BEngo

The ACS laundrette list is available to order on line from IWA sales. www.waterways.org.uk/shop/product_details?id=307 Updates appear on the ACS website. www.aylesburycanal.org.uk N

Toilet cleaner first, then Fertan. Toilet cleaner tends to be quite thick, so it sticks to pans. That makes it fairly easy to control on the roof ,but you don't want it anywhere else, and wash off well. It needs to be a hydrochloric acid based one- usually available from the janitorial supplies outlets rather than a supermarket. A good hardware shop may also have spirits of salts which IS HCl. N

Does one of the removed parts have the original red underneath it ? If so this can be copied if the part is small enough, or a large flake could be chipped off and the colour copied or at the very worst you can match it to a colour swatch. Handy on-line free electronic colour charts for BS and RAL colours at www.e-paint.co.uk/- as well as ones you can buy. N

The washers and their seats are only there to accommodate unavoidable movement of the 4 cores for the stud holes during casting. The holes are cored (cast-in) rather than drilled afterwards because it's easier than drilling long stud- holes and getting them to come out straight and in in the right place at both ends. You were very lucky to get away with fitting the exhaust after bolting the heads down hard. You should always, always, always fit and tighten the exhaust (onto studs, not bolts- Mr Whittle's advice is wrong here) before tightening the heads down. That way there is no stress on the manifold to crack it, and good manifolds are rarer than heads! I would slacken off all the head bolts to allow the manifold to pull the heads into natural alignment and then re-tighten them. I certainly would not run it until having done that. After doing that, if it runs OK and nothing is leaking/blowing you could leave it. Many engines will have suffered worse. The reason for using studs for the exhaust is that the wear is then replaceable items (the nut (mainly) and the stud) rather than on the thread in the head which can only be enlarged a couple of times, in the process making the manifold poorly compatible with a 'standard' head unless special studs are made.. The use of BSF threads in cast iron on a Kelvin makes the wear quicker. N

You are looking for Cylinder Head bushes I think. The parts manual is not very clear. There are 4 to a cylinder. Someone with a small lathe could soon make you a set- the originals are meehanite and you can buy that as cored sticks from College Engineering Supply. Try your local Model Engineering club for someone who might make them for beer coupongs. I don't have any spare ones, but let me know if you want me to measure one up. N

Hydrochloric acid based toilet cleaner is very effective on pits. scrub it with a small stiff brush (toothbrush??) to work it into the pits. Don't leave it too long as it also eats the metal. You need to wash it off with washing soda solution, then fresh water. I usually go for Fertan afterward, as well, on the belt/braces/old school tie principle. N

The accumulator should be set at the pump cut in pressure, with the system depressurised. To do this the easiest way: Turn the pump on and let it stop. Open a tap so it dribbles slowly. Immediately the pump comes on switch it off and close the tap. Measure the accumulator pressure. Turn the tap on till the water stops. Pump the accumulator up to the measured pressure. Switch the pump back on. N

Had no problems last year at Tower Wharf in Chester, both ways, nor just outside the museum gates, though it would be worth paying the little extra to moor in the middle basin. The Museum did not impress us. Ellesemere Port, as a town centre, looked like it would have improved if it had been twinned with Mururoa atoll. Also moored rurally just outside Chester. No probs there, though not particularly deep on the bit of piling I picked. Moored at Christleton on the way in. N

How about something like: www.polymax.co.uk/rubber-fenders/d-fenders/rubber-fender-delta-profile They supplied me (phone order) with some bump-stops for the engine 'ole doors and I thought I got good service. No other connections. N

A brace of Tee pieces in the outlet and inlet from the header tank would enable one tank to feed both systems. It's coping with the expansion of the whole system now, and as two systems would not get significantly larger (more water to expand) so there should be enough capacity. N

All good stuff above. No need to drain the domestic hot water out of the calorifier if/when you swop the coil connections. To be really safe switch the water pump off and open a hot tap till the flow stops to de-pressurise the calorifier. N

Nice pictures, thank you. I'd bet that it has been a long time since that much loose loaded coal has been boated Uphill through Stoke Bruerne. N

No. You need to adjust the switch on the pump so that the pump stops at a lower pressure- 30 psi would be fine. To do this usually involves a screw on the front of the pump. Open the taps with the pump off till the water stops. Find the screw on the pump and undo it a little. Close the taps Run the pump till it stops. Measure the accumulator pressure now. if it still above 30 psi repeat the adjustment and measurement till it is somewhere between 29 and 31 psi. N

Red Bit. Sorry, but no they don't. There always is should be a Neutral - Earth bond, but where it is depends on how the power distribution company supply the earth, if they supply one at all. Have a look at the Wikipedia article on earthing systems for an explanation of TN-S, TN-C, TNC-S and TT earthing systems. If the earth wire in the cable is connected to the generator earth and the generator earth is connected to an earth spike, and if the bond is at the generator end your generator lead would actually be an example of TN-S system. N

