You tube video on getting rid of the carbon with a drill bit ive had a go. The old plugs came out pretty easily without breakage, it was a bit tight with a 17mm spanner but i made it on all cylinders. i had to undo 2 of the fuel pipes to get my spanner in, it took ages in tiny tiny turns but all of the glow plugs came out successfully. I got my 4 mm drill bit and poked it in the hole a bit obviously hitting a wall of "caked carbon", the glow plugs were obviously sitting in this and heating the carbon and not the combustion chamber. It was a pretty solid wall of black carbon, After poking the drill bit in very carefully and keep wiping it i finally broke through the cake. My guess is it would be about 1inch of carbon sitting all around the core of the glow plug, I couldnt get my 12v drill in in any of the holes so a bit of twisting / shaking/ pushing in with the drill bit in my hand and the held very fastly with my Mole grips it broke through the crusty cake of carbon (almost swallowing the drill bit which was about 3 inches long) Mole grips held it tightly, then grease a bit more on the drill bit and keep twiddling and scratching and twisting to get some more of the black sooty stuff out. New plugs in after about 20mins working on each glow plug hole with the drill bit. Wired up, ready to go and guess what, after waiting for 30 seconds for the glow plugs to hot up in the chamber. IT STARTED FIRST TIME AND WAS I SO PLEASED WITH MYSELF, its probably the first time the engine has started without the dreaded EASY StART in more than 8 years. I do however have a question now, When i broke through the cakey carbon with the drill bit it felt as though i may have pushed some into the chamber where the fuel explosion of heat and air takes place. I thought that the soot would probably come spitting out of the exhaust for a few minutes but i couldnt spot anything. I took it a trek up to the next winding hole about 1 1/2 miles and it ran beautifully. Where can this soot go hopefully its not back around the glow plug. Any ideas what will happen to it? Ps Im chuffed to bits with todays efforts, i'm a butcher by trade and enjoy playing with the boat on my days off.

Just to reply to this original post, Temperature not getting hot enough, I purchased a new thermostat from asap supplies a 74c one with a gasket, cost £12 inc postage, When i took the thermostat housing off the engine, i couldnt beleive it, there wasnt a thermostat in it!!! Put the new one in and hey presto within about 15 mins on tickover the temp goes up to about 75 c and stays there., even been a couple of miles to the next winding hole and it looks good to me. ps just decoked my engine aswell, but i will start a new thread to tell you about it.

Thanks richard, will look at that next week now, back to work now until tuesday, bah

No i didnt touch any blanks just the end cap initially, then rechecked every hose in succession.

This week my end cap developed a small crack and the engine started to lose water from the perished rubber. it normally operates at at about 75c, when it was losing water it got as high as 120c, pulling over to moor and inspect i could see steam/spray coming from the end cap. having replaced the rubber cap and refilled with both coolant and water, i restarted the engine and ran the engine for about an hour and took it for a 2 hour journey yesterday. the temp only climbs to about 55c, just registering on the gauge. i have removed all hose clips one at a time and filled up in turn to the highest point before the filler cap. there is a clear sign of water being pumped around the system and the amount of water in the heat exchange looks quite stable. my next check is, as the thermostat would have opened to past its maximum could it have stuck in the fully open position hence no pressure / heat would build up to the previous levels and the water would continue to circulate unpressurised as it were to some extent. there is no calorifier in the system just the skin tank with no bleed valve on it. your comments would be welcome to me.

Hi, all, on my leak off pipe there is a T piece which the unused fuel travels down. The bottom of the T goes just into a plastic beaker and collects the diesel next to where the filter is., The top of the T goes directly back to the tank. My question is, Should the bottom pipe be fitted to return the filter / hole in the top of the fuel pipe as there is a hole in the round brass fitting that the banjo bolt goes through. I currently just have a screw in the hole to keep the fuel pressure up and it doesn't leak at all. I have heard of the leak off pipe going into an empty brasso tin for collection, is this ok? or should I blank of the bottom of the T piece so all of the fuel goes back to the tank. THe only problem with blanking off as I can see it is that the return to tank looks at about the same height or higher than where the leak off pipe comes out of the top of the engine

The boat is currently at Narrowcraft (Alvecote) who tell me it is running as sweet as a nut, cant find anything wrong with it except the capillary oil gauge has loads of air in it and they have bled it. There was also a loose nut on the injector, According to them the boat is just old and will never be a F1 boat again but it is good to go. I'll pick it up on Thursday and see how it is, I don't know if he was just searching or bluffing but he says he'd had 3 enquires if the boat was coming up for sale.