If the oil is coming from inside the engine and leaking into the lagging on the outside of the exhaust pipes then there must also be a leak in the exhaust pipes, possibly in the flexi parts. If there is no leak in the exhaust pipes the oil must be leaking from the outside of the engine. If there is a leak in the exhaust the first thing to do is fix that, because Carbon Monoxide will also be leaking out into your boat. Inlet Valve guides are not likely to be the source of the oil IMHO because the engine is not smoking. With worn valve guides the oil goes down the inlet valve guide, drawn by the inlet suction, burns in the engine and produces smoke. Oil does not usually go down exhaust valve guides because the exhaust pressure tends push it back out. This blow-by up the exhaust valve guides can combine with blow-by from the pistons into the crankcase to pressurise the internal engine spaces (rocker covers and the like) and so increase the likelihood of oil leaks to the outside. Worth checking that any crankcase breathers are clear and clean. I can't be more specific because I don't know the Coventry Victor engines at all. Once you have fixed the leak replace the oily lagging with some new glass-fibre tape and it won't smoke when the pipes get hot. It might steam a little after a damp night but that will soon dry out. N

The DEFRA grant will either be replaced by 'charitable contributions', principally from non-boaters, or more likely outside Robin Evans' pie-in-the-sky predictions, will have to continue. If the grant is terminated without an adequate charitable income, then CRT will go broke or the trustees will refuse to go on as custodians of the waterways. In either event DEFRA, who still own the nationalised waterways, would have to find a replacement for CRT. That might be a challenge if CRT have just packed it in for lack of money. N

Much of what Simon wrote is in pipe dream territory, or simply does not understand reality. How can CRT 'bat for boaters' when even Simon acknowledges that there is no single view held by 'boaters'? CRT also have a requirement as part of the grant mechanism to promote other things than boating and if pressed DEFRA will claim that casual users of the canals are a large part of . Claiming to 'bat for' any single group would be to invite criticism that CRT was neglecting the other groups it also has to provide for and 'for boaters' would simply invite someone to also claim that other users between them provide more funding than boaters do. Sell the reservoirs but not the water. Who would want a reservoir, with all its liabilities, but not the water which is the reservoir's purpose? The only thing the water companies would really want is the water and they could have that now if they wanted to take it from sump pounds and were prepared to pay a little for it. They don't because it runs (back) into rivers from sump pounds and the water companies either already have abstraction licences or alternative supplies.. Water supply? Water is a heavy and very expensive thing to move around, unless you can get it to run down hill. To shift water over hills is uneconomic. BW used to and CRT still do sell quite a lot of water, but it is mainly from sump pounds or where it can be returned . I could go on, but to me the few nuggets were simply buried by the dross. N

Wonderful device- Easily made by a welder/fabricator. Ours was originally one of a few made by Jim McDonald, way back in the days of the Any Old Boat Club. The blade is made from an old file. Needs an occasional sharpen with an angel grinder after a tough battle. Have the T handle either in line with, or at right angles to the blade and mark the handle so that you can always visualise the orientation of the invisible part. N

No regulatory need for certificates but for real peace of mind check that: There is a proper consumer unit with circuit protection devices. There is an RCD. You could ask for this to be tested with an RCD tester, not just by pushing the button labelled 'Test' which doesn't really. The Boat neutral is bonded to earth. Exact arrangements depend on whether and what sort of inverter is fitted The boat earth is bonded to the hull. Ideally this will be close to the point at which the DC negative is bonded to the hull. Other things to look for- a Galvanic Isolator or Isolation Transformer. N

Note that the discs are charged extra! N

Both mine (a 70 A A127 clone with tractor reg and a standard Bosch 35 A output jobby) will happily self excite at slightly more than Kelvin tickover (about1500 alternator rpm) albeit that is with the main outputs connected to batteries. I have not tried with them electrically isolated. N

Have eight pints of Guinness, three pickled eggs and a vindaloo. You won't notice the diesel smell than. N

They do, but that doesn't matter. In self-excitation the voltage rises slowly (in electronic terms) and the regulator can keep the field and output voltages under control so there is no damage. When a running alternator is open circuited there is an existing excitation current/magnetic flux in the machine which the regulator can't shut down fast enough (not because the regulator is too slow, but because of the inductance in the field circuit and the magnetic characteristics of the machine) so the output voltage goes up very fast and the diodes expire. N

S Sunflowers. N

The main inside ribs on your boat are much more than 50mm apart and it doesn't come to any harm when it is on the bottom of the river. Provided the skin tank outside layer is the same thickness as the hull, 25 mm by 5 mm thick ribs inside the skin tank will transfer any distributed load to the main hull structure. If you were to sit the boat on a sharp spike, such a piece of concrete reinforcing rod sticking up, there might be damage, but I think your existing hull would be damaged anyway in that case. In the worst case the skin tank might leak, but the engine will still be OK I agree with your thoughts on fig 1. Picture 1 is a good way to do it, but an awful lot of work and needs twice as much pipe. Fig 2 is the right way, but in your case with more supports/spacers than in your second picture of boat in the cradle. Space them about 100mm apart if you want to support the boat on them. Make the supports as long for-and-aft as you can get to fit and as short as possible so the pipe is close to the boat but they can still be welded properly. If you can, make sure there is one support on each of the internal frames. We don't often get waves like in your picture on the UK inland waterways! N