How did you get on, was there a leak at the injectors/fuel unions, was it a rising oil level that prompted you to check them, or was it to do with lowering oil pressure. I ask because my own boat with the same engine has the same symptoms and is currently in for repair / service.

THe oil level on the dipstick rose about 1cm after yesterdays 4 hr Journey, tells me all I need to know (hopefully), Im told this is very common on the lister engines due to either vibration or not laying up for winter properly.

I just may be getting to the bottom of this, been to Narrowcraft this afternoon to see when they can fit me in for a service/repair. THe engine started today on just 18lbs pressure and fell away after a few mins to 10lbs. After yesterdays run of 4 hours it would appear that my oil is getting diluted from leaky injectors/ or loose nuts etc. I took the top off the engine and both rocker covers are virtually swimming in a mixture of diesel and oil, just doesnt smell right. This would also explain why after an oil change I get 25lbs pressure to begin with and it falls away as it gets diluted with fuel. Anyway my boat is booked in for next wednesday so hopefully it will be soon sorted, regards Keith and my little Dartline boat "Robbie"

I suppose I could couple up the oil pressure gauge which existed on the engine all of the pipes are still there, perhaps it was changed to make the oil pressure gauge visible whilst driving the boat. Q does the original oil pressure gauge play any part in opening or closing valves / passageways to maintain the pressure within the engine

There are no leaks of oil from any part of the engine, and I have put a new Delphi fuel lift pump on the engine together with a new fuel line through the pump and filter, Ive had the boat 2 months now and it previously had a direct feed into the fuel rack (bypassing the filter and pump). Sleemans have a new best customer at the minute, by the wat the fuel lift pump looked worn a bit on the push bar

No warning lights on the boat, you just feel the boat is not making a smooth channel in the water and you can hear a deep rumbling beginning under your feet, when you go a bit faster the gauge goes back up a bit by 3 or 4lbs but it doesn't last long. What pressure do listers operate at anyway, 1978 air cooled SR2

Apparently it works by sticking a coat of PTFE / Teflon onto the metal bit by bit, overtime it increases the oil pressure a little, but it may also stick to the non moving parts when the engine gets hot Save my money for a rebuild then seems the probable answer, Snake oils, has anyone had a good response from them?

Sorry I meant to type in the strainer is not choked with bits although if it were " nits " I could understand why it was happening

Hi, My engine starts up 1st time everytime no problem, but I think it sounds a little to fast at idle comparing it to other boats? The problem is it builds 22 - 25lbs of oil pressure from the start and falls to around 10 to 15lbs within half hour and to 5lbs in about an hour. I have changed the oil twice with Morriss Golden Film 20 Sae but it hasn't improved much at all. It is not making oil as I have checked the dipstick regularly and it is the same. I took the boat 4 miles yesterday at a slow pace until the pressure dropped to 5lbs. It has a capillary tube attached to rge engine as the inbuilt pipe is not in use. The strainer is not choked with nits and the flow of oil between passages appears to be good. A car mechanic of mine says that the crank case bearings are probably worn and not making a tight enough fit. He suggested that a sLICK 50 type restorer will improve the pressure over time what does anyone think about the problem? My sentiments are if it needs a major overhaul then what have I got to lose with tryimg an engine restorer like SLICK 50

Thank you, you have saved lots of time and money if thats right, ps Im talking on line the Chandlers now. thanx again

I thought every engine would have a diferent size/ circumference, Do you suppose if i measured it exactly that they could definitely help me. Sleeman £302 inc vat, Do you think this would be an original for the SR2 show stopping boats, Mine is only a little boat in need of lots of tlc in lots of places

Yes the silencer at the back has deteriorated so much that I can put my finger in the holes and feel the puff of smoke coming out. If it were on a car I would call it a back box ,

Hi everyone, I have tried repairing my exhaust with repair patches but the exhaust has rusted to much, I think its actually broken down inside the long 20" silencer to the point of past repair. Ive been quoted £302 inc vat for a replacement from Sleeman Hawken which seems a bit to dear for a 1978 boat. Has anyone got any ideas where to find a lower priced back box?